With the recent release of MyBB 1.8.16 reports are coming in of various bugs and template changes affecting with all themes.
Us too here has been affected as I upgraded as soon as it came out and was awake.
So this is requiring me to do a State of Address to publicly address this issue and our stance on things.
I am also going to explain some thoughts about us upgrading, MyBB, QA, polish and other things about running forums etc and ways everyone can get better and benefit.
We know that MyBB 1.9 is meant to break everything theme wise, but everyone was and is expecting the current 1.8.xx branch versions to be non or minor breaking changes and fixes.
We also expected a documented list of template changed codes that were needed to bring out running theme templates up to the new point release standard.
MyBB staff are currently reviewing the release of 1.8.16 and what happened with lack of feedback etc and will be releasing 1.8.17 within the week to fix the extra bugs and will be changing some procedures in how future versions are managed with being rolled out
What has happened from the public statements I read in in response to my inquiries etc was MyBB didn't have enough testers for this version nor did anyone tell them any of these bugs were going on, so they pushed the update live feeling it was adequate for most users without knowing the true impacts of what was going on.
Instead what happened was a range of bugs and changes that has impacted most users from login issues, missing icons, thread closed message and icon, extra comma in index, report function broken and others.
Please note that no-one is to specifically blame here for these issues, its a combination of many things that has caused this to happen.
Also please no bullying or putting the developers down at MyBB, its not nice or called for , do not vent your frustrations out at them turn your frustrations into positive reinforcement and constructive thoughts about future change.
The combination I can see that has caused these issues are:
The way it can be mitigated in future releases could consist of a range of things not just limited to this list:
There is no point saying you have been butthurt etc over this it doesn't help anyone.
We need to make lists of positive reinforcement and let them know what we expect as users as well as to help them improve themselves for us.
While we don't owe each other anything technically, we have a obligation as MyBB users to ensure that MyBB is run in a safe happy, positive, environment and that we advise them wherever we can on customer relation and process improvements,
They are building this forum software for us as users and community leaders, and as such we owe it to them to be those leaders to voice and express our communities desires, wants, needs and to encourage them whenever we can.
Remember we wouldn't have our communities without the forum software whether its SMF. PHPBB, Xenforo, Invasion, Vanilla etc etc.
My views on who should be running a forum:
There has also been discussions that users should not need to know coding to run forum software.
In my view forum software is directly a web based service so in order to run a web based service you need some understanding of web based administration.
No you don't need to be a systems level coder or anything but you need enough knowledge about how web sites, scripts and even how the web servers themselves are run and managed and to be able to diagnose and fix basic and common sense minor code change issues that pop up based on browser, os and other changes.
If you don't know how to run and manage a web service or have any understanding on how web servers are run, setup and maintained then running a forum isn't the way to go and you should hire or partner with someone who does know about administration of web based services and servers.
It's the same policy as if you were trying to run a kitchen serving food to customers but had no cooking or kitchen management skills.
Just because one is passionate enough shouldn't mean they should run something.
Likewise don't put a beer fan or drunk with no management or drink creating skills in charge of a brewery as the saying goes.
I am fine if people are passionate and want to create their own community, but in order to do so you need someone that can administrator and maintain the platform and services.
You also need to ask yourself why you want to create a community in the first place and what you personally are going to get out of it for yourself and how you are going to manage and maintain your community.
If you can't run or manage something yourself, then get someone else to do it for you or look for alternative platforms etc.
Forum software is web based and you need someone that can manage, administer, diagnose and fix web based services and if you are hosting yourself you also need to know server, email and other types of management.
Remember our communities rely and expect us to have and grow the skills required to keep the services they use running smoothly from the forums, email, server and its running processes itself and other things like keeping regular backups, security of their personal and other information and many other things.
We are administrators as as such we need to administer and maintain the services our communities use.
If you want to run to run a community and don't have basic web and management skills as mentioned you need to get someone who can do that stuff, because if something breaks on your end or there is a conflict like PHP, MYSQL, apache version, port forwarding, email server, backup or even server OS and hardware issues, it needs to be fixed and is out the realm of the forum software as that is your priority to fix in a timely manner to avoid downtime and other issues.
You are the one that needs to fix that stuff for your community, clients etc.
Aslo with social media facebook, google+, discord and many others it's far easier than it ever has been to run a community with no web knowledge as they are premade multi group and purpose platforms managed by proper companies , Google, Facebook etc that have their own web management teams who work 24/7 keeping those platforms up.
What about us?
As for our community as we are still young and no-one really comes here yet It is ok to update and see whats what.
In the past I ran a Minecraft community and waited on updates as we had over forty, third party plugins yet I was screamed at that we should update not wait a week.
With what's happened with MyBB 1.8.16 these are the exact reasons why I never jumped to update before on production servers as a update can break your server and ways you do things.
For here I am trying to take a more laid back open approach where we can have the opportunity to update as to new security and other versions quickly.
I also want this community to grow with us where we go through the ups and downs together so the ongoing work is very open here for now for us to grow and work on building this community together.
Though in saying that I have toyed with the idea of a dedicated testing and update server which can be rolled out with a new update before we apply it here to diagnose and detect any issues.
However with the current bugged theme and limited member numbers that isn't worth it at this stage, as such as we aren't exactly at that level of stability as it is.
However once and if we do get to that level of stability and have a decent user base I will be implementing a proper separate update and test forum install, I currently have a development test install I was using before we went live with this forum which needs to be redone as is.
I will be making some minor changes to the back end and ways I look at implementing updates in the future.
Us too here has been affected as I upgraded as soon as it came out and was awake.
So this is requiring me to do a State of Address to publicly address this issue and our stance on things.
I am also going to explain some thoughts about us upgrading, MyBB, QA, polish and other things about running forums etc and ways everyone can get better and benefit.
We know that MyBB 1.9 is meant to break everything theme wise, but everyone was and is expecting the current 1.8.xx branch versions to be non or minor breaking changes and fixes.
We also expected a documented list of template changed codes that were needed to bring out running theme templates up to the new point release standard.
MyBB staff are currently reviewing the release of 1.8.16 and what happened with lack of feedback etc and will be releasing 1.8.17 within the week to fix the extra bugs and will be changing some procedures in how future versions are managed with being rolled out
What has happened from the public statements I read in in response to my inquiries etc was MyBB didn't have enough testers for this version nor did anyone tell them any of these bugs were going on, so they pushed the update live feeling it was adequate for most users without knowing the true impacts of what was going on.
Instead what happened was a range of bugs and changes that has impacted most users from login issues, missing icons, thread closed message and icon, extra comma in index, report function broken and others.
Please note that no-one is to specifically blame here for these issues, its a combination of many things that has caused this to happen.
Also please no bullying or putting the developers down at MyBB, its not nice or called for , do not vent your frustrations out at them turn your frustrations into positive reinforcement and constructive thoughts about future change.
The combination I can see that has caused these issues are:
- Not enough testers for this version
- Not enough people caring
- No proper notices for testing (blog, homepage, in the users own forums as a announcement)
- No proper pre-release version for everyone to run themselves on a test board and provide feedback with
- Pushing a version that was inadequately documented and tested
- Not enough public communication in relevant noticeable areas
- Developers are not normally public relations people so they tend to develop without realising to tell the public or know that the public may not be as technically minded
- Not enough procedures and checks in place for rollout to mitigate issues
The way it can be mitigated in future releases could consist of a range of things not just limited to this list:
- Expanded in board announcement section in the mybb forum software with categories to highlight different types of notices to users
- Adding and pushing public prerelease beta versions users can run on test boards in between the stables
- Expanding the version tag in the software to show 'Current' and 'Latest' version as well as tags Stable / PreRelease etc and add URLs to the version numbers to highlight differences
- Expanding the MyBB blog to incorporate categories on different types of content updates, news, etc, etc
- Assigning someone as a dedicated document, spokesperson who's goal is to document and be the mybb face of PR (this is hard to do)
- Liaising more with the public on improving back end and consumer relations
- Creating a more open environment like say Microsoft did with 'insiders' using the public as direct beta and bug report testing environment for prereleases
- Automating more back end processes with error checking and other tools
- Creating more of a closer interaction with the community then a 'we are developers we don't owe you anything' mentality I have seen from some people.
