IMPORTANT: Site Downtime in coming weeks

[Scotty]

OK folks, as mentioned earlier in the season, we are going to be making some changes to the site over the summer and the first of these will happen in the week after the Dundee game.

Our domain name of 'caleythistleonline.com' is currently registered with one company who we dont use for much any more so we are going to be moving it to our normal registrar.

This should not take too long and it may cause no disruption at all but please be aware that there is a possibility that you might get some page not found errors or the site may not come up at some point when we do this. At worst any disruption should only last for 2 or 3 days, but at best it might be almost seamless - we have no way to predict which scenario will actually happen as it is out of both our control and also our registrar. As all email addresses ending @caleythistleonline.com are also tied in with the domain name our email will also be affected so if you send to us do make allowances for this !!!!

Once we have transferred our domain name to our new registrar we will then be looking at updating the forums to the latest version (i think you will be impressed) and also the main site in preparation for next season. This will involve creating a test site and getting it ready then switching over to it when we are happy it is working properly. We may ask a few users to help us test it - we will PM you nearer the time.

As mentioned earlier in the season, we will also be hosting this site with a different provider to see if it is quicker and shows less errors than we have experienced here over the season. When we do this switchover, we may also have a further couple of days of downtime as we need to tell the domain name to look for the site at <"NEW-HOST"> instead of <"OLD-HOST"> and again neither us or the host can do anything about the updating process as that takes time to percolate through the internet.

We will try to give further updates about any (planned) downtime as soon as we can.

[Scotty]

We have begun the process of switching CTO from our current registrars to new ones. It should be seamless but if any issues are encountered we will post a status update on www.caleythistleoffline.com

[Scotty]

Our domain name is now hosted with the new registrar and there does not seem to have been any issues.

The site is still currently live on the old host (the one that has outages from time to time !!!) but we will be performing a test migration soon. This test migration will not involve any disruption to the site as we will simply be making a copy of the site and then moving the copy so we can get our procedure down pat.

In preparation for this test migration I will be cleaning up our forums and archiving a lot of old material to the read-only forums as well as performing a similar action on 'inactive' user accounts.

[Scotty]

We have had a couple of minor hiccups in the testing of the new version of this software. Not really software related, moreso to do with our new hosting company. As a result we will be sticking with our existing hosts whose performanace has been quite stable of late. (I know - kiss of death making a statement like that !!!).

I am going to be making a few changes to some of the forums over the next few days, and will also be archiving a lot of old posts and generally tidying things up. If all goes according to plan we will aim for a switch to the new version of the software within the next 10-14 days.

[Scotty]

OK folks - sorry about the short notice but looking at my own personal schedule and also the schedule of upcoming friendlies etc I only have a couple of small windows of opportunity to perform the forum upgrade and feel that "the sooner the better" is the best mantra as we ramp up towards the new season.

As a result, and barring any unforseen circumstances

THE UPGRADE OF THE FORUM WILL TAKE PLACE TONIGHT AFTER 11PM (INVERNESS TIME)

This will affect the following areas of the site which will all be offline:

• Forums
  
• Gallery
  
• Blogs
  
• Chatroom
  
• Downloads
  
• Gringos NPL
  
• Contact Us pages
  

The following areas of the site should be unaffected during the upgrade as these are separate areas that will be upgraded later (shortly - date TBA)

• Main Site (news articles, reports, previews etc)
  
• ClubGuide Pages
  
• Stats Pages
  
• Fixture List
  
• Prediction League Game
  

During the upgrade - which should take a couple of hours, the forum will be offline as we need to perform maintenance and upgrade to several site databases and you will not be able to post as that could corrupt the process.

Once the upgrade is finished there will more than likely be a ****load of broken links and other bits and pieces that either confuse you or simply dont work. We will be tweaking and (hopefully) fixing those problems as we find them and would ask anyone who notices a bug or error to note it in the WEBSITE SUPPORT forum (wont post a link as that might change during upgrade).

