Good day, Terrarians,
Recently some issues have cropped up in the forum software. Our current site is built on a version of Xenforo that is critically out of date, and we are working to resolve that. Some critical software packages related to our server no longer support our older version
Some of these issues will give error messages that seem to indicate that user permissions have been removed for the desired action - this is not the case. These issues affect all staff and development as well, with the same messages. Please do not make a new account to attempt to avoid these issues, as all accounts are affected.
In the meantime, here is a list of issues we know about (and temporary work-arounds that we know of):
*** NOTE ****
The recent changes with Wiki image links are not related to this forum. We realize that some references to images there are now broken. Content authors will have to resolve these changes themselves.
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What are we doing to address these issues going forward?
The first step we have taken (and completed) is the removal of the Social Group feature. This addon/plugin has had no support or updates from the author (or the company he sold the rights to) in over three years. We attempted to do a normal update of the base forum software in March 2016 (three years ago), and the Social Group feature prevented that from being successful. Since that time, we have been able to do a few critical security updates and patch a couple of features, but we are at a point where an update is mandatory. While Social Groups were not directly causing these other issues, having them was blocking our ability to upgrade to resolve them.
Re-Logic is close to identifying someone to research our options and perform the updates. @Skiphs had been the person to perform maintenance and upgrades of the forum software and server, until he left Re-Logic in June 2018. Since then, there has not been a person with the access/knowledge to take us forward with this. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Recently some issues have cropped up in the forum software. Our current site is built on a version of Xenforo that is critically out of date, and we are working to resolve that. Some critical software packages related to our server no longer support our older version
Some of these issues will give error messages that seem to indicate that user permissions have been removed for the desired action - this is not the case. These issues affect all staff and development as well, with the same messages. Please do not make a new account to attempt to avoid these issues, as all accounts are affected.
In the meantime, here is a list of issues we know about (and temporary work-arounds that we know of):
- Uploading a file/image to a thread post or conversation post gives permission error (work-around available)
- Permalinks for individual posts now point to the first post in the thread (work-around available)
- The 'Previous Names' tab on profiles stopped working (gives permission error)
- Radio button selections for threads in sections that support them no longer appear or are no longer editable (partial work-around available)
- We can no longer update our front page with news. This includes removing older news articles and feature banners.
- Embedding media (videos) from some sites does not work. Sites that are known to work are: YouTube, Daily Motion, and Vimeo work. Gfycat works, though I've seen some older embeds not play until I modified the embed encoding. Facebook, Metacafe and LiveLeak do not work at all.
- When creating a private conversation, the first post and all subsequent posts are automatically 'liked'.
- The 'Start a Conversation' link underneath post avatars has stopped working. (Now disabled.) You can still start one by going to the person's profile page, click on their Information tab, and start a conversation from there (in the Interact section), or from their member card.
*** NOTE ****
The recent changes with Wiki image links are not related to this forum. We realize that some references to images there are now broken. Content authors will have to resolve these changes themselves.
--------
What are we doing to address these issues going forward?
The first step we have taken (and completed) is the removal of the Social Group feature. This addon/plugin has had no support or updates from the author (or the company he sold the rights to) in over three years. We attempted to do a normal update of the base forum software in March 2016 (three years ago), and the Social Group feature prevented that from being successful. Since that time, we have been able to do a few critical security updates and patch a couple of features, but we are at a point where an update is mandatory. While Social Groups were not directly causing these other issues, having them was blocking our ability to upgrade to resolve them.
Re-Logic is close to identifying someone to research our options and perform the updates. @Skiphs had been the person to perform maintenance and upgrades of the forum software and server, until he left Re-Logic in June 2018. Since then, there has not been a person with the access/knowledge to take us forward with this. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
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