There is no point saying you have been butthurt etc over this it doesn't help anyone.
We need to make lists of positive reinforcement and let them know what we expect as users as well as to help them improve themselves for us.
While we don't owe each other anything technically, we have a obligation as MyBB users to ensure that MyBB is run in a safe happy, positive, environment and that we advise them wherever we can on customer relation and process improvements,
They are building this forum software for us as users and community leaders, and as such we owe it to them to be those leaders to voice and express our communities desires, wants, needs and to encourage them whenever we can.
Remember we wouldn't have our communities without the forum software whether its SMF. PHPBB, Xenforo, Invasion, Vanilla etc etc.
My views on who should be running a forum:
There has also been discussions that users should not need to know coding to run forum software.
In my view forum software is directly a web based service so in order to run a web based service you need some understanding of web based administration.
No you don't need to be a systems level coder or anything but you need enough knowledge about how web sites, scripts and even how the web servers themselves are run and managed and to be able to diagnose and fix basic and common sense minor code change issues that pop up based on browser, os and other changes.
If you don't know how to run and manage a web service or have any understanding on how web servers are run, setup and maintained then running a forum isn't the way to go and you should hire or partner with someone who does know about administration of web based services and servers.
It's the same policy as if you were trying to run a kitchen serving food to customers but had no cooking or kitchen management skills.
Just because one is passionate enough shouldn't mean they should run something.
Likewise don't put a beer fan or drunk with no management or drink creating skills in charge of a brewery as the saying goes.
I am fine if people are passionate and want to create their own community, but in order to do so you need someone that can administrator and maintain the platform and services.
You also need to ask yourself why you want to create a community in the first place and what you personally are going to get out of it for yourself and how you are going to manage and maintain your community.
If you can't run or manage something yourself, then get someone else to do it for you or look for alternative platforms etc.
Forum software is web based and you need someone that can manage, administer, diagnose and fix web based services and if you are hosting yourself you also need to know server, email and other types of management.
Remember our communities rely and expect us to have and grow the skills required to keep the services they use running smoothly from the forums, email, server and its running processes itself and other things like keeping regular backups, security of their personal and other information and many other things.
We are administrators as as such we need to administer and maintain the services our communities use.
If you want to run to run a community and don't have basic web and management skills as mentioned you need to get someone who can do that stuff, because if something breaks on your end or there is a conflict like PHP, MYSQL, apache version, port forwarding, email server, backup or even server OS and hardware issues, it needs to be fixed and is out the realm of the forum software as that is your priority to fix in a timely manner to avoid downtime and other issues.
You are the one that needs to fix that stuff for your community, clients etc.
Aslo with social media facebook, google+, discord and many others it's far easier than it ever has been to run a community with no web knowledge as they are premade multi group and purpose platforms managed by proper companies , Google, Facebook etc that have their own web management teams who work 24/7 keeping those platforms up.
What about us?
As for our community as we are still young and no-one really comes here yet It is ok to update and see whats what.
In the past I ran a Minecraft community and waited on updates as we had over forty, third party plugins yet I was screamed at that we should update not wait a week.
With what's happened with MyBB 1.8.16 these are the exact reasons why I never jumped to update before on production servers as a update can break your server and ways you do things.
For here I am trying to take a more laid back open approach where we can have the opportunity to update as to new security and other versions quickly.
I also want this community to grow with us where we go through the ups and downs together so the ongoing work is very open here for now for us to grow and work on building this community together.
Though in saying that I have toyed with the idea of a dedicated testing and update server which can be rolled out with a new update before we apply it here to diagnose and detect any issues.
However with the current bugged theme and limited member numbers that isn't worth it at this stage, as such as we aren't exactly at that level of stability as it is.
However once and if we do get to that level of stability and have a decent user base I will be implementing a proper separate update and test forum install, I currently have a development test install I was using before we went live with this forum which needs to be redone as is.
I will be making some minor changes to the back end and ways I look at implementing updates in the future.