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Announcement: Forum Upgrade 4/7/17


Deb

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There's work going on behind the scenes to get tapatalk working again. It's turning out to be a bit complicated so bear with us. I'm also feeling it, though the new mobile site has a lot of great features. 

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Thanks again for all the work.  I had been surviving without Tapatalk by using the "Unread Content" link on the mobile site using Chrome.  But now it seems to have gone awry (at least for me), with no "unread content" revealed. Yet, when I go into the full forum view on the browser, there is plenty. Anyone else with this issue? (It may be operator error ?)

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thanks again for all the hard work going into the upgrade and general maintenance of the site..

as per ttimbo and apple3337 - am experiencing issues where unread content isn't displaying correcting...

also I am having problems when using chrome - wasn't able to reply to this thread so had to open in explorer

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Thanks all. I've noticed the unread content issue along with time stamps on replies being wrong (could be a new Timezone issue, I haven't checked my settings). I've raised with tech support. 

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Please excuse me for sounding possibly ungrateful, but it seems to me, looking at the forum using Chrome on a desktop, that there are a whole range of new features (eg, the options regarding unread content). Whereas some of the basic functions of the forum, at least as I am used to forums, do not seem to be working. I'd really like to keep things simple, if that's possible -- maybe at least get us back to the functionality we had -- and then incrementally add some of the new features. 

Perhaps it's all in my imagination and I'm not doing something properly...but I long for what I experienced before ?

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+1^.  It is not as easy as it used to be just to get a 'last posted' update without a whole lot of other stuff. It was great to be able to get only what you hadn't read.  Seems that I have to do some extra steps to get there. OR I may be just me getting older and less embracing of change. :?

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Really does feel like an episode of the walking dead around here. Hopefully we don't all get eaten by zombies in the interim while the forum gets fixed.

 

Anybody thought about a rollback? The previously stated theory of needed to upgrade to allow for support doesn't seem to be working out.

Edited by ace
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As I understand it, the forum did need to be upgraded for security and support, and rolling back isn't an option. Most of the new features you are seeing are a function of the upgrade. I can assure you that work is going into getting the basics working before we spend time on new features.

I share the frustration with tapatalk not working, we are continuing to work on it. 

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Thanks Deb...it's a thankless task, I know...grumbles and grizzles....then it will be fixed....and no-one will notice....sigh!

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On 8/11/2017 at 10:33 AM, wade said:

Be interesting to see the usage figures for the forum since Tapatalk has been down, I've only logged on twice.......

This is the only thread I have looked at since the change over. I'm grateful for the work that goes on in the background to keep this place running but look forward to it come back online on TT. 

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I've noticed a pretty decent drop off on participation in the forum recently.

I personally don't even check forum as often as I use to now just because it is so broken.

The bug where newest posts don't show up properly without clicking into individual threads is the most annoying.

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hi mods - just noted under for sale forum/other - in the H&R Springs post user reporting unable to PM another member

thought it worth letting you know; I don't think they've reported it here 

Desktop Chrome allowing me to respond to this thread (previously an issue I'd reported)

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Not to sound unappreciative and certainly don't want to disrespect those in charge but is it time to put the call out to see if anyone can help. It's a real shame to see a thriving community slowly dying.  Given his background maybe a project that Adrian would be up for coordinating (apols Adrian if not!)?! 

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3 minutes ago, camsmyth said:

Double post!

Nice, thanks for dobbing me in Cam, but it is an area outside my expertise as an infrastructure engineer unfortunately.

But I do agree there must be people with DBA/Web development experience who might be able to help.

I'm sure some regular information bulletin would also go along way with some actual information on the problem and progress to resolve.

There are a lot of people on this forum who'd love to help if they knew how. 

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Thanks for the comments everyone. I share your frustration and concerns. The decisions regarding the forum continue to rest with admins who are not very active on the forum at the moment. However, we are in touch and I'll commit to providing updates on the situation daily.

 

We have engaged a paid IT support person who completed the upgrade and is working on the issues we know about. At the moment we are having some database issues which are a bit of a mystery. Admin access has been given to the host/providers of the forum software to take a look and help try and sort it out. 

 

Regarding tapatalk, the forum host is also looking into this. All software and plugins are up to date and should be working, but are not. We've worked with tapatalk technical support but they haven't been able to resolve it. 

