Software Upgrade

[DaveS]

FYI, I have just upgraded my phpBB based forum software, from V3.0.8 to the current version V3.0.9, using the automatic upgrade process, and it all went through without any problems.

Dave

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

How did you do it Dave, and does it have any benefits?. Regards .............. Neil.

[DaveS]

The only mods I have are the "who was here" mod, and the 'Tapatalk' access mod.

The 'style' is Pro-Dark, which I have edited to suit my needs.

This is the second time I have upgraded the software (V3.0.7 to V3.0.8, and now V3.0.8 to V3.0.9), and both times I used the Automatic Update package, which is the recommended method.

Basically, download the update package from the phpBB website. Unpack the Zipped file, then upload just the 'install' folder to the 'home directory' on the server.

Open the Browser, and point it to the 'install' folder (e.g. http://www.myforum.com/install)

The upgrade process will then run automatically. Once it has 'checked' the files to be updated, then download these to your PC.

Run whatever FTP software you are using, and upload these files to the 'home directory' on the server, and allow them to overwrite the existing files.

Finally, delete/remove the install folder, as the forum will not run until this has been removed.

That's it, job done

As far as I can ascertain, V3.0.9 corrects a few 'bugs', albeit whatever they were, they weren't causing me any problems.

The main reason for updating, is that the phpBB 'team' only support the current version of the software.

Dave

[DaveS]

I'm familiar with the upgrade process

I didn't doubt that Jonzo, and my explanation of the upgrade process was for Neil's benefit, as he asked how it was done.

My forum is small compared to this one, as it caters for a specialised subject, and in the two years that its been running, we have used used less than half of the 10Gb of space that we rent on the server.

I built a duplicate version of the 'board 'on the server, albeit with just a handful of our registered users on it, which I use to test upgrades and mods, before applying them to the main 'board'. A 'better safe than sorry approach'

I don't have an IT background, having been a Consultant EMC engineer, and with many years in Radio Frequency Engineering. So I had to learn about HTML, FTP and Servers etc from scratch, when I got involved in setting up and running a forum 'board' a couple of years ago.

I also managed to build my own website, and not from 'style sheets' either.

The 'plus side' is that it helps to keep my 69 year old brain active.

Dave

[DaveS]

To be honest, since installing Tapatalk, at the request of a couple of members, it has been little used, and I have to consider that it wasn't worth the bother.

Our biggest problem is the number of attempted 'spam' registrations that we get. Around 10 per day on average.

Activation is not automatic, and my co-forum owner/admin and I, vet every registration.

If we know them, then fine. If not, we first run them through the 'Stop Forum Spam' site which shows the majority of them to be from 'spammers'. Where the 'spam check' doesn't show them listed, we send them a standard e-mail, asking them to tell us something about the interest in the subject of the forum.

If they are genuine, then we get a sensible answer, but if there is no response or the answer is unconvincing, they get deleted along with those identified as 'spam'.

As a small forum, currently <300 members, this is manageable, but is still a laborious task.

If we get close to our storage limit, say a couple of years 'down the road', then we'll decide whether to rent more space on the server, or maybe delete old 'threads', say > three of four years old.

Personally, I don't think very many, if any, people go searching back through 'threads' of that age.

We also have an 'inactive account rule'. That is that any account where the member has not logged in for a period exceeding six consecutive months, the account is considered as no longer required, and gets deleted. That is deleted not 'banned', leaving the option for the person to re-register at any time, should they want.

Our membership number refelects actual active members.

On one particular forum that I know, they show both total and active member numbers. Having some 15,000 members registered, with only 3,000 active, means that they are storing some 12,000 'dead accounts' on the database.

Again, this means more work in going through the 'membership list' and checking the dates of 'last activity', and with ours being a small forum, its manageable and keeps the database from becoming unnecessarily large.

Dave