Update: Eagles International Website and Forum Status

DavidO, thanks for the offer. We may take you up on it.

The website is based on Wordpress. Currently it is stable and has the latest version of the 4X series (4.9.9). Updating to the 5X series would require a huge effort as significant theme conflicts can occur. While the site function and appearance is a bit dated, it works just fine.

Our efforts (actually James' part of the project) is to upgrade the forum which is based on a pretty dated version of phpbb. Along with that challenge, James is setting up a new site on Hostgator (we have both had it with Goddady).

I think James has a good handle on the forum update, but if you have experience with phpbb software, we should talk further.

Jim

Very little personally, but I have helpers. LMK. Happy to help.

Update 5/9/19

James and I had a great project review today (via phone).

Our new host has been less that spectacular in helping with the migration in spite of claims to the contrary. That said, the basic groundwork has been established and a test database is on the site.

The new host will offer a much greater value than GoDaddy. While the cost will be about the same, the really important options are a part of the package.

James will be working with them to get the newest PHPbb software loaded so that we can see what issues we will have with our present theme (the look and feel software). We expect that most of the theme will need to be redone. James has experience in that area, so he will work on that part of the migration first.

Updating to the latest PHPbb platform will make a significant difference in the operation and maintenance of the forum. That is a huge benefit for the administrators, but will also improve the member experience a bit.

We hope to be testing the new forum in the next couple of weeks. Once we feel good about the migration, we will make the switchover to the new host/software.

Jim

Update 7/26/19

James continues to work on the conversion to a new host and update the forum software. As I have noted in earlier posts, the website side of the site uses WordPress software and that part is up to date. It is the forum side of the site that needs updating.

You would think that because our site is small compared to many, that the conversion would be simple. It is not. The new forum software will not recognize the customized "style" software that gives the look and feel of this forum. Our customized style was based on a "standard" style that is no longer compatible with the updated forum software. There are lots of other issues to address, including cleaning up a huge number of old files from previous versions and attempts to upgrade the site. In other words, there needs to be a huge housecleaning of the site.

Then you couple that with moving from our current host to a new host and it gets to be a huge undertaking.

James is doing some traveling right now, but will get back on the conversion shortly.

Keep in mind, that the current forum and software works just fine, but we need to update for the future.

Jim

Keep up the good work.

UPDATE: 11/21/19

What a mess GoDaddy has become!

The latest bunch of crap they dumped on us is that they no longer support free email service - at least for our type of account. Yesterday our email accounts all went into suspension. They were holding us "ransom" to the tune of something like $5.50 per month. James did a rather complicated workaround and we are back to having free email. Only an experienced person would find the magic route in the vast world of GoDaddy - Joe Average would just have to pay up. For some reason (grandfathered account?) my personal hosting account is not affected -yet.

As far as the migration to the new host, the work continues. James has been on the road quite a bit building his business. That coupled with less than timely responses from the new technical folks has kept the progress at a very slow pace.

As I have said a few times, the current website software platform is current and the site is stable. The forum software platform is a couple of versions behind. However, updating is a real challenge since none of the "look and fell" software is compatible with the new platform. Our decision was to change hosts at the same time we update the forum platform (mainly because of many GoDaddy issues).

We are not is any jeopardy of a forum blackout or loosing any of our valuable database, we just need to make the platform update.

Jim