Major Forum Upgrade to IPB 4 - Complete!

[High on Lullabies]

Hello all,
 
I have just requested for our hosts to carry out a major upgrade of the forum software to IPB Version 4. Their site advises that the current wait time for upgrades is 8 days, so it should occur on or just before next weekend (13th/14th February). I have asked them to give me advance warning of when the upgrade will happen, but given their performance last time, I cannot guarantee this.  
 
This upgrade is required as IPS (our hosts) are going to stop providing support to the version of the forum software we currently use (IPB v3.4.x). I was aware that this was coming, but as so many people have decided to move to IPB 4 they have decided to accelerate the process quite significantly. Originally they were planning to end all technical support by the end of this year, they have now moved this forward to the end of May this year. This means that we would definitely have to upgrade by then, and as we are hosted directly by IPS, then they may mandate that we upgrade sooner than this.
Given how messy the last major upgrade was in 2011, when we went from IPB 2 to IPB 3, I thought it better to take control of the upgrade at a time of our choosing, rather than have it forced on us.  
 
Those who were members when the upgrade from IPB 2 to IPB 3 took place, will have some idea of what to expect. But to emphasise for those who weren't, this is a major software upgrade.
Therefore the forum is likely to look very different once it's finished. Many features will probably not work immediately and there will probably be a number of things installed as standard that we don't want (links to Facebook, Twitter, etc) and it will take some time for the staff to figure out how everything works.
However in time, I'm sure the forum will provide a better experience for it and plus, as I said above, we're going to have to do it soon anyway, so we may as well bite the bullet now.
 
Over the next day or two I will be disabling the additional features that we have installed as these will not work with Version 4 of the software and they may interfere with the upgrade.
These features are:
- Favourite Emoticons
- Ability of Validating/Pending Members to receive PMs
- Ability to re-order PM inbox
- The 'Who's Chatting' hovercard
- Profile Privacy Options
- Birthday List at Bottom of Main Page
- Ability to make donations
- Ability of Full, VIP and Honoured Members to edit their own custom titles
- Automatic PM's sent when people are validated from 'Pending' to 'Poster'
- Blog Ticker
- Selective Quoting
- Contact Form
 
We will attempt to recover as many of these features as possible when the upgrade is completed and obviously will keep you informed as to how this progresses.
 
I will post any more information regarding the timing of the upgrade as soon as I have it. In the meantime if you have any questions, please post a topic in Web Support, or send a PM or e-mail to the staff and we will do our best to answer them.
 
Thank you for your attention and patience while we go through this process!
 
~HoL
 

[High on Lullabies]

Hello all,

I have received some further information from Invision regarding the upgrade. They have asked me to confirm everything is in place, so it could occur any day now.

Please note the following important items immediately following the upgrade:

1. The new version of the software no longer has separate usernames and display names. Once the upgrade occurs, you will login to the forum using your DISPLAY NAME. This also means, that should you change your name on the forum, your login information will also change.

2. The new version has removed the option to add forum users as Friends and replaced it with Followers. When the upgrade occurs, your friends list will be removed. I will add more information regarding the new Followers function in due course.

Thanks for your attention!

~HoL

[High on Lullabies]

Hi folks,

The upgrade was completed overnight. The site was left offline when the hosts finished so I could check things over, so that's why no-one could access it until now.

Please note the following:

Post Content
All topics, posts, blogs, gallery images, etc need to be rebuilt following the upgrade. Therefore any posts, topics, etc made prior to the upgrade may not display correctly until this process finishes. You can use the forum normally while this process runs.

Issues, Alterations, Additions, etc

As with the previous major upgrade a few years ago, I have started a topic here: http://www.sneezefetishforum.org/index.php?/topic/65491-forum-upgrade-issues/ 

for you to post any issues you encounter using the site, any features that are missing or anything that has been added that you feel we may not want. The staff will look to deal with these issues as soon as possible.

If you have any questions please post them in the above topic or contact a member of staff by PM or e-mail.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the upgraded site.  

~HoL