:mapoftasmania: Discourse Downgrade…

[NotBletch]

I’m sure a mod will be along in a mo to edit that title.

Fucking fascists.

I need your help

Hillarious Preamble

Anyway, (not) Bletch here. @pap and @BTripz begged and begged me to come back, so here I am.

I asked them why they were so desperate to have me back.

“Was it my intellect?”, I asked.

“Was it my unique perspective on fashion?” I wondered.

“My inability to drink?”

“My diplomacy?”

“Did they need to decrease the membership follicle count?”

“Did they want to increase the average height of The Management?”

“Did they need someone on the team that actually understood football?”

“No”, they said. “We need help to upgrade the Discourse installation”.

Cunts.

So that’s what I’m here to do.

I’d like to first say that when I left this place ~ 3 years ago everything was working well.

It’s true that when I left my role as Site Butler at Pap Towers I did leave a note for @pap and @BTripz wishing them good luck but saying that there was no hosting money left.

But, Sotonians, what have @pap and @btrips done with ~3 years of power?

I’ll tell you what they’ve done. They’ve left you on Discourse version 2.6.0.beta3.

That might not mean anything to you, but there are deep, dark caves in France where rudimentary, hand-daubed images of bison appear above the words “Discourse 2.6 sucks”.

Anyway, so I’m the higher’d (sic) help. Here to bring you into the current millennium by upgrading the site.

Upgrading to Discourse 3.0

The site needs updating and that means jumping from version 2.6 of Discourse to v3.0 (and change).

There have been lots of changes since the site was last updated so some things in the new site will feel different to some of you.

As part of the migration, Sotonians will be moving to a new server with a new hosting provider. This means that pap won’t be paying such an exorbitant monthly fee to me to keep the current site live and I will have to give up the rental property in Bermuda.

The most pressing issue is that I need to get some feedback on the new version to make sure that I’m not going to break anything in the conversion / migration.

To that end, I’ve done a partial migration and I’d like to get some volunteers to test it.

The new test site is at:

Sotonians

If you can spare the time, please visit the new site. The data there is as at ~2 days ago and your login details will be the same as they are here.

This is NOT live data so feel free to post, delete, fuck about, etc. It will have no impact on the live data here and it will be overwritten when I do the actual migration.

I’d like to understand:

1. What do you think of the new sidebar?

2. What do you think of the new notification area?

3. Does the site work as you’d expect on desktop and mobile?

4. If you run a browser other than Chrome or Safari (Firefox, Opera, Edge, BobsUntraceablePornBrowser, etc.), does the site still work as you would expect?

5. What do you think of the Chat system?

6. Are there parts of the site - old posts, odd posts, etc. that are different or broken?

7. Performance. Does the site feel faster, slower or about the same?

Apple Users Critical Change

If you are on an Apple device that runs iOS lower than (I think) 14.7 then the site will no longer work for you.

So, if you run any Apple device please ensure that the site still works - or works as you would expect.

Please Reply

Please post your feedback here. I’m currently planning to do the upgrade Monday/Tuesday next week, so reply before then if you can.

@pap, @BTripz - anything else?

[Cobham-Saint]

Doesn’t let me log on via Google (can’t remember my original password etc)

Access blocked: This app’s request is invalid

kjh.oneill@gmail.com
You can’t sign in because this app sent an invalid request. You can try again later, or contact the developer about this issue. Learn more about this error
If you are a developer of this app, see error details.
Error 400: redirect_uri_mismatch

[scotty]

@Cobham-Saint

Doesn’t let me log on via Google (can’t remember my original password etc)

Put in “Password”, like the rest of your logins.

[NotBletch]

@Cobham-Saint

Doesn’t let me log on via Google (can’t remember my original password etc)

Access blocked: This app’s request is invalid

kjh.oneill@gmail.com
You can’t sign in because this app sent an invalid request. You can try again later, or contact the developer about this issue. Learn more about this error
If you are a developer of this app, see error details.
Error 400: redirect_uri_mismatch

Bollocks.

It’s just as well I would have ignored your feedback anyway.

I’ll have a think. You might get a weird email if i can fix it…

[lifeintheslowlane]

@NotBletch

1. What do you think of the new sidebar?

Yeah works for me.

@NotBletch

2. What do you think of the new notification area?

Yeah works for me.

@NotBletch

3. Does the site work as you’d expect on desktop and mobile?

Yeah works for me.

@NotBletch

4. If you run a browser other than Chrome or Safari (Firefox, Opera, Edge, BobsUntraceablePornBrowser, etc.), does the site still work as you would expect?

Yeah works for me. Hold on… you mean there is an alternative to Chrome?

@NotBletch

5. What do you think of the Chat system?

Yeah works for me.

@NotBletch

6. Are there parts of the site - old posts, odd posts, etc. that are different or broken?

Don’t know haven’t go that far…I’ll let you know.

@NotBletch

7. Performance. Does the site feel faster, slower or about the same?

Yeah works for me…seems a bit quicker.

[NotBletch]

@Cobham-Saint

Doesn’t let me log on via Google (can’t remember my original password etc)

Access blocked: This app’s request is invalid

kjh.oneill@gmail.com
You can’t sign in because this app sent an invalid request. You can try again later, or contact the developer about this issue. Learn more about this error
If you are a developer of this app, see error details.
Error 400: redirect_uri_mismatch

Can you try again, Kev?

I’ve added the new sub domain to the list. That might fix it.

[scotty]

@NotBletch

Can you try again, Kev?

That’s what his wife said on their wedding night.

[Cobham-Saint]

It works now

Using my Crapple mobile device there doesn’t seem to be much to challenge us Luddites who don’t like change

View and feel when looking at all topics is pretty much the same. Maybe a bit smoother?

Couldn’t upload GIFs when typing a message - perhaps because the site isn’t live? Got this message.

“ Error: GIPHY API key is not set. Site Admins, please visit the “Discourse Gifs” theme-component topic on Discourse Meta for setup instructions.”

Match Day Chat could be a winner - assume each match will have its own chat and certain Mods don’t respond flippantly to serious points being made in the test scenario….

[BTripz]

@Cobham-Saint

Luddites

That’s exactly the phrase I used when I asked @NotBletch to ask the wonderful membership to test the new site.

[Cobham-Saint]

As I was reading earlier

[NotBletch]

@BTripz

That’s exactly the phrase I used when I asked @NotBletch to ask the wonderful membership to test the new site.

I’m pretty sure I used the term “cunts” to refer to the membership.

But “Luddite cunts” works for me too.

[Fowllyd]

Crikey, Mr Bletch sir, how wonderful it is to have you back here. Or are you Mr NotBletch, Mr Bletch sir? I do get so confused, as I’m sure you’ll remember. I was wondering if perhaps you’re Mr Bletch’s evil twin, but then I though it would be much more likely that you’d be his nice twin, as I don’t think that Mr Bletch could possibly have an evil twin. I’ll call you Mr NotBletch for now, Mr NotBletch sir.

If you do bump into Mr Bletch, Mr NotBletch sir, do you think you could ask him if he knows where Miss Louise went? I haven’t seen her since Mr Bletch invited her to have a look around his wine cellar.

[Fowllyd]

I think that’s a bit harsh. Not all of us are Luddites.

[lifeintheslowlane]

I’ve spent most of my life embracing technological change. As soon as I learn how to cope with the new it suddenly becomes the old.
Technological change doesn’t give a shit about me, technological change will be pleased when I’m gone.
Technological change is the real cunt here.

[NotBletch]

To be honest, 'slowlane, given AI innovations and your advancing years, I’d assumed that you were somehow posting from beyond the grave.

Gutted to know your’re still alive - from a technological perspective you understand.

[scotty]

@Fowllyd

I think that’s a bit harsh. Not all of us are Luddites.

[Cobham-Saint]

Already shared very widely @scotty

[lifeintheslowlane]

@NotBletch

To be honest, 'slowlane, given AI innovations and your advancing years, I’d assumed that you were somehow posting from beyond the grave.

Gutted to know your’re still alive - from a technological perspective you understand.

I do intend to continue posting from the other side. At the moment Lady Slowlane and myself are running on “Ole Duffer v36.5.1” and it’s going quite well. However after my annual health review the doc recommended we install this software updating unit. I’ve had it installed in my study…

[Polski_Filip]

I may have a look.
If I can feel my fingers & remember my login tomorrow