Bluelight Upgrade Updates

Is it not loading or not sending the email? What error are you getting?

Summary, all on TL.

• I've set ARIA as a top-level skin, and created a child of it which I've been working on.
  
• The home page is done, or at least as done as I can do right now. I'm still not happy the forums list is in a giant table (note to Reed et all: HTML tables are out, looked down upon, must go... I've replaced the Features section with a table-less version, the forums list is too big to do right now, I did manage to convert all the links to forums to the new format).
  
• Squeezed the news/announcements area down as much as possible
  
• Copied over the replacement variables from the old skin
  
• Removed vB's built in FAQs
  
• Turned off user profile features, all except 'friends'. Think this was just a TL thing
  
• Top nav: removed community from subnav and moved 'Friends and Contacts to 'Quick Links'
  
• Top nav: what's new; removed new group messages, articles and events
  

The last two items I kept falling asleep while doing.

Still more to go, obvious things like the banner. Not sure how to go about that really, does anyone know what font this image is using? Otherwise the remaining bits aren't big; the staff list is definitely going to have to wait as I just dont' have time to tackle it right now. There's also going to be quite a lot of broken links...

We're pretty close, at this point I'm ready to declare Testlight open for actual testing, in the next 24 hours, open it up to smods and (not sure if I can make this call) perhaps even mods. If people can test functionality as thoroughly as possible. Example:

• Broken links aren't urgent, depending on what they are, I've noticed quite a few that will have to be fixed up over time, please note them but if your mod thread or one of your most popular threads is missing, yes I need to know.
  
• Registration, lost password/activation email resend functionality. TL should be sending emails now
  
• Test warnings and reported posts, make sure emails are sent and threads are created in the right folder
  
• Even though the new URLs look a bit strange, existing links to threads should definitely still work, test paging on large threads and search engine results
  
• Links or text referring to groups/group messaging, calendar/events or any other functionality we know aren't previously part of BL.
  
• Test all the membership levels. Are GL'ers automatically promoted after an hour + 50 posts?, if you register but don't confirm your email, what can you see? What can BL'ers and Crew see? Can moderators warn outside their forum? Does the [MODTHREAD] tag not working expose any staff threads we need to have unapproved?
  
• Check the home page and rest of the site in various browsers, particularly IE 7+ and Safari.
  
• Check the site layout and home page in various screen sizes, there's a web developer toolbar for Firefox that will adjust your browser to the most popular screen resolutions.
  

I've got more stuff to do tomorrow but now is the time I need to know if I've missed something major because by this time tomorrow I will be deploying these changes to BL proper and getting ready to put the site back on.

Just drop a message here or email me with anything you find.

Thanks, hope you guys are ready to go back to work soon.

Anyone who cannot get into Testlight at all or are having problems: please describe the problem, do you get an error message, does it time out? Does it ask you for the authentication login?

lockthemout/letmein

Thanks,

My error message:
You have not entered an email address that we recognize. Please try again or contact the administrator.

I tried my other email addresses and with one of them (not my current one I'm using but my old one from a few years ago)
I get : The string you entered for the image verification did not match what was displayed.
( I am entering the right one. I have tried that about 15 times :\)

The email address for me SHOULD be: oceansboat@yahoo.com

I think it would be great to get the Smods and Mods in to be involved in getting things up to par before launch.
I'll be on again tonight- If I can get ahold of Chris, I'll get my password from him but if Hoptis can get me in, that'd be great.
I will be out of the house at least 12 hours tomorrow and the next day so I can be on in the evening and tonight.
So if I could get in tonight, that'd be best.

testlight.bluelight.ru = timed out, no screen (same for /vb and /home.php). I can ping it just fine, so wtf?

Same effect from PC or wireless laptop, IE or FF; though they are all going through my same router so maybe that's the problem. I'll have to check it's settings.

Google doesn't have any hits to which I can follow, and if I use http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/testlight.bluelight.ru that just goes blank and returns nothing, not even an error.

Fwiw, I *was* able to reach TL from my iPhone (3G, not home wireless router), it's showing a few wonkies (most notably, the footer covers up the bottom half of the forum jump pulldown). I also notices the postbit for BLOG count appears odd...non-conforming to what the other postbit counters are doing in terms of font or look or soemthing. Weird, minor, but annoying.



