Not so good news about the forums (please read)

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Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

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Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by DJKeefy »

The PHP 5 (code) in which the forum runs is now outdated and come to the end of its life, most hosting companies have moved onto the new version PHP 7, our hosting company stops supporting it on the 15th April 2019, to keep using PHP 5 they require a support fee per month per website which runs to about £32 month for all the sites I have, that fee is separate from what I already pay for the hosting etc. :(

Their email
Dear Keith,

Our records indicate that you have at least one Linux hosted website with an old version of PHP enabled, either 5.6 or 7.0. Both of these versions have reached the end-of-support with their developers meaning there will be no new updates from by the PHP community.

We recommend that you upgrade to a newer version of PHP to allow for the best performance, upgrading to a newer version of PHP will provide:

• Better performance: Online applications like WordPress run up to twice as fast with PHP 7.3
• New features for developers
• Regular updates from the PHP community

We have created guides to help you upgrade to a newer version of PHP.

If you choose not to upgrade to a newer version of PHP, your sites may be at risk, however, our developers have been providing Extended Support for the outdated versions since the start of December 2018. This Extended Support service will now be charged for each version of out-of-support PHP that you're using, regardless of how many sites you're using it on.

If any new security vulnerabilities are discovered in an outdated version of PHP, the PHP Community developers will not provide a solution, but as part of our Extended Support service, our developers will release patches to the outdated versions of PHP that fix significant security vulnerabilities.

This new PHP Extended Support will be chargeable from w/c 15th April 2019 for £5.28 (£6.34 inc. VAT) per month for each version of Extended PHP Support used.

No 1 alternative (which I probably will have to do) is to move the forum to the newer PHP 7, however the forum and all the addons like the gallery, arcade, likes, user flags and also the graphic layout will not work on PHP 7 so we will be back to a basic forum till I can find new addons to add. So if you have any important images you have uploaded to the gallery please go through them and save them back to your PC/Laptop.

Also it might not work :( if that happens we might have to start the forum from DAY 1 :cry:

No 2 alternative is to sell all the sites to someone who can afford it :ni: Any offers :lol:


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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by A-Four »

Will this be ‘the last cuckoo’, Keefy,.......The Times readers will know exactly what I mean,...........the usual googly people on here will look elsewhere.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by John Landon »

I dont envy you Keefy...

Seems most PHP 5 Website owners have been reluctant to change up to PHP 7
Even PHP 7 is going out of support at the same time as PHP 5.

7.3 is the only viable candidate and that will involve lots of code changes to get there.

Up until a few months ago, 80 % of PHP websites were still running version 5.
Economically it is not worth it for most companies to have their website re written, just to end up with the same website they had before.

PHP 7 has lots of advantages, including being faster and can accommodate many more concurrent users, but it will be interesting to see how this all pans out in the bigger picture as the providers drop support for PHP 5.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Major Thom »

I would have thought that running this forum and site is very expensive and time consuming, and every time another expense come along it bares down heavy on the site owner. Maybe for good continuation we should all contribute to this and then it will keep the site going. There are plenty of us to do so, being regular posters or those that just nosey to see whats going on. The cost of living cheaply in Luxor will more than compensate contributers and you will not notice the cost of the contribution. I would have thought that regular posters would be only too willing to contribute to the owner for fee's he incurs to keep the site going. It can be done via a yearly bankers draft, to keep your membership live ;)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by crewmeal »

For once I agree with MT on this. I'd be happy to pay an annual fee not only for the entertainment but fo the useful infomation that many on here provide.

Besides where would this forum be without MT? :wi
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Watching with interest.

I'm not sure I understood even half of that techy gobbeldegook so will just keep looking out for further Keefy updates.

One thing I did actually understand was:
DJKeefy wrote: . So if you have any important images you have uploaded to the gallery please go through them and save them back to your PC/Laptop.
The only negative with doing that is that you end up with a great big blue scarab beetle on your photograph. Is there anyway to get rid of that for that that my want to re-save photographs?
Image Experience is not what happens to you;
it is what you do with what happens to you.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Major Thom wrote:I would have thought that running this forum and site is very expensive and time consuming, and every time another expense come along it bares down heavy on the site owner. Maybe for good continuation we should all contribute to this and then it will keep the site going. There are plenty of us to do so, being regular posters or those that just nosey to see whats going on. The cost of living cheaply in Luxor will more than compensate contributers and you will not notice the cost of the contribution. I would have thought that regular posters would be only too willing to contribute to the owner for fee's he incurs to keep the site going. It can be done via a yearly bankers draft, to keep your membership live ;)
:a50: :a50: :a50:

I've heard of 'Pay For View' before but never 'Pay For Moan'

OR.... to put in in MajorThom speak ...

