CR:U Going Under Construction Beginning 9/11

[ZacFields]

As the title states, CR:U will be under construction starting 9/11 (This upcoming Tuesday). The conclusion of this construction will be the unveiling of Iowa Auto Forums!

Beginning sometime on Tuesday, I will be converting CR:U to a new software called PHPBB Olympus, which is the newest version of PHPBB. It has many similar features that we frequently enjoy on our own forums, but it is MUCH faster and less resource consuming.

After I've converted the site, I will be moving us over to our new server, which will cost approximately 12.5% of what we pay now for hosting, yet the site will probably be even faster than it is now!

You all need to know that the CR:U Garage will temporarily be down, but don't worry as it is a top priority after I've finished converting us to the Olympus software. Don't be surprised if the garage is not resurrected for at least a couple weeks after the move is complete.

That being said, we shouldn't lose much of anything in the move. Posts and user accounts should be kept, and your garage information probably will not be lost as long as I figure out a way to update it.

The idea is to be finished with this by Thursday 9/13, though the real completion date could be sooner or later than that. The forums may need to be closed for certain portions of this movebut we will make every attempt to keep them open for as much of this as possible.

Thanks everyone for your patience, and we will try to make this as painless as we can for you all. Once its all over, the site will look MUCH different.

Zac

[TbTalon94]

Sounds great Zac. Lookin forward to the change ;)

[DragonUSMC]

oh noz! i need to copy down all my stuff from the garage! just in case... i use it to keep track of all i've spent =(

[Luminatorz34]

so, the new server your moving us to costs less? as in, we will be able to keep the forum the way it is? im just remembering the server costs post a while ago, about you and ashley not wanting to fork the bill anymore

[Drifte]

is it possible for it to say ive been a member since 2003, since i have with CRU, but IAF hasnt been around that long. i dont wanna lose my elder status.

[ZacFields]

Colton, it will still say you've been around since 03. No worries in that department.

Luminator: We're moving down to shared hosting, which is what the site was on originally. However this particular software that we're using is not suitable for shared hosting because it uses too many resources. The pageloads would be something like 25-30 seconds per pageload and that wouldn't be any fun.

PHPBB Olympus is actually fairly similar to the software were running in a lot of ways. I think you guys will like it. It will run faster and should have most of the main features that we love about this software.

Zac

[DustinsDuster]

dammit; the timing kinda sucks for me. im having surgery done on my knee on monday, and if this site is down, i'll have one less placed to hang out on the computer.

oh well, i know its for a good cause, so im behind you Zac. keep us informed.

[NewSpeedSteed]

Wow, your really putting the "new" forum up fast. Glad to hear that, I'm sure we will all mis CR:U but the future looks bright. Plus I hope you have it done by 9/13. Its my B-day and that would be a pretty cool gift in my opinion.

[ZacFields]

hehe, well we just paid our $200 something for 3 months of hosting a couple weeks ago, and Spry hosting told me that if I stay within the company I can downgrade to a shared hosting package and use the remaining amount of what I paid a couple weeks ago to prepay the shared hosting account, which should pay for hosting for over a year.

However, I was doing the math the other day, and every 4 days that we leave it on this server removes an entire month of prepaid hosting on our new server. So I'm in a little bit of a rush to get it moved, but I figured I owed you guys at least as much to warn you in advance.

Dustin: I should be able to do this with minimum downtime. Like maybe a couple or 3 hours for most people while the DNS switches. And I plan to make that particular change in the middle of the night as possible. So for most people, you shouldn't notice any downtime if I do everything right.

I'm pretty good... but possibly not as good as I think :)

Zac