+++++++++++++++++++

Homepage and Navs can be work in progress - I suspect people would rather we be up than be pretty. Somewhere we'll draw a line the perfectionist will have to accept But for now, I'd say we get the smods in ASAP to help feel around. I wasn't keen on bringing in mods, as we can get overwhelmed with petty or repetitive 'wut' questions.....though, if we set a thread in TPH for everyone to start throwing in their questions, we build a guide for anyone else we bring into TL whilst we tune up. So, with that said, I can't reasonably object to having mods as well ASAP....I'll defer to hoptis on wanting that additional herd of feet and hands running around. Smods yes, mods....?

I just went to testlight and entered my email address then the reCaptcha code and got this message:

Invalid Redirect URL (https://brokelight.forumotion.com/t1p45-bluelight-upgrade-updates)

I then tried to log in and it said it was an invalid username/password.

Just wanted to check in with you guys and let you know my morning computer time was taken up this morning-
My brother called form Afghanistan and now I have to get dressed for work- Wanted to let everyone know I'd be off until I get home tonight at 830-9pm (it's about 8 am now).
Hopefully we'll be able to get into TL then.

ping takes me 125 ms, whereas going in the url to testlight.bluelight.ru or the IP that it gets pinged (93.189.134.5) still times out. This is on wireless from a restuarant, so it isn't necessarily my home connection. Oh, and this is on the work laptop, as opposed to home laptop (and PC), so it's a third device that can't get there from here.

On the iPhone, going via the wireless router at the eatery, timed out connection. Using 3G data carrier, prompts for lockthemout/letmein and accesses the site.

It might be my IP ranges are blocked, but I'm coming in on various carriers (Comcast from home land line, ATT for the 3G phone) I'd try from work (IP would come out of North Carolina or Sweden) but they've firewalled bluelight proper, and by extension TL, so I can't check that.

I'm really puzzled by some of these access issues.

Answer 1. Testlight was created from a backup of BL, that backup was made around 15 May 2010. More than a year ago now.

ocean: your email address was a different one then and you were just a lowly mod.

I've made you an administrator and changed your password to: oldsiteisold

Rosie: I just tried the same on TL with the email 'rosiewaz@gmail.com', no problem, you probably have an email with your new TL password now.

TLB: LOL I have NO IDEA, most likely some setting on your computers that is ignoring the authentication request on TL: do you get that little pop-up at all where it asks you for lockthemout/letmein?

Testing: At this point I have no objections to you guys opening TL up to everyone or anyone if it will help. As with ocean's issue before though, you will have to go to the control panel on TL (http://testlight.bluelight.ru/vb/goAdMin/) and update their staff status to reflect their same level on BL, hopefully you guys have excellent memories!

My only concern with mods is:

1. that they not be promoted to smods on TL as they might read something they're not supposed to, unless of course they have been promoted in the last year (like ocean was... twice )

2. where do they report issues to? This forum is setup for smod and admins and I would advise against posting anything on TL that you want to keep. After the upgrade is over I intend to delete TL and replace it with a copy of BL again.

Any more access issues, I or another admin should be able to help you with.

Oh and importantly: when you find a problem, please give me some details as to how to reproduce it and the URL. Please don't just say something like "Testlight skin isn't working" or "The broken bit is broken". Sorry for the crash course in software testing 101 but you're my only guinea pigs for now.

UPDATE: things are taking a little longer than we expected.

Should be back by saturday.

hoptis wrote:TLB: LOL I have NO IDEA, most likely some setting on your computers that is ignoring the authentication request on TL: do you get that little pop-up at all where it asks you for lockthemout/letmein?

Testing: At this point I have no objections to you guys opening TL up to everyone or anyone if it will help. As with ocean's issue before though, you will have to go to the control panel on TL (http://testlight.bluelight.ru/vb/goAdMin/) and update their staff status to reflect their same level on BL, hopefully you guys have excellent memories!

My only concern with mods is:

1. that they not be promoted to smods on TL as they might read something they're not supposed to, unless of course they have been promoted in the last year (like ocean was... twice )

2. where do they report issues to? This forum is setup for smod and admins and I would advise against posting anything on TL that you want to keep. After the upgrade is over I intend to delete TL and replace it with a copy of BL again.

