Sawatdee Network Update

[Surfcrest]

Members,

Could you please take the time to review your email address set to your membership here. I will be doing some bigger updates in the future that may require you to re-register to your existing membership to the updated site. It may also be necessary to shut the site down for up to 48 hours again (As we did in 2013) while I make some changes. I hope to be able to move the Board to a new platform finally and I'm anticipating some initial issues with some memberships. If you have any sentimental attachment with any of your PM's, I'm not sure at this point if they will transfer over. I still have quite a bit of tinkering to do before this happens, but I want you to be prepared to minimize post update issues.

Thank you,

Surfcrest

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y69/Surfcrest/repair_man.jpg

[Surfcrest]

Members,

Just another reminder, to ensure you have a valid email address registered with us. Go to your User Control Panel, choose the Edit Account Settings tab on the left side and review the email address you have on file with us. If you need to change it, please do so soon. I'm currently in the process of familiarizing myself with the new site and the new controls.

When we migrate to the new Board and software, your email address will come over but your password will not. You will need to re-set your password at the new site to get in and this re-set information will be sent to whatever valid email address you have on file here.

You will also need to re-load your avatar. I would really hope that if you don't have an avatar, you consider getting one for the new site. Please don't select one that has already been used by someone else. Don't worry about someone else stealing your user name at the new site, only you should be able to log in to you...with a valid email address.

If you are kommentariat, as I said...deleting you was an accident...please re-register and I will re-attach you to yourself. (Said Dr. Frankenstein)

Surfcrest

[Surfcrest]

Members,

I've had more inquiries about some members struggle to view the site, usually from a mobile device. If you log in and change your settings or browse using Chrome you should be able to see the site okay. I won't be fixing any issues with this current platform as I hope to move us over to the new platform very soon.

The new site will be fully viewable and looks much, much better than this bag of bolts we've been limping along on :)

Surfcrest

[Surfcrest]

Members,

It time for a final "last call" for you to update your email address so that you can access your same profile over at the new site once we move.

Go to the User Control Panel, Select the Profile tab and then choose Edit Account Settings

Once we shut down this site, you won't have the opportunity to do this again.

Thank you

Surfcrest

This thread is now unlocked for comments and concerns.

[Surfcrest]

Members,

We will be making the transition to the new site very shortly.
If we go offline, you can continue to receive updates on our Twitter page until we are back.
YOU probably will be directed to generate a new password at the new site once you arrive.
You can change that password to something you can remember once you are in and adjust your email address.

If you have any issue you`d like to raise before we get there surfcrest@hotmail.com

See you there!

Surfcrest

[Manforallseasons]

I know the two of you are Hell Bent on the board's reincarnation but I can't help think of the old adage " if it ain't broken don't fix it" obviously my commentt is too late, as if you would give a shlt one way or another.

[Moses]

it isn't broken, but is under huge security risk - software bridge which is btw wordpress (main news) and forum (phpBB) is very outdated and developer not supporting it many years already, at any time board (and news site) can be hacked quite easy... so it isn't question of old design, but question of security

[Manforallseasons]

I see, I'll just remember the way it was! https://youtu.be/72bPUXefB8c

[youtube:53ok6vmo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72bPUXefB8c[/youtube:53ok6vmo]

[Surfcrest]

I know the two of you are Hell Bent on the board's reincarnation but I can't help think of the old adage " if it ain't broken don't fix it" obviously my commentt is too late, as if you would give a shlt one way or another.
You are the same fellow who's been sending me many messages about the simple things you are struggling with MFAS? It is broke, that's why I haven't been able to fix the issues you've raised without doing this. I think you'll be very happy...or errrr happier.

Surfcrest

[Manforallseasons]

Surfcast.....https://youtu.be/anNEJJYLU8M

[youtube:1t684yec]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anNEJJYLU8M[/youtube:1t684yec]

[Moses]

New Front-end site with news is working already here http://sawatdeenetwork.com/sn/, we still are in process of adding some functions. This site will be also available by main URL sawatdeenetwork.com in few days. Old (yellow) front-end site will be closed soon. Questions, suggestions and bug reports are welcome :)

[Manforallseasons]

Is this film clip reminiscent of the current state of the Old board and the New board https://youtu.be/LnUIIlY2qpA
[youtube:2gchqvxf]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnUIIlY2qpA[/youtube:2gchqvxf]
BTW any U-Tube video that you may find on either board that says "Cannot Load" generally is loaded effortlessly.

[Smiles]

Just tried the 'new' board look. Thank god I managed to get back to good old Prosilver!
Frankly, if what I saw there -- the 'new' board -- is still in renovation mode ... great! Coz it's a true mess.
If what is there now is what the End Game looks like, sorry guys but I hate it.

[Manforallseasons]

Just tried the 'new' board look. Thank god I managed to get back to good old Prosilver!
Frankly, if what I saw there -- the 'new' board -- is still in renovation mode ... great! Coz it's a true mess.
If what is there now is what the End Game looks like, sorry guys but I hate it.