 

If anyone has the skills to assist please let me know. Probably best to post in this thread as I'm not receiving PMs. 

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Thanks Deb (our quasi Admin!).  Appreciate that you are stepping up to get this sorted. To the actual admins, if you don't have time or are not that interested anymore maybe consider letting some others take the keys - I'm sure you have put a lot in to make the forum what it is hence you're accutely aware of what it'll take to keep it on track so if you're not in a position to facilitate (which is totally fine) then please let someone else take the reigns. We saw what happened when the production of calendars became unreliable (again, not a dig as everyone has a life outside of here) but this is the way the forum could go if we are not careful!  Hopefully things will be sorted soon and this can all be history but please have a think about the future of this great community you have built!

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To be fair to the other admins, a lot of work is going in behind the scenes. PaulD has been working on all the support issues. DanielG and I were also recently added as admins to try and make sure we've got an active team on the forum. Daniel has IT skills and I err... represent team NSW without being totally incompetent ?

 

To to help the forum while all this is going on, I've created a Facebook group called OzRS Garage.

 

This group is in no way intended to take away from the forum, we're fully committed to making the forum better than ever. But, until it is, this could a place that helps us to keep in touch and fills the banter space for a while, for those who are interested. I understand many of you don't use Facebook. The group is currently public and should be searchable. If you want to join but can't find it, let me know and we will figure it out. 

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Deb, tried joining but couldn't find it on FB. 

Am in a similar boat to cam, don't want this place to go by the wayside. It has been a game changer for my view on foruns and the great people on here have certainly helped achieve a goal (if not a dream as a young teenager) so really appreciate every bit of effort you guys put into running it, along with living the daily grind etc.  

Hope to see the forum back up in its former glory, and even better :)

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Hi All,

Big thanks to Deb for making such an effort to communicate with the forum users on the work thats been going on behind the scenes.  I have been back in Australia for nearly 2 months since living overseas for 4 years in Malaysia (owning 1 proton and 2 Peugeots :D), and now have a Megane 265 and am trying my best in getting involved again.  I started this phpbb forum in 2003 with my Ph2 Clio 172, and a lot has changed since then.  We have put the feelers out in the recent past to gauge interest in who wants to help out as an admin and site technical support, and had no response. So thankfully Deb and Daniel have stepped up in the last 2 months becoming admins too. 

So, we have been effectively forced into the IPS 4.3 version of the software, as we were running an outdated platform for some time - so a rollback is unfortunately not possible. Our previous site technical support has moved on, so I have tried my best to find a freelancer who has IPS community experience, which was harder than I expected.  Through upwork, we have a freelancer who helps as a second job, kinda like an uber driver.  IPS in the USA does not provide technical consulting on running forums and adding hooks/mods, except for fault finding their own software issues (which there has been some 10+ tickets and 34 emails with them in the last 4 weeks on technical issue resolution).  I am responsible to choosing the grey skin, thinking its soft on the eye late at night, and goes well with the yellow highlights. You can throw tomatoes at me anytime. 

Now to Tapatalk. I have it, but dont really use it, so sorry if I dont really understand the attraction.  Tapatalk is a free internet plugin, which may explain the lax attitude from their support team. We have had numerous support tickets with them, and just overnight, we have found out from IPS that the -1 post count and possibly other weird database behaviour (possibly PMs, new posts etc) is due to the very buggy Tapatalk 1.4.3 plugin.   In fact, Tapatalk have updated their plugin specifically due the issues we have been pushing them on with OZRS.  But it still doesnt work, and is currently uninstalled from our site as its just causing too many issues.   So we now have a standoff between IPS and Tapatalk.  Unfortunately our nice community forum gets sandwiched in the middle.

So thanks all for your patience. Deb and Daniel really do a great job to keep the communications going. I have been somewhat of a bottleneck between our Freelancer and the community, and we wont rest until we get it all sorted. We have a list of high priority fixes (like the forum features, tapatalk etc) and then lower priority, like the store, gallery, banner images etc, and plan to get through it all, and keep the same Freelancer on in the future to make sure we dont lose all the experience and lessons learnt.

Sorry for the long spiel, but I have been working in the background, and keeping pretty quiet.  The admins are still passionate about this community - but if any of the users really wants to step forward to take a bigger role in OZRS, please do let us know. 

