[Bubba]

The forum was down this morning to enable a new version of the forum software to be installed.

The forum has to be taken down to prevent people posting whilst the updates are installed which takes quite some time as the database has to be modified locally, rather than on the server.

There are too many updates to list, many bug-fixes and many security updates.

The main things that people will notice are:

- Registration now uses Captcha. The images can be hard to see so there is the option for the system to create a sound file that reads the images out to you as well.

- If you edit a post, there is now a "reason for edit" field which keeps things neat and tidy.

- Googlebots/etc that are spidering the forum are now shown seperately to other guests.

[unclesomebody]

Thanks, as always, for your effort on keeping this board alive and kicking. 

[Bubba]

'tis a pleasure

I think that running these forums satisfies the geek in me

[dontfollowme]

Yep many thanks Bubba. I am a bit of a forum addict, probably because of all the useful info that is posted here.

[Bubba]

Thanks DFM

But I've just realized that the smileys are fucked! Shit!

Will get it sorted...

[Houdini]

Question from tech-luddite-retards corner (that's me).  What are google/spy bots and what do they do?  Are they contagious?

[Bubba]

The bots just search the web for the search engines.

Harmless (and welcome), but it's just good to seperate them from real users.

[Bubba]

But I've just realized that the smileys are fucked! Shit!

All sorted now.

[Bonjoy]

As mentioned by al in the Rubicon thread some of the non-letter characters in threads made before the changes are now scrambled, notably the mighty apostrophe

[Bubba]

I've noticed this - it's something to do with character sets/encoding and I'm not sure what the easiest fix is. Anything new seems to be ok which is even odder.

[Bubba]

Ah poo! This is a problem created  (I think) by my test and live databases running different character sets. This is something I've never even noticed before.

I think I've found a way to fix it, but it'll take a while so will probably try to do it tonight....

[SA Chris]

Wad points awarded for dedication above and beyond the call of duty.

[moose]

Waddage awarded for defence of the apostrophe.  These things matter!

[fatdoc]

as i'm becoming a regular (aka tiresome) presence on here - and posting near sod all about bouldering...... have a wad bubba!

BTW, you are coming out (bouldering that is) with me sooon. i know where you live!!!