This Tue, 4 May, I am planning to upgrade the forum software to the current version of phpBB3.

As in previous upgrades, you can expect:

1. us to backup the entire database the night before the upgrade — when the actual back up occurs, the site goes down for 5~10 min. If the upgrade fails, I may “rollback” to this last major database backup, thereby losing posts that were made to Forumosa after the database backup

2. the forums to be suspended for a few hours on Tue — like in the last 2 software upgrades, there is an automated upgrade process that we speed through, during which the software analyzes itself and then creates a new set of replacement files composed of the new files and its modifications.

About 20% of the files will probably require I look at them manually — this is the time consuming part — and then resubmitting the changed files to the system to make sure all the required changes are in place. Each of the last 2 upgrades had at least one file that just wouldn’t cooperate, but I chose to “ignore” it and took my chances by using it anyway. If I believe the forums become more vulnerable because of an incomplete upgrade, I will rollback to the last major database backup.

3. me to re-open the forums when the core software is upgraded, even though cosmetic changes are not in place yet — including the banner zones, BBCodes, the event calendar, the sitemap, certain links. Your bug reports and reminders for the return of certain features are especially useful at this stage. NOTE: there will still be the chance that we rollback to the previous night’s major backup if we are not satisfied with any element of the new software. Expect this re-stocking step to last a couple of days.

4. a switch in default template to Prosilver – the Forumosa theme template will still be around, but Prosilver will be the defaulted theme. Native-tongues.com is helping us develop a new prosilver theme, but in the meantime, we’ll use a standard prosilver until theirs is ready.

If you see software problems, please note the following:

- report them to us at admin(at)forumosa.com
- check our blog (www.forumosa.org) for updates
- help us find solutions at the main phpBB website (www.phpBB.com)
- suggest fixes and modifications by posting links to phpBB solution sites like www.phpBBhacks.com www.phpbb3bbcodes.com and (phpBB Academy Star Trek Guide) www.startrekguide.com among others