Smiles, I dont how you can say that 8-| after all the work the they have done? I sure a splash of color would help. If you move the pic up a bit there is a place to personalize it, any name come to mind?

[Smiles]

Don't get me wrong. As far as I know its still a work in progress, and I get that, and I get the hard work of transformation.
My comments -- were they that hard? -- are about the End Result being the same as the skeleton now living in the background. If not, great. If so, no like.
My opinion only ... as normal.

[Surfcrest]

What you were looking at was the new site's front end, where articles from our paid services, our partners and sites of interest go out as a beacon attracting readers to be. Once you click on the new green Forum tab, it takes you back to the existing Board on the old phpBB software, that we haven't changed to vBulletin yet.

One thing you might notice right off the bat, if you've spent anytime with the old front page, is that the tabs, widgets and buttons all work thanks to Moses. It's a similar base design as the old front page, except more functional and I am able now to link these front page articles to the other idea which we hope will grow the membership and that's our Twitter / Facebook pages. If you've looked at the Twitter site, you'll see a lot of "as it happens" news about what's going on in Thailand, where the deals are, where to avoid (traffic, demonstrations), the weather, flights...all sorts of good instant news if you're landing in Thailand and want to know what's happening right now. The Board, on the other hand, provides good information: what's going on at the bars and around each City in Thailand, but not always the information to get you where you are going. The same with our Facebook page, the idea is to populate that with more leisure information, eating, festivals, travels, photography, LGBT News...things to do once you've arrived or around town if you live here. The hope is that people will discover us in many different places and then chose whether to be part of the Board membership or not.

So the structure of the new front page is in place. We can do some design work on that structure, colours, placing things in different spots, adding things, subtracting things, if you plan on using the front page and have some specific suggestions for us to try. Simply saying that it sucks doesn't tell us much. The same is true with the new Board. It has been a tremendous amount of work by Moses to put the structure to move so much information, in categories from one place to another and have everything viewable in the different styles and page types for the browsers each of you use, both mobile and PC / Apple. Once we've married the two software's together again into a front page / forum combination and we switch over to the new Board, we can make adjustments to the colours and design appearance based on what the membership wants.

You can access this site now at the new front page from the http://sawatdeenetwork.com/sn/ from now on, the old front page still remains at http://sawatdeenetwork.com/ with the (We've moved sign) to guide traffic to the new page. The old page was barely functional and had Moses not stepped in to help when he did, it could have corrupted entirely. You know, if you've Googled sites that most people click off and out immediately when anything looks broken or not updated, on a site. So keeping this looking current and functional is a good step forward to attracting new Members.

We've got the core pieces to what the complete new site be and are now working on the complex step of joining them all together into a modern, integrated site.

This will allow everyone to see the site, no black pages, no browsers that don't work, better / more secure storage of attachments and files, "Like" buttons...so many of the issues we discussed as complaints with the current or old site. Moving to this new software was a necessity, simply to keep the site working and online.

I will start a new thread in the vBulletin Feedback Forum to capture specific suggestions, now that part of the site is viewable and the other part soon to be. The same with the Facebook and Twitter pages, if you have suggestions, please let me know! There's no need to Like us, or Share us or reTweet anything we post. Most of these articles will take you to other articles on other pages that have nothing to do with Sawatdee Network and readable based on your preferences. These are not designed to bring the social network to the Board, but rather to the site and to cross post articles from the front page to Facebook or Twitter and visa versa.

Surfcrest

[Moses]

I'v been started to backup attachments, next will be avatars. After that I will make "red" announcement and will start to backup forum.

At time of backup forum will be closed and open in about 30 minutes. Since that time new registrations, new post and topics will be NOT moved to new forum.

I have hope what all work: import, conversion, export to new database, setup new forum will take about 24-36 hours, but it can take up to 48 hours. If everything will be OK, then I will post new URL here.

At new forum you will must to request your NEW PASSWORD since it is not possible to convert your passwords - they are under strong cryptography for security reasons. Robot will send your password after request to your e-mail from profile. That why is so important to check e-mail in your profile on this forum.

Thank you for understanding and cooperation. I'm sorry for such mess :)

[Surfcrest]

Ill be available to help members get back online again, if anyone is experiencing any difficulties.
You can send me an email at surfcrest@hotmail.com, while the PM is offline.

See you all soon!

Surfcrest

[Moses]

Short update on transition: for now forum database is imported to my local server, converted and fixed. Now 5-th hour is going update of search index (part of database which is works when somebody make search by forum for some words or users). It is very time-consuming process). When it will be finished - I will import ready and converted database to real server online and will setup permissions and email server. After it we will add design and open forum for you.

Estimated time: in 6-8 hours. Thank you for your patience.

[Moses]

Upload of new forum to on-line server has been started

[Moses]

we have delay 8-16 hours: one or few viruses has been found in attachments and I need time to find and clean database...