May 24, 2018 at 9:09 am
We are beginning a project to redo the website in its entirety, with the exception of the forums. The forums are going to be upgraded to a newer version, but with limited changes and a few bug fixes. The reasons for this are:
1. Google is changing their ranking and mobile is a big priority. Redoing this site to run on mobile is hard.
2. We don't have a lot of in-house expertise on the code used for this site. As a result, we're moving to a platform that can get more support on. We'll actually move to WordPress on SQL Server, which means the articles/scripts/briefcase/questions stuff will change.
3. The forums are at a scale that most people don't see and we want to keep them. We are looking at a few minor changes, but mostly we are pressing InstantASP to update items. I've posted a few notes on their board, and feel free to chime in with others or add support for my items. (http://community.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum/General-Discussion)
I appreciate that some of you have grown used to the site and don't want things to change, but we need to evolve for the reasons listed above. Some of you might feel the look of the site is old and welcome something new. I hope you'll like our changes.
I don't know to what extent we'll have previews of the changes for feedback, but I'll post here if we do.
May 24, 2018 at 11:01 am
All the best in getting it done, Steve. If you need someone to do testing on versions of the site, count me in.
I expect that the new software won't have some of the many problems that plague the InstantASP forum software. I think if InstantASP would have listened to the feedback from the beta testers and then taken action on it, they wouldn't have introduced the "unadvertised features" with the newer version. Yes, I realize that the "new version isn't so new any more.
May 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Excellent news!!! Thanks for sharing Steve. Count me in on the list of people willing to help test (and break stuff) too.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
May 24, 2018 at 12:27 pm
We're not changing from InstantForum. Keep in mind that what you've seen as breakage, there are plenty of people that see improvements. We don't get to pick/choose specific features.
That being said, I've started to add suggestions on the InstantASP page. It looks like they're readying a 2018 version and it will have some features. We are looking to upgrade. I'd like to get 2018, but really, I want the upgrade done. If the 2017 upgrade (we're on 2016-2 or -3) is smooth, maybe we can do a second one this year.
The website work is going to be non-forum stuff. We need to comply with a mobile version, so we're moving to WordPress with some custom plugins.
May 24, 2018 at 4:27 pm
Project Nami - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/project-nami-wordpress-for-azure-sql-database-sql-server/
The WP stuff is fairly generic SQL. Andy Warren went through this a few years ago and put his WP blog on SQL Server, mostly because he didn't want to learn any MySQL. I don't mind, so I've run T-SQL Tuesday on MySQL, even migrated to Azure. I'm feeling a bit bad, and may move it.
In any case, our contracting company has done a few large WP installs on SQL Server, as well as looked at Umbraco, a SQL Server CMS. Ultimately their load testing shows WP on SQL to be better than Umbraco, and it's more mainstream, meaning more skills available for hire, and within the company. Simple Talk is on WP, so we decided consistency over other things.
May 29, 2018 at 1:48 am
Is tagging possibly an option, Steve? Only reason I ask is that for awhile after 2016 came out I didn't have access to it; thus I tended to pay little attention to the 2016 forums as I couldn't test (and there were a few new features like STRING_SPLIT in that one). If I can visually see (before opening a post) that the version of SQL is a version I (or whoever is reading the forums) don't have access to, it might make the experience a little better; especially if you can filter by them. 🙂
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
May 29, 2018 at 8:28 am
Tagging is an option. The InstantASP people use this internally in some things they do and the company has said (not promised), that the 2018 upgrade will allow tagging. I hope so, as I'd like to get at least version tagging for posts.
June 1, 2018 at 12:41 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Thursday, May 24, 2018 9:09 AMWe are beginning a project to redo the website in its entirety, with the exception of the forums. The forums are going to be upgraded to a newer version, but with limited changes and a few bug fixes. The reasons for this are:1. Google is changing their ranking and mobile is a big priority. Redoing this site to run on mobile is hard.
2. We don't have a lot of in-house expertise on the code used for this site. As a result, we're moving to a platform that can get more support on. We'll actually move to WordPress on SQL Server, which means the articles/scripts/briefcase/questions stuff will change.
3. The forums are at a scale that most people don't see and we want to keep them. We are looking at a few minor changes, but mostly we are pressing InstantASP to update items. I've posted a few notes on their board, and feel free to chime in with others or add support for my items. (http://community.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum/General-Discussion)I appreciate that some of you have grown used to the site and don't want things to change, but we need to evolve for the reasons listed above. Some of you might feel the look of the site is old and welcome something new. I hope you'll like our changes.
I don't know to what extent we'll have previews of the changes for feedback, but I'll post here if we do.
The last set of changes (so-called upgrade) has made me spend a lot less time on the site than I did before, The clearly stated "well, yes, that's wrong but we aren't going to fix it" approach(which I take to have been the company's view, not your personal view) to people's comments on the problems those changes introduced didnýt convince me anything good would happen. The inability to deal at a reasonable level with spam was a shock too.
Why should I expect the new changes to be an improvement rather than another disimprovement?
Tom
June 1, 2018 at 1:10 pm
TomThomson - Friday, June 1, 2018 12:41 PMSteve Jones - SSC Editor - Thursday, May 24, 2018 9:09 AMWe are beginning a project to redo the website in its entirety, with the exception of the forums. The forums are going to be upgraded to a newer version, but with limited changes and a few bug fixes. The reasons for this are:1. Google is changing their ranking and mobile is a big priority. Redoing this site to run on mobile is hard.
2. We don't have a lot of in-house expertise on the code used for this site. As a result, we're moving to a platform that can get more support on. We'll actually move to WordPress on SQL Server, which means the articles/scripts/briefcase/questions stuff will change.
3. The forums are at a scale that most people don't see and we want to keep them. We are looking at a few minor changes, but mostly we are pressing InstantASP to update items. I've posted a few notes on their board, and feel free to chime in with others or add support for my items. (http://community.instantasp.co.uk/InstantForum/General-Discussion)I appreciate that some of you have grown used to the site and don't want things to change, but we need to evolve for the reasons listed above. Some of you might feel the look of the site is old and welcome something new. I hope you'll like our changes.
I don't know to what extent we'll have previews of the changes for feedback, but I'll post here if we do.
The last set of changes (so-called upgrade) has made me spend a lot less time on the site than I did before, The clearly stated "well, yes, that's wrong but we aren't going to fix it" approach(which I take to have been the company's view, not your personal view) to people's comments on the problems those changes introduced didnýt convince me anything good would happen. The inability to deal at a reasonable level with spam was a shock too.
Why should I expect the new changes to be an improvement rather than another disimprovement?
Tom I agree that the last upgrade was anything but an improvement. I also have spent a lot less time around this site than I used to as a result. But if you expect it to be worse after the next round then you will likely get exactly what you expect. At least try to have a positive thought that it will be better. The upside is the site is still free!!!
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
June 4, 2018 at 2:27 am
You said that you're switching the WordPress Steve, how will that work with the existing articles? Will the old links become dead, or will they redirect/be retained? There's a few articles I reference quite a bit, especially with (newer) members of the team, and i imagine many others do as well. Would be disappointing to have to try and find them in the new site after the rebuild (especially if you can't find it).
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
June 4, 2018 at 3:02 am
We're going to map and redirect all existing articles, scripts, etc. Most links should just go through to the new URL.
Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply