Somersoft upgraded

Discussion in 'News & Announcements' started by Simon Hampel, 27th May, 2020.

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  1. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

    Joined:
    3rd Jun, 2015
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    Sydney
    I've just completed the upgrade of Somersoft to the latest version of the forum software, XenForo v2.1: Somersoft Property Investment Forums

    When Somersoft was archived in mid-2015 we were running vBulletin v3.8 forum software, which was already quite a few years old at that time and had known software vulnerabilities. We really couldn't leave it running on such old software.

    In May 2016, I migrated the site to XenForo v1.5 to get it on a more modern platform (the same we ran PropertyChat on) which would make it easier to maintain and also make it more compatible with modern programming languages and operating systems. It's been running well on that platform for the last 4 years.

    For the past few years I've been preparing to upgrade PropertyChat from v1.5 to the new version 2.x platform, which is a major upgrade requiring a complete re-write of all my many customisations that make running PropertyChat possible. My goal has been to have PropertyChat upgraded by the end of June this year - although I'm not sure how achievable that will be yet, since many of my plans have been thrown into disarray due to COVID-19. I am hopeful I can still reach that goal though.

    I've finally reached the point where I can upgrade Somersoft because its requirements are much simpler than PropertyChat - not having users to manage makes it far easier to administer!

    It's also been a useful exercise as a practice run for when I do upgrade PropertyChat - I've learned a lot about how things are going to work and what to watch out for.

    So have a look around and let me know what you think. It should work really well on mobile devices - the navigation has been optimised for mobile and is far more advanced than the current version we run here. If you find anything which doesn't seem to work as expected, please do let me know!

    Just a word of caution though - while Somersoft is now running the software we aim to have PropertyChat on soon, be aware that the site is optimised for guest viewing rather than members. As such, many features you might normally see on a forum site are hidden or removed to simplify the browsing experience on the archived Somersoft website. The upgraded PropertyChat will have a lot more functionality than you can see on Somersoft.
     
    Simon Hampel, 27th May, 2020
    #1
    The Falcon, Cousinit, Coffee and 4 others like this.
  2. devank

    devank Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
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    1,670
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    Inner West - Sydney
    I kinda miss the SS community. Maybe, it's like how we feel about our old school days :)

    Funnily enough, this was my first post at SS
    upload_2020-5-28_0-26-39.png
    and this is my last post here
    upload_2020-5-28_0-27-29.png
    Both for an 'Aunt' :)

    It's amazing you manage to run this forum so smoothly Sims. Thank you.
     
    devank, 28th May, 2020
    #2
    Optimus, Burramys, Simon Hampel and 3 others like this.
  3. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    I can't properly comment as I haven't checked out your Somersoft upgrade with any depth but I love how Propertychat works. It intuitively does everything I want, no frustrations, easy to use.
    Somersoft wasn't terrible, but this software is better, I mainly see it in the ease to use this forum on mobile devices and with uploading images. Maybe the only thing missing now that I can think of is uploading videos to this site, but on the other hand allowing that would just use up too much server space, and this isn't facebook :)
     
    Gockie, 28th May, 2020
    #3
  4. Baker

    Baker Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    @Simon Hampel

    Hi Simon,

    I'm tediously going through all my online accounts and deleting or upgrading my passwords with a password manager (well overdue). I attempted to access the old Somersoft forum to change that password - a weak and reused one that really needs to be fixed - and note this not possible.

    Are our old user details (passwords) safe / able to be purged / be changed?
     
    Baker, 24th Jan, 2023
    #4
  5. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    All user accounts on Somersoft have been disabled and passwords removed from the database.
     
    Simon Hampel, 25th Jan, 2023
    #5
    Baker likes this.
  6. Baker

    Baker Well-Known Member

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    Cheers Simon, great to know.
     
    Baker, 25th Jan, 2023
    #6
  7. Andrew Allen

    Andrew Allen Well-Known Member Business Member

    Joined:
    20th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    369
    Location:
    Brisbane
    Still a wonderful resource decades later :)
     
    Andrew Allen, 25th Jan, 2023
    #7
  8. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    Sydney or NSW or Australia
    Most of the visitors to the site are bots.
     
    Scott No Mates, 25th Jan, 2023
    #8
  9. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

    Joined:
    3rd Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    12,414
    Location:
    Sydney
    Still lots of valid users each month visiting the site. Nowhere near as many as when the forums were active - but the site is still being used.

    upload_2023-1-25_17-36-9.png
     
    Simon Hampel, 25th Jan, 2023
    #9
    SeafordSunshine likes this.
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