Who did I scare with that title?? ;)

As many of you all know, there are some bug issues with PTO v2. I was hoping to have most of these worked out by this time but that still has not happened and the final or “gold” version of the software is now available.

The “gold” version of a newly released piece of software is what you would find on the shelf in a software store or online if that is where you buy your software. Most all the “bugs” or “dislikes” have been worked out and it is suitable for release to the masses. What we have been running is a prototype.. An early edition.. Maybe I should have waited for the “gold” edition, but I had been waiting for over a year and a half for the next generation of the software and there was no telling when the gold edition would finally be released. So, in short, I may have created more headaches for you and I by moving ahead before the Gold version was available.

In a lot of cases, upgrading a community to the next generation or version is no big deal. In PTO’s case, it is a very big deal! PTO does not use only the forum software.. It is heavily modified feature-wise.. If we upgrade to even a slightly newer version, we loose all the customization work. In addition to that, we have a number of completely separate programs that integrate with the forums. These are the photo galleries, live chat rooms, web-mail, arcade and more… Then you get to install the graphic sets.. :)

I have installed a test forum with the latest edition of our community software and it appears to be MUCH faster and cleaner.. Of course, there are no threads there or custom graphics but many of the customized features that we have had to add in the past are integrated now. If you would like to know what the generic version of this software looks like, you can do so here. Feel free to login, look around and post.
http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/index.php (http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/index.php)

What I am now considering is a full upgrade for PTO. This will allow us to have the latest stable version of the forum software as well as the latest hacks and other scripts. I learned a lot from our latest upgrade and one thing that I took away from it is that it should go a step at a time, where we can thoroughly test each modification and how it affects everything else.

When this takes place, the first thing that you will notice is a move to the generic look and feel of the software we are running. The graphics will likely be one of the last things we re-install. Again, you can see what that ‘generic look’ is by visiting the link above.

All the forums will remain the same as will your posts and content, but navigating to other areas (outside of the forums) may be tricky at first.

None of this will happen this week or next.. It will likely be approximately a month from now but I wanted to give everyone some lead time on this.. I will also be notifying everyone by email and publicly in the forums at least a week in advance. The total down-time for the forums is expected to be no more than an hour or two, though you may be without the gallery and some other features for a number of days.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding about this. I know you all had to put up with a number of issues after the transfer to PTO v2 this past January, but this should be the upgrade to end upgrades here for some time to come.

If you would like to comment or offer feedback on this, please do so in the feedback forum located here:
http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3 (http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3)

If you are unable to register and access that forum, you are welcome to post in this thread.

Thanks!
Fed-X


You must Re-Register over there. There are no PTO accounts already active.

"Feel free to login, look around and post."

Tried twice.................................

You have entered an invalid username or password. Please press the back button, enter the correct details and try again. Don't forget that the password is case sensitive. Forgotten your password? Click here!

You have used 2 out of 5 login attempts. After all 5 have been used, you will be unable to login for 15 minutes.

Well.. 11 people over there in a matter of minutes.. And I thought nobody paid any attention to my posts.. :p

P.S. You have to re-register. (woops!)

Well thanks for telling me to re register. Now I know why it won't work but I emailed before I finished completely reading your post. OOPS!

Well I went over and signed in but then it kicked me off after I posted two times. I tried a few more times but it just kept taking me back to log in? Oh I could not find the PM button, you know I will be lost without my PM's :( Barb

Who did I scare with that title?? ;)

As many of you all know, there are some bug issues with PTO v2. I was hoping to have most of these worked out by this time but that still has not happened and the final or “gold” version of the software is now available.

The “gold” version of a newly released piece of software is what you would find on the shelf in a software store or online if that is where you buy your software. Most all the “bugs” or “dislikes” have been worked out and it is suitable for release to the masses. What we have been running is a prototype.. An early edition.. Maybe I should have waited for the “gold” edition, but I had been waiting for over a year and a half for the next generation of the software and there was no telling when the gold edition would finally be released. So, in short, I may have created more headaches for you and I by moving ahead before the Gold version was available.

In a lot of cases, upgrading a community to the next generation or version is no big deal. In PTO’s case, it is a very big deal! PTO does not use only the forum software.. It is heavily modified feature-wise.. If we upgrade to even a slightly newer version, we loose all the customization work. In addition to that, we have a number of completely separate programs that integrate with the forums. These are the photo galleries, live chat rooms, web-mail, arcade and more… Then you get to install the graphic sets.. :)

I have installed a test forum with the latest edition of our community software and it appears to be MUCH faster and cleaner.. Of course, there are no threads there or custom graphics but many of the customized features that we have had to add in the past are integrated now. If you would like to know what the generic version of this software looks like, you can do so here. Feel free to login, look around and post.
http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/index.php (http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/index.php)

What I am now considering is a full upgrade for PTO. This will allow us to have the latest stable version of the forum software as well as the latest hacks and other scripts. I learned a lot from our latest upgrade and one thing that I took away from it is that it should go a step at a time, where we can thoroughly test each modification and how it affects everything else.