I've heard of 'PFV' before but never 'PFM'

:snig:
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it is what you do with what happens to you.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by DJKeefy »

HEPZIBAH wrote:Watching with interest.

I'm not sure I understood even half of that techy gobbeldegook so will just keep looking out for further Keefy updates.

One thing I did actually understand was:
DJKeefy wrote: . So if you have any important images you have uploaded to the gallery please go through them and save them back to your PC/Laptop.
The only negative with doing that is that you end up with a great big blue scarab beetle on your photograph. Is there anyway to get rid of that for that that my want to re-save photographs?
I have removed the scarab beetle now :)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by carrie »

Like Hepzibah don't understand much of your post but I have faith. :)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by HEPZIBAH »

DJKeefy wrote:
I have removed the scarab beetle now :)
Thanks Keefy.

I had a few photographs posted and no longer have the originals so it will be good to be able to save them back to my computer.
Image Experience is not what happens to you;
it is what you do with what happens to you.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

Hepzi and others wanting to save images back to their PC, it is important that you 'open' the image in the gallery BEFORE you save back to your computer or tablet, otherwise it will only save the image as a small sized Thumbnail. ;)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by DJKeefy »

Since redsea4u is not active I am using that as a test area, I have managed to update the forum to the latest and running on PHP 7.2, its not compatible with 7.3 at the moment (PULLING MY HAIR OUT) of course the Gallery, Arcade, Likes and most of the addons we have on here (for the moment) have all gone, posts and ranks are all intact but there is still some BUGS thats left over from the old forum which I will try to fix as time goes on, once running ok I can then work on the GRAPHICS and add on's.


If you want to do a bit of testing you can do

goto: http://www.redsea4u.net/forum/index.php

username: testing

password: testing

Thanks
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by carrie »

Because of the warnings I have spent the past hour looking at the paintings and photos on the forum What a delight, photos of Stan, Sue, both gone now brought back many happy memories. What ever happened to King Tut,Toby? Mrs Doubtfire his contributions sadly missed.
The meetings we used to have in Sindbads also gone, how things change and not for the better.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

Keefy, the 'new' forum seems OK if not somewhat familiar, have you used this layout before?
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by DJKeefy »

No :)

I will restyle it when I get it running properly :)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

I have probably used a forum somewhere with a similar layout :)
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

@Keefy - I'd like to propose if there is to be a NEW Forum that the name for all be changed to: "EXPATS, EGYPT & EVERYTHING ELSE" aka "4E" or "Four E"

I think "Expats" may garner new people and "Everything Else" affords a more expanded discussion format and takes the exclusivity off of "Egypt" and "Luxor"

This would hopefully bring in new people and lively discussion on a variety of topics.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

LLL, as you have made this same post over on the Gold side, I will copy and paste my reply to you on here also.

I suspect that it is only the layout of the forums that will change, I have seen the new basic version and it looks OK, but it still needs a lot of work (in a short time :( ) by Keefy in order to get it back to something similar to how it is now. As to a new name, well don't forget that Keefy has to register 'domain' names and that also costs money, the ones he uses now are already registered. I agree that something that sounds a little more inclusive to others may boost membership, but whether or not that change is possible?
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by A-Four »

LovelyLadyLux wrote:
This would hopefully bring in new people and lively discussion on a variety of topics.
HOLD ON LLL, sorry I've just had to clean my screen here, having splerted out a mouth full of my early evening Gin & Tonic.

Now, are you seriously suggesting an amalgamation of E4U and L4U, are you tripping or what ? Do you think your suggestion would go down well with the likes of Granddad, if so, you might as well encourage your old mate on RS4U, (the one who seems to thinks the Algarve is somewhere on the Red Sea) to join too,.......and I wish you luck with that one.

No seriously LLL, you know it will not work, your side are quite friendly, Horus on this side often has to bring down the hammer. For myself, there are people on here who often pretend others don't exist, which is quite delightful really, though I must admit, I have for years never read a certain persons comments, though for sure, that person is still to realise that.

Anyhow, good luck with yer project, yer going to need it. :wi :wi :wi .
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by A-Four »

Go on Horus write it up, we don't often get a laugh on here
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