***IMPORTANT*** Upgrade/Downtime/Assistance Information
 

Ok, I plan on upgrading the TFP to the new vBulletin version 3.5.4. This upgrade will probably take place over the weekend. I'm leaving the window open, but don't be surprised. Any time from Friday to Sunday, I will be taking the forums down and upgrading to the new version.

The Good:
-It's a change!
-Better forum software, making it easier to manage and customize.
-Tons of new features, both logical and fun. In planning (though no promises given) are a community google map utility where people can put a pin on their location, an arcade where you can play games, an in-forum instant messenger, and more...
-Hoping this will allow us to expand as a community. More opportunity to add features without compromizing server stability.
-Yes, your journals will carry over.

The Bad:
-It's a change!
-Well, aside from the initial downtime, it will take a little while to get the whole site back to the same feel because....
-The visual styles you all are used to will probably be shot to hell. We'll be starting from scratch.
-You'll all be my beta testers, whether you like it or not.
-All the nifty little access restriction manipulations I put in place will be gone. This may cause some confusion.. like you may lose or gain access to whatever - on accident. That's generally MY problem, but I'd appreciate a little honesty on everyone's part when reporting problems.

BUT YOU CAN HELP!!

If any of our talented artists out there could help me with some suggestions for new TFP graphics and color schemes, that would be excellent. Also, for those of you in the know, suggesting some addons for the new version of vB that would make the forum a better place to be is always welcomed.

Personally, I like that last one on this thread:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...highlight=logo

Yeah... For some reason my Administrator Status has been changed to Full Member. Can I get that fixed?

Looks like they fixed it....to Rookie :lol:

Haha thats pretty funny. Will Donor status be up for us that have donated a little so far and don't have it yet?

Donor status is still a work in progress. I'm returning from a bit of a TFP hiatus and I have a lot of Donor tags to give out, and it'll take a while to get down the list. You can look for that to come after the upgrade is complete and smoothed out. I'll have more time to work on that stuff later.

Halx (and anyone else wanting to work on a header), I recommend going here and checking out what you like:
Free Fonts
I like Illustrator for starting out any work with fonts then moving it over to PS to finish, plus in Illustrator, you can see the fonts before choosing-a boon when you have hundreds of them.

I know donations are always needed, but I'd like to ask if you're incurring any special expenses due to the upgrade that you could use an extra hand with. I'm sure I can come up with an extra bit right offhand. I wish I could help with the code or colors...I'm even taking advanced graphic design right now; supposedly I'm starting to have an eye for design.

But, my lame ass is worn out and overscheduled so I'm compensating for actual participation by offering to buy you off.

Lemme know if you need some extra "upgrade bling" and I'll get somthing together. I'll buy you a stick of ram or somthing...lol.

The whole thing sounds good Halx. Thanks again for all your hard work.

Well any extra expenses would include any visual styles that I may have to purchase if we cant get some good styles of our own created.

best of luck with the upgrade, may it be quick and bug free.

That reminds me.. ALL donor tags will be broken when the upgrade is first made.

What kind of 'styles' are you talking about? Header? Logo? Entire home page?
Cute x-rated smilies? http://www.addis-welt.de/smilie/smil...chmuddel06.gif

Well, change your style. Note the things that are different. I suggest checking out the Hardwired theme if you dont already use it. You notice a lot of things change with each style. It can be a very intensive redesign, or it can be as simple as changing out the button graphics and color schemes

Are the themes that are currently available the default ones or are some of them add-ons? I'm kind of partial to the Sandstorm one, if you're taking votes...

Cool, looking forward to the changes. I'd love to help on the visual side of things, though I'm not so sure if I'm sklled enough to change the whole style. I'm good with logos and stuff, I used to post on another forum and they ended up using my logo design for their page. I'll mull it around a little and if I come up with something I'll let you know. If I can help in any other way please tell me. :)

Great. Is the Journal software going to be updated as well? According to this vBulletin.org Forum thread, there are both 1.0.1 final and 1.5b3 versions out.

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=96462

The thread you linked to pertains to vB version 3.0, which is what we're currently running. We'll be upgrading to 3.5.4, so I provided the thread to the new release.

Ah damn, I just realised that this place is going to be down for the next few days. It's no longer "Hey, some time in the future it'll happen" but a "Hey, tonight or tomorrow I'm losing this place..."

I may start the process tonight. I dont EXPECT it to take more than 5 hours. Shit happens though.. so I gave myself a whole weekend to work it out.

I'll certainly be praying for 5 hours. That depression thread is pretty interesting.

Yeah no shit, I don't want to miss out on the replies... sigh. But I guess it has to be done. Power to ya, Halx.

Well at the very least, We should have a functional forum by the end of the night. All of the little features will come gradually.