Cheers, Paul

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1 hour ago, apple3337 said:

"Unread content" button seems to be working again! Yay!:headbang:

Yes, it seems that the Tapatalk plugin was causing many issues with the database.  We have uninstalled it for now. Apologies for the ongoing Tapatalk saga.

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39 minutes ago, PaulD said:

Yes, it seems that the Tapatalk plugin was causing many issues with the database.  We have uninstalled it for now. Apologies for the ongoing Tapatalk saga.

Hi Paul..... welcome back.

 

although you may not see the attraction of Tapatalk (maybe because you haven't used the forum in the past 4 years??), it is the way a high percentage of us access the forum due to its ease of use.

It's unfortunate, but without Tapatalk many of us are just not frequenting the forum..... it's sort of feels like if we don't get this resolved soon the forum will die as people move on.

 

im sure that I speak for a lot of people when I say that this forum has been a large part of our lives and we have met many great like minded people and made lots lasting friendships.

 

I encourage you not to give up on Tapatalk as it seems very sad that we could let something so simple destroy something so great.

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for me personally Tapatalk hasn't made it any easier then when i was using my mobile.

This new site actually formats very well on mobiles.so for me anyways i don't think my frequenting this forum will depend on whether Tapatalk is available or not.

It is the community spirit that gets me coming back and the great people that I've come across and met on this forum.

 

Cheers,

Sam.

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28 minutes ago, wade said:

Hi Paul..... welcome back.

 

although you may not see the attraction of Tapatalk (maybe because you haven't used the forum in the past 4 years??), it is the way a high percentage of us access the forum due to its ease of use.

It's unfortunate, but without Tapatalk many of us are just not frequenting the forum..... it's sort of feels like if we don't get this resolved soon the forum will die as people move on.

 

im sure that I speak for a lot of people when I say that this forum has been a large part of our lives and we have met many great like minded people and made lots lasting friendships.

 

I encourage you not to give up on Tapatalk as it seems very sad that we could let something so simple destroy something so great.

Hey Wade - we will make sure we can get Tapatalk working.  Its not a nice to have - its a must.  Its just crazy that a simple plugin is causing so much grief, and the guys at Tapatalk could give a hoot about making their product work properly.

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Hi All, a couple of comments from me. From our online research, we're one of a very large number of forums globally that have been affected by the tapatalk issue. We're not alone in what we're experiencing. Saying that we will get this sorted. As a team, we're working on this every day. So thanks for your patience while we work through the issues. As for the forum dying, I don't think we're at this point just yet. We're seeing over 300 individual member logins per day, which is slightly down on when we switched to the new format. So by no means anywhere near dead. Finally, please be assured that the Admin Team are still very much RS enthusiasts. We all still (only just, Paul) own Renaultsport vehicles, some of us more than one. We absolutely give a sh$t about this place. And we drive our RS's with great pleasure at every opportunity.

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Cheers Paul, Moosey, Deb et al for the updates and your efforts. Tapatalk is such a double edged sword. It's such a great application for giving excellent mobile access to forums but geez they treat their users like dirt. The interface changes they have made over the years have so often just been change for changes sake. Completely pointless and sweeping. On top of that so many user settings get reset every time. It looks like the way they're treating the forum admin is not much better.

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Morning all

We have had responses from IPS over night, asking us to fully uninstall Tapatalk until the Tapatalk app is fixed properly.  Our Tech Support consultant has also contacted Tapatalk last night, and they have reissued a newer version of the app, bnut alas, it is also broken.  At least we have narrowed down the source of the bugs - mostly to do with the (useless) Tapatalk plugin.

Thanks for your ongoing patience guys.

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33 minutes ago, PaulD said:

Morning all

We have had responses from IPS over night, asking us to fully uninstall Tapatalk until the Tapatalk app is fixed properly.  Our Tech Support consultant has also contacted Tapatalk last night, and they have reissued a newer version of the app, bnut alas, it is also broken.  At least we have narrowed down the source of the bugs - mostly to do with the (useless) Tapatalk plugin.

Thanks for your ongoing patience guys.

