Sad Update

[gracie920101]

I check every so often to see if we will ever be able to update our profiles and I'm sad to see we, the users of the forum, are at the bottom of Lit's list. I understand this is a massive site using volunteers but...wow! I just read the following update and it's kind of painful.

"The simple fact is that the forum is the least important part of this website. Every other part of it is more important, and is undergoing a massive overhaul. The forum doesn't even generate a blip on the traffic coming to the website.

The ability to edit profiles was indeed disabled on purpose, because one of the major infrastructure changes caused a conflict in the linking between the forum profile and the website profile. It was causing a cascade of problems when anyone edited their profile from the forum. This was brought up at the time, though I haven't been able to dig back up the post.

Granted, it could have been more elegantly handled with an explanatory page, rather than redirecting to the login, but...

It's not a simple fix, or it would have already been done. Manu said as much after looking into the problem at the time. It's a time sink.

This version of the forum software is also slated to be replaced. So, in addition to being the least important part of the website, it is also destined for the scrap heap. Fixing the problems with software that is going straight in the garbage as soon as the important parts of the site have been updated is beyond a waste of time. The time is better spent updating the parts of the website that most of the visitors care about. The bridge between the forum and the website can be build from the ground up, in new, modern software, accounting for the new infrastructure from the get-go, rather than trying to find the problem in a mish-mash of code designed to work on infrastructure no longer in place.

Literotica is attempting to modernize a website that was running on a database twenty years old, with code that's been edited and tweaked umpteen times during that period. They're doing so with a skeleton crew, because this website is a labor of love, provided for free, with the bare minimum of advertisements, and no big adult ad agencies that are prone to malware injection.

Give them a chance to get the important work done, and think about how important a single feature of some outdated software in the least visited part of the website really is in light of that. "

I think the entire site is awesome especially after learning how old the system is. I just hope we don't lose a lot of data when they do decide to update the forum software.

 

[HarperValley]

wow - there's a shocker!

We have got used to using signature for info but it's sad that this attitude prevails. I appreciate, as you do, that this is completely free and the volunteers do a great job in general -but being at the bottom of the pile hurts.

I'm also wondering if the Porn Block coming into operation in July in the UK will affect Lit - anyone know?

 

[KamaKamaSutra]

Am I reading this correctly that eventually the forums will be scrapped entirely? With the possibility of a new forum format? While, I wouldn't mind a update to the system, I fear that if they look at the forums this way that it might not be worth the time to bother recreating it?

 

[gracie920101]

Who knows?

The way I interpret this, the forum is on the bottom of the list for overhaul since we don't generate the traffic that the rest of the site does. I understand using obsolete hardware and software and keeping fingers crossed against any failures so I know this is a much needed upgrade.

When they do finally get to updating the forum, it will mostly likely have a completely different look and feel. I just hope they don't scrap the current threads as they contain a wealth of information if one is willing to look.

 

[AnnieLit]

Oops ((
Recreating the forum structure is easy, I am sure they will be able to do that. Keeping the current data...that's different story and there is a good chance that all old posts might be lost.

To me this sais that it's time to figure out where and how we can back this up before it is too late. And since the top is not really intetested in our little corner of the Lit world, we better do it on our own.

I will look at what is available... Dreamwidth is the first thing that comes to mind, but I don't think it will be possible to do an automatic dump... Time to do a call for comp. people?

And I only started to be comfortable here ((

 

[KamaKamaSutra]

I've started backing up my threads and I've always saved interesting and informative post. We can re set up once it happens. Just some work. Just be interesting if they maintain the user information or if the new format will require new accounts?

 

[AnnieLit]

Just be interesting if they maintain the user information or if the new format will require new accounts?

Current DB accounts are the same as for the main site, only profiles are different. So unless they drop everybody off the main site (not likely to happen) logins, passwords, and associated e-mails should stay the same.

 

[KamaKamaSutra]

Current DB accounts are the same as for the main site, only profiles are different. So unless they drop everybody off the main site (not likely to happen) logins, passwords, and associated e-mails should stay the same.

Well that will be a big plus. Hopefully bit goes smoothly and doesn't cause too much havoc.