Your avatars, posts, topics, signatures etc should all be retained during the upgrade but if you notice any infamous red crosses in your avatar or have a problem with things like signatures please reset them in your profile.

Passwords should also be retained during the upgrade - they have been in all tests we have performed so far - but if you encounter a problem or just want to change it for some reason you should note that we cannot send you your password no matter how politely you ask ... quite simply, we dont know it !!! Passwords are encrypted within the system and can only be reset by the user changing it within their profile or by requesting a password reset on the login screen. password resets are sent to your registered email address.

If all goes according to plan you should see a brand new (yet similar) board emerge after a couple of hours ...... There are a lot of new features in the next version of the forum software and it may take some getting used to but if there are any questions please drop them into the tech support forum where one of us (or other users who have experienced the new version of this software on another board) can try to help you.

[Scotty]

OK Folks, it took longer than expected --- takes a while to rebuild 260,000+ posts --- but I think we got there.

Basic functionality has been restored and I will be tweaking a few things over the next 24 hours ......... have fun ;)

[Scarlet Pimple]

Well-- that's a switch and no mistake.

Think it will take a bit of getting used to . But all hands to the pumps and Bob's yer Uncle.

:026: Good luck, Scotty. Hope you don't have too many headaches from now on.

But why are the emoticoms not coming up? Most of them are red-crossed out???????

Cheers, Scarlet

Edited July 20, 2010 by tm4tj

[Ronaldo]

Well done Scotty, it's excellent

[Snow]

But why are the emoticoms not coming up? Most of them are red-crossed out???????

The emoticons aren't working? Oh geez. Life as I know it is over...

( )

Is it no longer possible to pull up posts 'since my last visit'?

I can see how to get posts from the last 24 hours... but not 'since my last visit'...

In general though the overall 'look' is fab ~ well done!

[Snow]

OK, perhaps I posted too soon, as I can see now it is possible to choose several time-frames from that drop-down menu which starts at posts from the last '24 hours'... that's helpful.

[Yngwie]

OK, perhaps I posted too soon, as I can see now it is possible to choose several time-frames from that drop-down menu which starts at posts from the last '24 hours'... that's helpful.

Where are you finding that?

Edit - found it. I'm finding it easier to just click on "View new content" in the top right, just below the banner.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Yngwie

[Renegade]

We have "like" buttons!

[Snow]

We have "like" buttons!

Never noticed until you said, so I tried to click 'like' on your post... and it 'failed' because I'd 'reached my quota for the day'.... it was my first one!!

[Snow]

OK, perhaps I posted too soon, as I can see now it is possible to choose several time-frames from that drop-down menu which starts at posts from the last '24 hours'... that's helpful.

Edit - found it. I'm finding it easier to just click on "View new content" in the top right, just below the banner.

Oh, nice one! Thank you.

[Scotty]

We have "like" buttons!

Never noticed until you said, so I tried to click 'like' on your post... and it 'failed' because I'd 'reached my quota for the day'.... it was my first one!!

As i mentioned, loads of tweaks still to be applied. I have literally hundreds of setting to check and/or enable and will get to them during the course of the next few days.

However, to keep things tidy, can we leave this thread for details about downtime (as per the title) and use the Tech Support forum - http://community.caleythistleonline.com/forum/14-website-support/ - where there is already a topic .... and likely to be many more ;)

[Ronaldo]

Well done Scotty, it's excellent

[Ronaldo]

Well done Scotty, it's excellent

[cookiemonster]

I agree, very nice change. =)

[PullMyFinger]

[Scotty]

main site going to be updated today. it should only affect that part of the site and not forums / stats / prediction areas.

[caley100]

Its looking better and better!! well done guys

[Guest Mahonio]

To Scotty and the gang, :_thumbup: :_thumbup: :_thumbup: .

The main site looks a bit more lively as IMO, the last one was just a bit boring and lacking colour, no offence to the geezers that did the old one though :oops01: