UPDATE: POSTPONED TO Feb 1 @ 9am Following on the heels of the web and database server upgrades, next up is a software upgrade. I'm scheduling this for January 31 @ 10am, in order to give some time over the next couple weeks to see if there are any issues with the web and database server upgrades. We'll either be moving from 3.8.4 to 3.8.6 (a very conservative upgrade) or to the latest version of vBulletin 4.1.1 (a bit more radical of a change). Somewhere along the way we'll have to do the latter, as I doubt that security issues will be supported on the 3.x platform forever. Might be good to do it now, since the whole garden web site is getting a revamp in the coming months (or maybe I'll hold off on it until the rest of the web site is redone, we'll see).
Newest forum version - any update in thread display mode setting? If the latest version would allow you to specify a default (for everybody) thread display mode of newest first in all the threads in the VCBF forums, that would be a big advantage to me. The forums seem peppier, but it's still a long wait to get to the end in some of the neighbourhood blogs, and the postings of interest are the current ones. I don't remember the default settings - is it oldest first, 25 per page? New people would never make it to the current posting in some of the Neighbourhood Blogs.
Re: Forums upgrade (Jan 31 @ 10am Vancouver time) Default is oldest first, 25 posts to be displayed. It can be switched to newest first via the User Control Panel, but that forces the change to occur on all forums. Doesn't look like this can be done on a per-forum basis without installing a hack.
Re: Forums upgrade (Jan 31 @ 10am Vancouver time) I understand the user control panel, but the people I'm most concerned about don't even have access to that yet. If the first experience never gets people to the current postings, I'd think it would be hard to get them back. It would need to be set for the particular forum and its subforums by default. Did I post this in the wrong place, or did you move it? I debated where to post it.
Re: Forums upgrade (Jan 31 @ 10am Vancouver time) I moved it with a redirect, I considered it a discussion about an issue in relation to the forums upgrade... I understand the value, I'll have to look to see if other hacks are no longer necessary - the fewer the better for maintenance purposes.
Re: Forums upgrade (Jan 31 @ 10am Vancouver time) 3.8.7 will be the last release for 3.x as of now. I'd keep version 3 at this point.
Re: Forums upgrade (Jan 31 @ 2pm Vancouver time) Postponed to 2pm, as I have to complete a grant application this morning.
...and rescheduled to 9am on Feb 1 -- still working on the grant application (one of the applications is for an online assistant for the forums over the summer)
...and that should be it. Decided to only do a minor upgrade, as we'll do a major one in early April or so to coincide with (or shortly follow) the redesign of the Botanical Garden's web site. About 35 bug fixes with this upgrade, let me know if something doesn't seem to be working as before.
Had to log in just now (not something that normally happens, only very rarely) Now there's a novel idea! The whole world on UTC, fine for people in Britain and others close to the Prime Meridian, a pain for everyone else!