When this takes place, the first thing that you will notice is a move to the generic look and feel of the software we are running. The graphics will likely be one of the last things we re-install. Again, you can see what that ‘generic look’ is by visiting the link above.

All the forums will remain the same as will your posts and content, but navigating to other areas (outside of the forums) may be tricky at first.

None of this will happen this week or next.. It will likely be approximately a month from now but I wanted to give everyone some lead time on this.. I will also be notifying everyone by email and publicly in the forums at least a week in advance. The total down-time for the forums is expected to be no more than an hour or two, though you may be without the gallery and some other features for a number of days.

I appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding about this. I know you all had to put up with a number of issues after the transfer to PTO v2 this past January, but this should be the upgrade to end upgrades here for some time to come.

If you would like to comment or offer feedback on this, please do so in the feedback forum located here:
http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3 (http://www.con-tactnews.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3)

If you are unable to register and access that forum, you are welcome to post in this thread.

Thanks!
Fed-X


You must Re-Register over there. There are no PTO accounts already active.

Well I tried to re register at this new site and obviously it is not web compatible.

There are many issues with the current site, that I am still having difficulty with. Just to name a few:

1. Cant use Quick Reply

2. Cant change things in my Profile

3. Cant use my tools

4. Cant edit

5. Still running very slow

I was told to have patience, so here I have been doing just that. Not sure if you are aware of the problems that Web users are having in the current community. So just wanted to advise you of some of mine.

Good luck with your new site and I hope your growth in this community will keep on reaching new heights as far as membership goes.

As your closure states, I will PM you with this URL.

Any help or suggestions you can provide me with, will be appreciated.

Until then, I am patiently awaiting.

WOW....i think i need a new 'puter...that site closed down my computer as soon as i posted ...

Hey I was very glad because there is an edit button! :)

I Loved The New Site And Have No Trouble Except It Tells Me That My Msn Handles Isnt Correct??what Is That David? I Thought It Was My Name ?is It Or Who Am I ??? :p

Oh I Pm'd You Barb

mine said the same as B-Ray,couldn't get in to post.

Works great for me...Only problem was with my siggy, but I am sure thats something I am not doing right. It looks really good, too.

[COLOR=Red][B][I][U] Hey I can do it now :)

I can only make color here, no bold on underline just color what am I doing wrong? Barb

Hey guys it worked fine for me!! LOL :p Maybe it's because I was member #2...so I am special!! :p (Right, David?? lol And hey don't forget that free drinks for the top 10 at next year's conference!;)) I LOVED the site, thought it was awesome. The only thing I couldn't do was an avatar or siggy, but I assume because it's only a temporary site? It ran very fast for me (and I have dial up! :ha: lol!!) and I just loved the layout.

Celene

going to try..........

ok---pretty nice......it let me register! my countdown does not work and my siggy is a bit messed up. no avatars.

question: will our post #'s be re-set? I HOPE NOT!!! love seeing my thousands of posts!

when the site is changed will we have to register again? or was that only for the "test site"?

soooo many questions! LOVE MY OLD PTO! will take a bit to get used to the "new one" but i have a while--thank the Lord!

great job david! :yes:

Hey David,

Someone asked a question about religious smilies.
I left a message on the test site with a link in case you were interested.

http://www.anchoredbygrace.com/smileys/icon_bow.gif

On the test site that link I included converted to the actual smilie.
But on this board you have to click on the link to see it!!???
That link was for all the FED-X followers.

I like the wider version. I have a dsl line so it has always been pretty fast for me. I am for doing whatever to work the bugs out as easily as possible. Maybe it is better to go to the new version, rather than continue to put time into finishing the work on this version? If it loads slowly for members, do we really need to have all the graphics of fairies or gorgeous ladies with their men? lol probably an unpopular thought!

nope does not work for me...same message as B-Ray.....

Hello All!!
I just went and registered in the test forum and that went well but when I tried to post in the feedbck forum it would not let me in said I wasn't cleared to access? I will try again later but wanted to let you know it is very quick and I liked the look but would be more comfy to these old eyes if it were a bit lighter as someone has already said. Nice goin David-you're never idle long are you?? This site never ceases to amaze me-thanks alot for all your hard work guy!


