The Next Upgrade 20 / 21

[anthony]

Testing Forum​

I have enabled both polls and questions types in the testing forum for members to learn how to use either of them before doing so within an actual public forum.

 

[somerandomguy]

I don't see a way to ignore threads anymore, and I am no longer ignoring the threads I had been ignoring before.
I'm still blocking the same users as before, though.

 

[anthony]

Fixed. Was not turned on after upgrade.

 

[anthony]

Attachments​

Due to the nature of mobile phones and the image size they can take nowadays, I have increased the maximum upload size of a single image to 15MB, and obviously combining that for a maximum post size will allow the max uploads in a post to now attach. This removes the issue of some higher resolution, more detailed pictures from phones falling over that 10MB limit through no fault of oneself, and simply depending on what is being captured and how the device sizes the image accordingly.

This new setting is enough for all current mobile phones at their highest resolution to upload directly.

 

[Missycat]

Loving the new look - thanks @anthony

 

[anthony]

Server Cost Reduction​

As we near the end of the year, I'm pretty happy with the last setup which rolled into improvements for this one, now becoming much simpler from the server through, to further reduce our infrastructure to the bare basics, stripping another $400 off, as server resources have improved by companies, at reduced costs, thus no need for as high donation pool to cover all associated costs.

 

[ms spock]

Sponsors

I am changing sponsor features to purely the additional 24hrs of editing. As such, sponsor positions will now only be $20 per annum.

I used to be a sponsor a long time ago, sorry to ask the dim question, but I looked in donate and didn't see where to click to be a sponsor. Where would it be?

 

[anthony]

Account upgrade menu.

 

[ms spock]

Thanks!

 

[anthony]

Articles​

I'm presently going through articles, moving out all the less important stuff to forums, and will be updating the few remaining to accurately reflect 20/21. I'm at a point where I believe providing the basics to people is the best method, without the noise. That way people can learn more once they know and grasp the basics with quick reference. The "less is more" approach.

 

[anthony]

To demonstrate some of the difference this update has done for users, the change in HTML implementation of the current version has taken caching from a 20% average to 45% average, as you can see the difference in the graph below from pre and post upgrade.

This is part of the reason why this upgrade was required. Technology changes quickly online, from server implementation best practices to coding standards. Always improving to do exactly this, which puts less pressure on devices and internet infrastructure, speeding up webpage loading as the internet continually grows. This is good for our users, our infrastructure costs and search engine happiness. Win win.

This is why upgrades are needed, and as you can determine for yourself from past improvements in upgrades, things just continually get refined, improving overall user performance. The faster things happen, the faster content appears for the user.

 

[anthony]

With the last upgrade having run for over six months, I can say the decision to remove a lot of the third party systems was the right decision. We haven't had server errors due to third party systems since the upgrade. Third party systems have not caused the ElasticSearch system to crash either, which was a huge issue previously that forced me to remove that amazing system for features. Basically, the site is running amazing from a technical perspective, and from an admin one. Removing a lot of things from the public side, staff have little issue in maintaining the site with ease.

Overall, all future upgrades will now follow this new simpler model that seems to work for both users, staff and the server side of things.