Only time I've ever gotten to the lockthemout/letmein prompt is on phone's data connection - no computers (3 of them, thru various routers, with diff browsers, and a few less gray hairs). :p We'll see what else I can dream up to make this shit work.

SUPPORT on TL should be available to whomever we let know about it, correct? Admin with access, please confirm the following - Only Staff can access TPH, only Sr. Staff can access SS (I know ocean said they 'look good' but I don't know if that is appearance, function, or permission wise). Once we know the sensitive forums are locked down proper, we can share the word with MODS ONLY by giving them the link to TL and reminding them it is STAFF ONLY at this point (also point out, as hoptis says, it's from a year ago, so some of them will need their account fixed upon entering).

Set up an ISSUES THREAD in the TL version of SUPPORT (better than TPH for those who don't get permissions fixed to mod level quick enough). Use that to collect the "Testing 101" problems they find. With the right help, we'll come out of the around this weekend with a good majority of issues ironed out, and a head start on teaching current staff the new system.

Once hoptis reaches a point of being ready to wipe TL and start anew, we can copy the ISSUES THREAD content into the BL Proper TPH forum for continued bug fixing. We can't copy or move the actual thread, but we can get all the relevant comments into a summary and post them. That way other staff coming in will have something to get up to speed with/from/on/preposition_at_the_end_OMG.

Actually, that may not be necessary. I think myself and Chris are pretty happy with the site and functionality. The one thing I have to do today is a new logo. If the rest of you are okay with the site as it stands (given that Reed hasn't seen it yet. Reed; please read your emails, I think we've resolved the access issues for you, please try again).

If there aren't any complaints in the next 24 hours, I don't see why I shouldn't start copying the changes to BL and ready ourselves to go back online.

The outstanding issues are - for me - not show stoppers. Little things here and there that will need to be fixed up (oh reminder, I have to add back the [MODTHREAD] code too) but sensitive forums are secure, signup/registration is working, we're not missing every post since 2004, etc etc.

Objections, comments?

I have a job interview to go to now, back later.

Fucking A

Read the emails, AFTER I finally got in. Yippe-Ki-Yay m'fer!

Good luck on the interview, I have one tomorrow

Before letting mods in, I'd get the MODTHREAD hack back in there, never know what mods have been discussing other mods in their forum modthread, and it'd be poor to have anyone find out they've been under discussion that way.

TLB wrote:

Fwiw, I *was* able to reach TL from my iPhone (3G, not home wireless router), it's showing a few wonkies (most notably, the footer covers up the bottom half of the forum jump pulldown). I also notices the postbit for BLOG count appears odd...non-conforming to what the other postbit counters are doing in terms of font or look or soemthing. Weird, minor, but annoying

The pulldown issue I mentioned, appears that it's now a scroll-able pulldown, which I don't think it used to be....but anyways, that's what it is now, and I couldn't see or notice that on the teeny tiny iphone screen so yeah, consider that operator error.

On the BLOG postbit counter, it's because the number is a link to the blogs...hence the different 'look' to them. They're actually blue in this skin, so it also sets it aside from the other 'static' data in the postbit.

Both counts, non-issue in my book. Now on to plunder and pillage TL with reckless abandon.

Okay, I'm in . Thanks

Blogs still does not have the Blogs Guidelines or the Mods listed.
Not sure how to do this in Blogs.

Do you want us to list things like- Sigline option is available, I like the video option rather than the link, edits seem to work well and as normal, BLUA at the bottom of pages is missing......??
Or are you wanting more technical things?


Things look good really. I've just barely played around, editing, starting a new thread, using the moderation tools to see if things would work as normal and it seems it all works fine.
I'm off until 3pm on Friday and then off on Saturday so I will probably be on all day those days.
And on tomorrow night.
I'll still be around a bit tonight.
I'll keep looking around TL.

Where are we on letting Smods in?
I'll check the Smod forum to see if anything has been mentioned there-
How do we do permissions? Through the Admin CP as normal?
Adding our mods in won't effect much will it or do we want to let Smods in now and then let Mods know what's going on and start a thread in TPH on functions and issues, once the site is brought up?

What date are we currently looking at for getting it back on?

The new logo is up on TL, hopefully we'll be able to use it in a many other variations in the future. Spent a few hours on that alone.

