Fence Post Update

[matt_s]

Tomorrow morning we will be updating the software that runs the Fence Post. This will be an extended update as this is effectivly a version shift. With this update will come several long awaited new features such as:
Inline spam management & prevention
Thread tagging
Search cloud / tag cloud
Thread prefixes
Reciprocal friendships between users
Public visitor messaging on profile pages with 'conversation' feature
User picture galleries with user comment facility
User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options
Extended member profile pages
Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities
Inline editing of custom user profile fields
Lightbox viewer for attached images
Viewable and comparable history maintained for post edits
Extended re-authentication for inline moderation actions
Notices system for navigation bar
Multiple human-verification systems including reCAPTCHA, image verification and Q/A
User change history
Social bookmarking integration

At this time I anticipate the update will probably take at least two hours to complete along with the necessary template changes. So long as the database back-up goes smoothly it should not result in any loss of data.

Wish us luck...

[matt_s]

I'll be closing the Fence Post at 8 am (in about 5 min.). It will probably be down for a couple of hours.

Matt

[james_t]

I'll be closing the Fence Post at 8 am (in about 5 min.). It will probably be down for a couple of hours.

Obviously that was a bit optimistic.

We had some problems with the new vBulletin software not getting along with our Web host's servers. As a result, we had to totally take it off their servers. There are probably still some kinks from the move, and we'll try to keep you updated.

[matt_s]

Yup, that was fun, we are still working on updating a few minor things (you will notice a few missing smilies and similar non-standard graphics that I added to the old site that haven't made their way across to the new. BUT - and this is a big BUT, you will also notice a bunch of new features. So, if you haven't done so yet, click on the little User CP link up in the menu and find out about the social networking and photo album capabilities we have added.

We have also added CAPTCHA support for many of the input features (prior to login) so hopefully we will be seeing a drop-off in SPAM soon.

I haven't had the time to fully test the Arcade. It is quite possible that some of the items there haven't been fully relinked. I played a couple of quick games but didn't manage to set any new records for myself or the games so I'm not sure how well everything has linked up yet.

Sorry for any inconvenience, but I'm hoping the update was worth it.

[evilkumquat]

I ran a couple PHP websites for a while.

The idea of updating one of them was so daunting (and such a pain in the rear) I just quit the site and moved everything over to MySpace, leaving an auto-refer page to the new one.

[TheBigB]

Is the Fence Post going to live on your machines permanently, or do you hope to move it back to your web host? I'll update my bookmarks if you will not be moving it - I hate redirects.

[matt_s]

I don't foresee us moving it back. There were just too many restrictions. The only thing we may do is find a domain name for it but even then it should still be available at this new address.

I'm not sure how long we will keep the redirect around. Probably for a while since the Fence Post has been at that address for a little over a year. But we do need to change out the links too.

[armyda]

A new Fence Post quirk:

for the Topic "Is there anything like this against McCain?"

I'm on the Main Page: It shows 1 reply and 0 views.

Ok, how you reply to a posting without viewing it?

Note: I didn't ask about replying without reading a post.

[matt_s]

My completely unsubstantiated guess is that the system collects and tabulates various stats on a different schedule. It probably collects replies in real-time, but views are a subset of pageviews and it probably only culls the database logs for the info every 10 or 15 minutes.

I could be wrong however.

[james_t]

I've seen this happen before, on a number of occasions. I've also seen threads that show 0 views after I've already read them.

I'm guessing there's just a bit of lag time. Like Matt said, it probably updates every few minutes or something.