As mentioned earlier in the week on our forums, the upgrade is now taking place. This could take most of the day to complete, but it could be all over before in a matter of hours. The extent of the upgrade is far less intensive than that of 3.0 -> 3.2 and our databases have already been prepared for the upgrade earlier in the week, so hopefully the downtime will be minimal.
Timan has ported the current "Pegasus" theme to Invision Power Board 3.4.5, so for many there won"t be a very noticeable change except of course for a few more new options, and complete IE10 compatibility.
Noticeable changes to come are an overhaul of the warning system, we can now give standard reasons for warnings, although the note to the offender will always remain custom to the infraction. Members will also be required to "acknowledge" any warnings before they can post again. This helps our moderating team against members "going off on one" in multiple topics.
And finally there is an archive option built into IPB now. So we will be able to archive topics that haven"t been replied to for a year (this may change to a shorter period) this will definitely speed up the forums and SQL database, more info on that when the upgrade is completed.
Answers to FAQ
- Yes, Everything will be preserved (with exception to Blogs).
- There will be no Darkside theme initially, we are going to be updating the whole site with a new theme, a new Darkside will return. Maybe try f.lux?
- We don"t know how long the upgrade will take, or when the new themes will be completed (yet).
- As pointed out months ago, Blogs are being discontinued for subscribers. They will not be accessible after the upgrade.
- The default Pegasus theme is completed and will be used initially, it will be the only available theme.
- Yes, we will be using the "Solved" feature for all tech related forums.
We appreciate your patience while we upgrade, as long as the upgrade is taking place we will also not be able to publish any news due to SQL database management.
In the meantime the main news site will remain online as well as IRC; details on how you can connect to Neowin IRC can be viewed here.
If you have any questions relating to the upgrade, I"ll do my best to answer your questions below. I"ll also be tweeting to @NeowinFeed on our progress and when the forums come back online.
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