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A day with no UHub comments tomorrow as the site is transmogrified

By adamg on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 5:45pm

Sometime tomorrow, noonish perhaps, I'll be shutting off comments on UHub as I begin to move the site to new software. And sometime after that, you'll see the new look of the site (which will look kinda, sorta the same, if you squint). And then, later in the day, I'll turn comments back on.

The reason is because while I might be almost good at some things, dealing with complex databasey things is not one of them. I migrated UHub articles and comments over to the new database about a week ago, figuring I'd be flipping the switch on the new site the next day, but turns out I had a lot more work to do than I thought, so I've been tinkering with the new site (and uploading current UHub articles to it) ever since, but didn't do comments, so there's now this backlog of comments that are on the current site but not the new site, and I'll need some time to move a week's worth of comments over before I turn comments back on, for which I apologize.

Why go to all this bother? The version of Drupal software the site runs on is now officially Unsupported, which means no more upgrades and no more security patches. Plus, the UHub version has gotten creaky over the years, as you may have noticed of late with all those Cloudflare "verification" pages that you've been getting the past week or so.

The new Backdrop software should (fingers crossed) run better, let me do better fine tuning for folks on phones (now a majority of the site's visitors) and has an active developer community doing stuff like fixing security holes. So I'll be able to get back to actually writing instead of spending so much time on Web-site configuring.

Plus: The new site supports emojis! OK, not the biggest thing in the world perhaps, but if you've ever tried to put an emoji into a comment here, then you know what a pain it is when your comment basically just disappears because the current site just can't deal. Also, easier embedding of YouTube videos.

I'll keep you posted, and thanks for your patience with all the site slowdowns and other issues (including less news) over the past couple weeks.

Free tagging: 
Universal Hub


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Comments

By Vicki on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 5:53pm.

Thanks for the update and heads-up

By MassMouse on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 6:02pm.

J/K… thx Adam!

By wrox on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 6:06pm.

(＾＾)ｂ

By necturus on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 7:21pm.

organizations with perfectly functional Web sites, whose users are used to their look and feel, feel the need to redo them. The new sites are typically buggy, confusing, and, in many cases, inferior to what came before.

The bank my company uses redid their site about a year ago. Nothing worked for about a week; they forgot all our payees' information, and I had to reenter it all. Vendors we paid by direct money transfer, as opposed to by check, suddenly became unpayable. I had to contact them all and persuade them to accept checks.

Why did they do this to us? Because some dweeb in the marketing department thought it was a good idea.

Don't fix what ain't broke, Adam.

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 9:10pm.

The software was no longer supported, so he made choices based on his skills. No marketing department involved, just plain world moving on.

It would be broken soon and needed preemptive action.

By Brent Jeffries on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 9:31pm.

Unsupported software, especially database-driven ones like CMS’s such as Drupal, are increasingly vulnerable to exploits over time because there are no more security updates and patches. It becomes a big security risk. Always update your software and OS!

By Plen-T-Pak on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 9:46pm.

If I had your job.

I don't like it when businesses change their logo. I was down in Stoughton and saw a D'Angelo's with an old sign, with those delightful 70's bubble letters and the lower case 'L' was a sub. Man, what an awesome day that was.

Good luck Adam!

By jmeltzer on Sun, 02/02/2025 - 7:31am.

having had enough experience with "upgrades" that ruin sites.

But Adam says it's really broke. And sometimes you just gotta do it because there's too much crap in the code and it's breaking down.

Good luck, Adam, and hope we see a better running site soon.

(does Adam actually have a marketing department?)

By robo on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 7:32pm.

I hope it’s a smooth transition for you.

By Rob on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 9:44pm.

But, but... Adam! It isn't that hard. Why didn't you just get someone with common sense to explain it to you?

By jmeltzer on Sun, 02/02/2025 - 7:32am.

by opening up the Charles River Dam!

By SwirlyGrrl on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 9:58pm.

But ... will you be laying off any gnomes or will they be retrained to hammer other things or given new tools?

By jmeltzer on Sun, 02/02/2025 - 7:26am.

without our regulars? Swirly? Costello? Ron Newman? Magoo (well, maybe not Magoo)

By Michael Kerpan on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 10:08pm.

Hope all goes well!

By tjridesbikes on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 10:22pm.

I need my internet dopamine!

As a software engineer: good luck! I’m glad you’re keeping things up to date and making sure security holes are plugged. Doing a better job than our federal government!

By adamg on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 11:51pm.

Should've included that: Thumbs will be back!

By Jack Vaughan on Sat, 02/01/2025 - 10:47pm.

May the Force be with you.

By Irma la Douce on Sun, 02/02/2025 - 7:38am.

…that we all use this downtime to sharpen our EMOJI skills? Text verbiage is SOOO analog.