Apologies for the downtime.

[webmaster]

Hi All,
I had a power outage that knocked us off line for a day. Then, being an old man, I forgot to reboot the server. My apologies for the delay.

I will be moving the website to a shared hosting solution in the near future. Also, we need to migrate to xenforo for the forum software.

Thanks
Jeff

 

[blitz11]

Hi Jeff,

You 'da man! Thanks for all that you do.

blitz

 

[Neil E.]

I think there is no issue migrating to XF. They are far enough into version 2 that it should go well. I've always liked the styling and colours of this GG forum. I'd say don't go wild on trying to come up with something flashy and different.

I haven't kept up with their software changes, but I would try to make the XF styling a close match to the current GG forum. They do allow setting up a test forum which is very handy for experimenting before going public with the production forum.

There was a "template modification system" in version 1 that made for an easy way to modify templates without editing the original template. I expect a similar function is in version 2.

The "extra" template is a handy way to add changes without modifying templates. It allows for final parsing before pages are served. I was unable to get the overall styling to my satisfaction (due to lack of experience) and wound up with ~3000 lines of new code in the extra template. I recommend not going down that rabbit hole.

Do not add any "add-ons" unless you absolutely need them. Many are created by power users of the software. With the natural flow of people that come and go, some do not get updated and fall by the way side. This can conflict with new versions of XF.

I think you'll be impressed with the software; it's a robust package that should work fine. Getting the styling to your liking may take some work. I actually turned off some forum features I didn't need.

Their support forum is excellent.

 

[Neil E.]

One other thing to mention is backups. You are probably far more experienced than I am, so maybe this comment is not needed. Originally my club was hosted with Lunar Pages in California. I moved the hosting to Host Upon in Toronto. I am happy with their tech support. One thing they do is manage backups in a five day rolling format. This completely relieves me of downloading backups. If anything goes wrong my club forum can be reverted from one of the backup copies.

 

[webmaster]

Thanks for the advice Neil. It is appreciated.

jeff

 

[farmerj]

Jeff, thanks for the update and for letting us know what occurred. And thanks so much for hosting this site and the effort you put out to keep it viable and alive! It creates enjoyment & help for many!

another Jeff

 

[Bryan]

Jeff, thanks for the update and for letting us know what occurred. And thanks so much for hosting this site and the effort you put out to keep it viable and alive! It creates enjoyment & help for many!

another Jeff

Totally agree. Thanks Jeff

 

[Gas Gassin]

Thank you for hosting this chat I really appreciate the work you do in keeping this chat room alive!

 

[Zman]

Thank you Sir! We very much appreciate your support of this family!