TLB wrote:Before letting mods in, I'd get the MODTHREAD hack back in there, never know what mods have been discussing other mods in their forum modthread, and it'd be poor to have anyone find out they've been under discussion that way.

Look at that one tonight.

ocean wrote:
Blogs still does not have the Blogs Guidelines or the Mods listed.
Not sure how to do this in Blogs.

I would just keep a list of these, and I'll start going through them when the site goes back online, or try and get to it before. I have a copy of the old site so I can refer to that because I can't remember where we posted the Blogs Guidelines... yes it's important but I wouldn't call it urgent enough to keep the site offline?

ocean wrote:
Do you want us to list things like- Sigline option is available, I like the video option rather than the link, edits seem to work well and as normal, BLUA at the bottom of pages is missing......??
Or are you wanting more technical things?

Functional and technical, keep your own lists for now, when BL proper is back I'll make a thread in TPH I can slave through slowly. Didn't know video was turned on or sigs were available.... have you tested with other usergorups? Or just logged in as yourself because admins have pretty much all permissions.

BLUA link: will try and get that tonight too. *scribbles*

ocean wrote:
Where are we on letting Smods in?
I'll check the Smod forum to see if anything has been mentioned there-
How do we do permissions? Through the Admin CP as normal?

I already got doko to fix up the smod list on TL so it matches BL yesterday, don't see why they shouldn't have access immediately, can someone update them? Just copy giant slabs of my words out of this thread if you want to explain things quickly to them.

ocean wrote:
Adding our mods in won't effect much will it or do we want to let Smods in now and then let Mods know what's going on and start a thread in TPH on functions and issues, once the site is brought up?

Umm... we should decide as a group when the site is ready to go back online, but it's now been a week. Chris posted a Twitter update saying Saturday now... and I've said in my last post that I'm mostly happy (maybe one or two more things that would be urgent/immediate attention). If you want to get smods/mods going through I need someone else to pick up that ball. I think you should all find as much time as you can ASAP to go through TL and report back your opinion of it's overall readiness. Remember that I will still need some time, 3/4 hours to copy these changes to BL before re-opening the site.

PS. Chris also updated both sites to the new security patch, 4.1.4 PL2. Thanks dude

BLUA link - if you get to it, fine, otherwise I can knock it out pretty quick tonight. I'd ask if you have more important issues to address first, since others (me) can do this.

I do know we have some usergroup-forum permissions still screwy, specifically unregistered persons. I'll run thru those tonight - validate ALL usergroups across ALL forums, since I recall pretty well what each ought to be. I know others have looked at this to some degree, but one more set of eyes won't hurt.

I've thrown a link to the smods, hopefully they'll start helping out. I'm thinking late Friday (approx) we ought to be able to send word out to mods (AIM, email, whatever) to come check things out and get their feet wet. I'm expecting by SAT (US time, SUN for AUS), or SUN-MON at the latest, we ought to be able to go live to the public. Once I can use tonight and tomorrow night to run thru TL, I can come back with what I think ought be tidied before live public launch, and I expect it will be minimal so we can hit this weekend. Of course, anyone else seeing significant uh-ohs can speak up...we need to catch all we can.

TLB wrote:BLUA link - if you get to it, fine, otherwise I can knock it out pretty quick tonight. I'd ask if you have more important issues to address first, since others (me) can do this.

I do know we have some usergroup-forum permissions still screwy, specifically unregistered persons. I'll run thru those tonight - validate ALL usergroups across ALL forums, since I recall pretty well what each ought to be. I know others have looked at this to some degree, but one more set of eyes won't hurt.

More important? Not that I can see but I'll see what I can get going this evening.

One of the first things I checked was Unregistered Users but I'm sure that security hole is long gone. I'm going to ASSUME that things like Reported Posts and Warnings work the same as they did and that one or more of you have tested those type of things.

Couple things I just noticed:

-Embedded videos are allowed.

-The automatic ban point system isn't what we're using right now, I believe it has the original setup we eventually modified. i.e. 5 points yields the first ban, instead of 3.

-Delete posts as spam does not allow the deletion of all posts. The option doesn't come up.

Thank you phrozen.

Number 2 and 3 have to be fixed, as a matter of urgency.

