Major Update to the OrchidTalk Forum

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Hello members and guests:

We have been working behind the scenes to enhance the OrchidTalk community's software and have come to the point where we are now able to move forward with the update.

This update will require us to be offline for anywhere between 6 and 10 hours. We will work as fast as possible to get the forum back online, but as this is a complete overhaul of the software we use, we may run into some unexpected bumps along the way. We have tested this update with a full backup of this site and have found it to work, but a testing environment is very different from a live site. Please bear with us as we move through this update.

I highly encourage all members and guests to download and install the firefox web browser. The new site functions very well with this web browser. We have tested IE 7 and 8, and though they seem to work, there are a few issues with styling.

IE 6 and before are end of life and will not function on the new software. A very small percentage of our members and guest still use IE 6 and you are requested to upgrade to at least IE 7.

During the update, which should start around 1:00 pm CST today, Jan. 17, you may experience a white page while the software is transferred and the database is upgraded. That page should only last a little while during the upgrade and for most visitors and members, you will see the header page with a "We are Upgrading message".

I will do my best to update everyone via facebook and twitter as we progress, but due to the nature of the updates, I may not be able to communicate as often as I would like.

Okay, that all said, once we go live again, several features may not work as normal and some links may not work at all. Please, please give us time to get things going again. I will start a thread in this section that will allow you to post bugs and issues once we are live.

I am very excited to bring you this new update. We have been working on this over one year now and feel we are at a point were we can go live.

Wish us good luck.

Cheers,
BD

[Brutal_Dreamer]

We just finished the update, but have lots of tweaking to do to many of the areas of the site. Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions.

Cheers,
BD

[Daethen]

Wow, totally new look!! Took a minute to find some of the buttons but all is good so far.

[rich63]

I'm one of those people who doesn't like change. But I have to say it looks great and no issues from what I can see. Thanks, Rich

[orchid-man]

As I had just done an update for my video card I thought that I was seeing things - Love it

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Thanks for the feedback!

Cheers,
BD

[delphiguy]

the new site is awesome thanks BD for the hard work of maintaining this site.

[orchid-man]

One question BD

The little sayings that pop up when we put the pointer over the green bars under our user name.Where are they derived from.
Under mine it says that I have a 'spectacular aura'

A very good friend on mine has told me of another photo that I placed on the web that has aura,so I am intrigued

[EMos]

Really like the new look of the forum Bruce, everything's working fine for me. Congratulations for all the hard work.

[catttan]

Felt a bit disoriented in the beginning but like it now. Thanks BD for all the hard work.