Violetstar
Up-and-Coming Sensation
Under no circumstances would I ever close my forum to do work on it, do some forums need to close if you're working on them? and what are your thoughts on this, does a closed forum put you off?
Closing for maintenance
- Thread starter Violetstar
- Start date
thedudeman
Seasoned Veteran
I do for upgrades. Nobody seems to mind.
No longer than an hour or two for upgrades. Maybe slightly longer if you have a lot of modifications.
Otherwise, there's no need to close the forum. I don't like seeing closed forums, especially if they're on free forum hosts... There's really no need for that.
Otherwise, there's no need to close the forum. I don't like seeing closed forums, especially if they're on free forum hosts... There's really no need for that.
Well, we rarely close the board here...last time we did I think it was when the Mood MOD was installed. The way I see it, there's nothing more frustrating (from a user's point of view) to visit your favourite forum and find it's offline...to come back a few hours later and see it's still unavailable.
Like Tecca, anything over a few hours is unreasonable. I was checking the forum of the month entries the other day and noticed in one particular case a forum that was "going offline Friday to Monday for maintenance". Is there really any need? I think not, and moreso, going offline for that long can and probably will damage activity.
Like Tecca, anything over a few hours is unreasonable. I was checking the forum of the month entries the other day and noticed in one particular case a forum that was "going offline Friday to Monday for maintenance". Is there really any need? I think not, and moreso, going offline for that long can and probably will damage activity.
I turn it off when installing mods or upgrading. I do belive as stated above users hate seeing a forum they love to be offline. But sometimes it just needs to be because they could get error messages, and users get confused.
I close my board a good once a year
I close my board a good once a year
CyberFreak
Legendary Typer
The last time i turned this forum offline was when we did the last phpBB update because it was a big update and things always tend to break during the upgrades anyway. Surprising for the last update, nothing actually went wrong.
I think that you could simply put a message in the header saying "Currently installing/updating things to the forum. Some things may not work" or something, and then install it. That way, they could continue to do what they want, but they would know that the forum was under maintenance.
I have a test forum; where i always test stuff their first, have everything mapped out; so i know exactly what needs to be added , and where.
So, I never have to close my forum down. Though, when adding things, there may be some things noticed by members as i am adding these updates and changes to the forum; but it's actually kinda fun when members notice the changes right away, and as they're happening on the forum.
So, I never have to close my forum down. Though, when adding things, there may be some things noticed by members as i am adding these updates and changes to the forum; but it's actually kinda fun when members notice the changes right away, and as they're happening on the forum.
Id only close if i really had to. Installing mods isn't much of a reason to close (unless they require alot of edits, or other complex things). Maybe even cleaning out some files in your FTP would be a good reason 🙂.
Re:
Well, I disagree with you slightly. The thing with installing MODs is that some call things from the database, and if the installation script is at the end of the MOD installation then the users will experience MySQL errors until the install script is run. Small things like that, and display issues. For example, if you make a mistake in one of the language files and accidentally delete a comma then the file is rendered useless. An example of this is when I accidentally deleted a "," in language/en/ucp.php and nobody to log in, log out, access the User CP or register.
Not something you really want on a live board :great:
Nathan said:
Well, I disagree with you slightly. The thing with installing MODs is that some call things from the database, and if the installation script is at the end of the MOD installation then the users will experience MySQL errors until the install script is run. Small things like that, and display issues. For example, if you make a mistake in one of the language files and accidentally delete a comma then the file is rendered useless. An example of this is when I accidentally deleted a "," in language/en/ucp.php and nobody to log in, log out, access the User CP or register.
Not something you really want on a live board :great:
RavenWings
Reputable
I've only ever done it for major overhauls and that's been very rare. I think I did that once on one forum, when I felt a lot of the code needed to be cleaned up and it needed a bit of a make over. Even then it wasn't for long. Only a few hours.
If there's anything major that I can put on my test forum first so all I have to do is copy it over onto the main forum, I'll do it that way.
I haven't had to deal with any sites I've joined going into maintenance mode for an extended period of time so don't know how I'd react to that.
It does seriously tick me off when an affiliate does it though and then stays in maintenance mode for weeks without informing their affiliates or putting a notice up on their site. I usually remove those people and if I'm in a mood I won't give them notice because I find it highly insulting seeing as I try to make an effort to alert affiliates that the forum is being closed for a short time.
And yeah... I think I'll end that tangent there 😳
If there's anything major that I can put on my test forum first so all I have to do is copy it over onto the main forum, I'll do it that way.
I haven't had to deal with any sites I've joined going into maintenance mode for an extended period of time so don't know how I'd react to that.
It does seriously tick me off when an affiliate does it though and then stays in maintenance mode for weeks without informing their affiliates or putting a notice up on their site. I usually remove those people and if I'm in a mood I won't give them notice because I find it highly insulting seeing as I try to make an effort to alert affiliates that the forum is being closed for a short time.
And yeah... I think I'll end that tangent there 😳
Affiliates