Not trying to tell you how to suck eggs guys and whilst I'm not a DBA/Webdev I have do manage an extensive IT infrastructure network across thousands of computers very successfully

Is version 4.3 something that has been tested and supported by Tapatalk? Seems to me they (Tapatalk) have only tested as far as IPB 4.2.2 - was it really necessary to go all the way to 4.3?

Upgrading is a b!tch, but following the release notes, checking compatibility and having an appropriate testing procedure (including plugins) is typically best practice.

Is a roll-back to a publicly tested combination IPB 4.22/Tapatalk 1.4.4 possible? I get the feeling you'll be chasing the tail between your legs for quite some time persevering with IPB 4.3

If you need some short term Microsoft Azure cloud space (VMs or otherwise) for testing servers or running a mirror (at no charge), so as not to interfere with the production environment let me know.

Latest versions are referred to as the "bleeding edge" for a reason.

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2 minutes ago, ace said:

Not trying to tell you how to suck eggs guys and whilst I'm not a DBA/Webdev I have do manage an extensive IT infrastructure network across thousands of computers very successfully

Is version 4.3 something that has been tested and supported by Tapatalk? Seems to me they (Tapatalk) have only tested as far as IPB 4.2.2 - was it really necessary to go all the way to 4.3?

Upgrading is a b!tch, but following the release notes, checking compatibility and having an appropriate testing procedure (including plugins) is typically best practice.

Is a roll-back to a publicly tested combination IPB 4.22/Tapatalk 1.4.4 possible? I get the feeling you'll be chasing the tail between your legs for quite some time persevering with IPB 4.3

If you need some short term Microsoft Azure cloud space (VMs or otherwise) for testing servers or running a mirror (at no charge), so as not to interfere with the production environment let me know.

Latest versions are referred to as the "bleeding edge" for a reason.

Ace - 4.1.x is 2015-2016 era and completely unsupported by IPB. Please, lets not continue to discuss rolling back. Its not an option. (sorry we are now on 4.2.2, not 4.3.x - my poor memory)

Tapatalk app is for 4.2.x only.

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Thanks for clarifying Paul, makes more sense.

Edit: Are your IT guys testing the new 1.4.4 Taptalk IPB plugin released last night?

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12 minutes ago, ace said:

Thanks for clarifying Paul, makes more sense.

Edit: Are your IT guys testing the new 1.4.4 Taptalk IPB plugin released last night?

Yes, in fact 1.4.4 was released last night because of our ongoing emails with them.  I have just tried to install a fresh copy of 1.4.4 after IPB deleted all traces of the tapatalk app/plugin, and the same issue persists with the fresh install of 1.4.4. We will continue to push tapatalk today. 

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We do appreciate the patience from everyone (ours is being tested) but unfortunately this has been a pretty painful process as we're effectively stuck in the middle relying on IPB and Tapatalk support.

Biggest issue is that as the forum is hosted on Invision's cloud service (i.e we don't host the forum ourselves) it means we don't have direct access to the server and can't poke around and see folder structures and adjust permissions etc (which I think may be part of the problem with Tapatalk currently)

Believe us - we're not sitting around doing nothing!

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I understand completely and feel your frustration.  Past life troubleshooting IT projects leads me to a variation on a well-known statement here...."because software!"

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Thanks all, for your efforts in getting the forum back to 'normal' (what defines 'normal'?). I have a very elementary understanding of what's required with this task but if it's anything like what has to happen just to keep 2 or 3 devices up to date (I would imagine 1000 times worse) it would be a real PITA. Whilst Tapatalk has not been my interface with the forum I can see, for some, it would be easier to use their phones 'on the go.' The forum has allowed me to share, and meet others, with interest in things Renault RS, at whatever level. I'm sure if we have patience it will return to full usability. I have noticed over the last couple of days that some of the functions (new content, PM's) seem to have come back to 'normal'. Hope you have success with the re-integration of Tapatalk without too much further trouble. :yes:

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Attempting to post this again as I was unable to post on Saturday and Sunday (editing to ad - tapatalk was causing the problem again):

 

Not much to update today unfortunately. DanielG and PaulD spent most of yesterday working on trying to get tapatalk fully removed to attempt a reinstall. This is difficult as we can't see the underlying directory structure using the cloud hosting service. We're considering alternatives to this at the moment. 

I hope you're all out enjoying your weekend and we will be back with further updates on Monday. 

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