Number 1: what do we want? It's been raised before, we've always knocked it down because it can get quite ugly frankly, especially with the Lounge rats. I don't see that it adds a huge HR value to the site, nor will it be used for those purposes.

That doesn't mean it doesn't have a place here... lol, I can control myself but some people won't.

Let me know...

I'm fine with allowing the videos if it doesn't affect server performance.

Can we combine them with nsfw tags? By that I mean it'll automatically put all the videos, when someone clicks the video button, under nsfw tags? Yeah you could get around it manually, but I think it would aesthetically help a little. Thoughts?

I have quite a few items to do but I'm just pooped, insanely tired, need sleep.

More tomorrow.

Uueeerrghhh... <3

Personally, I'd say keep the videos off BL for now, but we can leave them available on TL. Give a bit of time for the dust to settle, then open up TL for staff to evaluate the impact of it and if we want to unleash it to the public, and in what capacity (I'd say hell f'n NO on sigs, just my .02; but would consider it in dedicated threads, or specific forums).

On the point system, I think the SUPPORT and other staff threads where it was fleshed out are not in the current TL version of the db, so we'd be from scratch a bit - but I recall it pretty well from memory and it wouldn't be hard for me to address. Anyone gets to it first, fine; otherwise, I'll do it tonight now that I have time and access

Delete spam ... dunno, I'd have to learn that one. If I get to it tonight, wunderbar...but no promises.

Sick kid, family didn't depart, I'm not getting much time tonight. Sorry.

Verified working as planned:

• ALL usergroup's forum visibility is correct, and [modthreads] are hidden - didn't check "supermoderator"...can't we kill that, or is it part of vB?
  
• ACP-> vB Options -> User Registration Options = appear correct (default is to NOT subscribe)
  
• ACP-> vB Options -> User Banning Options = banned IP ranges and silenced members intact!
  
• ACP -> vB Options -> Facebook options ....new, have to see what it is. Should be off initially? = IS off initially..derrr

Fixed:

• Unregistered/Logged_Out weren't able to post in SUPPORT, now they can (ANON was correct)
  
• Forums were set to 'show all threads' as default awhile back, but TL is showing a mix of 'last day' 'last month' 'show all'. I've set ALL forums to show ALL (this can be up for debate, given the associated server load...but I've set them all to 'show all' for now.
  
• Infraction system restored as best I can recall (threads on the subject were 'in process' at time of this db save, so we don't know final decision settings until we get back into BL proper, but this should be close enough for us until we get the site accessible again).

Must Fix:

• Could not create a new account via ACP "Add User" - gave SQL error?
  
• "Contact Us" in footer goes straight to stripped down email submission, rather than our staff listing (preferred, but I know that requires some rebuilding) or the paragraphed version we had which outlined self-help links and the disclaimer we don't answer bullshit or things you can do for yourself (pwd reset, won't delete accounts, etc)

Minor Annoyances:

• Quick Reply Box is below forum jump, has it always been there or between thread action pulldown and forum jump?
  
• Quick Reply Box has two checkboxes - one is show sig (wasn't an option, just did it), and one is to reload page after reply (why is this offered, rather than the default action?)
  
• Remove "Gallery Mod" usergroup?
  
• Remove "Donor" usergroup until proven out on TL at a later date?
  
• Temp Banned get "You are banned" message for unreachable forums (TPH)...should be "You don't have permission" just like they normally get? It *is* allowing them full view of the site, but not the ability to do anything (including post in SUPPORT or ANON, which is correct). Fully Banned get the "You are banned" message on everything, they can't see or do shit, as it should be.
  
• Forum Jump is hugging the nutsack for the pages in a forum...ought to have a gap of separation?
  
• WTF is "vBCms Comments"?
  
• I saw several posts with an avatar shown, and several with "Tathra's Avatar" text in place of their avatar image. I think I also saw a setting about showing avatars once per page or thread (UserCP?)...for consistency we ought find where it can be set to show the avatar always if one exists.

Not Checked:

• BLUA link back in footer (I see it *is* in the replacement variables still ... is wiki back? )

Even with all that as I just laid it out, I'd be good to go live, tbph. We can give smods-mods a few days, or just turn the site back on (with hoptie copying the settings from TL to BL), IMO.