Bonnie

You need to go to your email and finish registration process.

Well I tried to re register at this new site and obviously it is not web compatible.
Actually, the software is fully WC3 compliant and is bug-free (as bug free as anything can be. Tested with all browsers)


There are many issues with the current site, that I am still having difficulty with. Just to name a few:

1. Cant use Quick Reply - ??

2. Cant change things in my Profile - ??

3. Cant use my tools - What tools?

4. Cant edit - You can only edit for the first hour. After that, editing is disabled.

5. Still running very slow - Likely an issue with the current version of our software - should speed up significantly when upgrade takes place


I was told to have patience, so here I have been doing just that. Not sure if you are aware of the problems that Web users are having in the current community. So just wanted to advise you of some of mine.

Good luck with your new site and I hope your growth in this community will keep on reaching new heights as far as membership goes.

As your closure states, I will PM you with this URL.

Any help or suggestions you can provide me with, will be appreciated.

Until then, I am patiently awaiting.
We're aware of and have tested most of the known issues. Again, hopefully the next upgrade will shake all of this stuff out. Sorry for the delays..

Hey guys it worked fine for me!! LOL :p Maybe it's because I was member #2...so I am special!! :p (Right, David?? lol And hey don't forget that free drinks for the top 10 at next year's conference!;)) I LOVED the site, thought it was awesome. The only thing I couldn't do was an avatar or siggy, but I assume because it's only a temporary site? It ran very fast for me (and I have dial up! :ha: lol!!) and I just loved the layout.

Celene
Celene,
Significantly faster than PTO, correct?

What you see over there IS NOT how it is going to end up looking!!! :)
We will either re-apply the graphics you see here or something new..
My only reason for putting that up over there is so everyone can see what you may end up using for about a week while we upgrade.. After the upgrade and modifications, we will re-apply the graphics.. If I took the graphics away that are on PTO right now, it would look pretty much the same as what you see over there.

As for everyone's posts.. None of them will be lost.. And you will still have the same post count.

David



ok---pretty nice......it let me register! my countdown does not work and my siggy is a bit messed up. no avatars.

question: will our post #'s be re-set? I HOPE NOT!!! love seeing my thousands of posts!

when the site is changed will we have to register again? or was that only for the "test site"?

soooo many questions! LOVE MY OLD PTO! will take a bit to get used to the "new one" but i have a while--thank the Lord!

great job david! :yes:

I like the wider version. I have a dsl line so it has always been pretty fast for me. I am for doing whatever to work the bugs out as easily as possible. Maybe it is better to go to the new version, rather than continue to put time into finishing the work on this version? If it loads slowly for members, do we really need to have all the graphics of fairies or gorgeous ladies with their men? lol probably an unpopular thought!
I too like the wider version.. This one feels cramped..

As for the graphics.. I tell you what.. It may be unpopular but I am looking into ways to maximize dial-up members surf-a-bility here.. Maybe getting a modification where people can turn off all the graphics.. So, they won't see anything if they don't want to and thus speed up navigating here at PTO.

Hello All!!
I just went and registered in the test forum and that went well but when I tried to post in the feedbck forum it would not let me in said I wasn't cleared to access? I will try again later but wanted to let you know it is very quick and I liked the look but would be more comfy to these old eyes if it were a bit lighter as someone has already said. Nice goin David-you're never idle long are you?? This site never ceases to amaze me-thanks alot for all your hard work guy!


Bonnie
Thanks Bonnie..

Did you happen to confirm your registration email?

David

Hi David & all!
I went back and completed the registration and left you a note for the feedback and all seemed to work fine for me this time!
Thanks for the headsup lovesaaron and I did that and I was off and running!
Babygirl350 still having problems though-can anyone help her out???????

thanks a lot!
Bonnie

I liked the layout! And the edit was back!!! But this guy was gone :dance:

Im going to miss the littl guy! LOL They had some cute new smiles.

It was easy to get in and post. Faster to post.

I love thea speed. (Ms. Leadfoot here. I guess that should have been obvious.) Seriously, it is great. I almost forgot that I am on that "damn dial up" < My ISP frustration phrase. LOL

I registered and they say my name and password is wrong?
so do I register with the same name or a new one?

You register with whatever you want... That site will be deleted in a few days.

Ok, the transfer of PTO to this "format" or look/design/feel (or whatever you would like to call it) will take place tomorrow morning.. The upgrade to our custom features will take place in the weeks to follow.

Thanks for your patience,
David (Fed-X)