The TLDR:
- The forum is on a new web host, and has been upgraded to the latest software
- The forum is also on a new domain, but only temporarily. I've redirected the .com to this site, but expect to reinstate it properly in the next week or so
- There are probably things that need fixing, but the important stuff appears to work OK
- Where the site is hosted and how we avoid these issues moving forward is still to be determined, but I think this latest outage will probably be a catalyst for positive changes
The Cause:
Our forum software (phpBB) hadn't been updated for a while so it was a bit behind the times. Then the web host (HostGator) upgraded the server to a newer version of PHP that was incompatible with the phpBB version we were running.
The Fix:
An upgrade to phpBB would've likely fixed it, but upgrading a forum that's already broken does add some complication. Also, given there had been previous issues with HostGator and there'd been talk of moving it anyway, I migrated the forum to a different web host.That host just happened to support using older PHP versions, so I was able to drop the version back down and get the forums working again, then perform the upgrades to the latest version of phpBB and also then upgrade the PHP version to the new version (same as HostGator did - except without breaking the site).
The Current Situation:
The migration and upgrade should've brought across all of our data, and I was able to get most of the custom functionality (lifter rankings, training log index, etc) working again. The main thing we've lost for now is our customised themes, because the theme engine seems to be slightly different in the new version of phpBB - but that's something we can work on moving forward.
The Future:
We have options now where we can move the site back to HostGator if we want to (no thanks) or a completely different host. Personally, I am inclined to leave it where it is for now and see how the performance is once everyone is using it again. But Marc still ultimately owns the forum and I'd like to leave that decision up to him (with input from Manveer and Matt and anyone else he feels worth listening to).
I'm happy to keep helping out with the admin side as it seems like there's a bit of a gap to fill, both in availability and maybe in skills, too. If they want me to, of course!
Realistically, I'd really like to see the site growing again - I feel like it has shrunk a fair bit since its peak - some people have left due to disagreements and changes in life priorities, but the outages over time have also contributed to the exodus from Exodus, as it were. Personally, I really like this place, there's been a lot of good content and discussion here over the years and I'd hate to see it die off completely - so I hope that with some changes we can start seeing more new people come in (and maybe some oldies come back).
Thanks for reading!