Guys,
I hear the panic, and I understand the feelings going on here. There are a lot of great ideas, and some not so great. Unfortunately, none of you so far seem to grasp the intricacy and thin web of "oh dear god, don't break" that keep this site running now as it is.
I'm *not* advocating moving to another CMS. I'm hoping that one morning I wake up to a working site and a note from Chuck which says "oh, btw, we migrated your site to the new superduper server last night". That being said, I would be horribly remiss in my duties if I didn't prepare for the worst.
Love the snarky "this is the fact" attitude of some, but again, until we have to make a change, nothing except backups changes. None of you know, and I simply don't know how to explain properly what I'm thinking might happen.
Yes. It may work just fine. Cool. Ok. If that's the case, you should all be happy using the same old site that never changes or updates to do anything new.
As a web developer, I'm always looking for a better way to do things, and frankly, I gave up on trying to update the site years ago because of the 8% of all browsers using the site which are on the Amiga (according to the stats) who would raise unholy hell if we moved to a more modern and capable system.
To me, I look at the site and all I see is something that never changes. Strictly speaking, that's "ergonomically discomforting" to someone who usually takes pride in their constant sense of change.
It's 2009. It's been -- I believe -- 24 years since the birth of the Amiga, and 15 since the death of Commodore. I'm *not* in any way trying to dissuade a single member of the Amiga faithful here from enjoying their hobby.
Hell, I just bought a Dell Mini 9 specifically to load Mac OS X on, so I know from hobbies. There are no new Amigas, outside of at least a couple of wannabes, but facts are facts, and even if there were, I'm only aware (I think) of one single new browser out there, but if you're on a classic, you're screwed.
I love the classic Amiga. I grew up on one, and I owe a lot to the little machine that taught me most of what I know, but even if the PHP 5.x upgrade goes flawlessly, then what? We (this site) can't stay the same forever. It just can't if it wants to survive.
If I had my wish, I'd find a way to build a whole new site around the existing data and use it just as is, while re-orienting Amiga.org into what I *always* (since 1994) pictured it as, and that is what I'd call a "cooperative friend-based networking site". More of a Facebook than a MySpace, but not really either. Something different and completely unique.
A site designed to help each of you interact with one another in such a way that you actually establish friendships, rather than just warring over [insert your favorite target here] on the forums.
This community has reached a stage in life where it NEEDS something to change. I *loathe* the idea of leaving the few remaining classic Amiga users behind as much as the next guy, but at what point do we say "enough is enough, time to buy a newer computer (such as a Pegasos or whatever clone may be available)".
Seriously. Stop trying to convince yourself (and me) that everything is perfect and ask yourself what you'd like to see supporting the Amiga community. Chances and glances are that the current Web site isn't it.
Trouble is though, even the latest Xoops, whatever its version, hasn't changed THAT much to warrant all the work to move to it. The major changes being that they moved to CSS-oriented themes and use a LOT more Javascript which the Amiga is either too weak to process, or in most cases, can't process at all.
Parts of me wish that we'd never migrated from 1.x, which is what -- as I understand it -- Amigaworld still runs. At least then, we'd have a more logical code base and the hackers and spammers might have completely forgotten about bothering with it.
This is not a treat we share, as 80% of all new accounts are bogus, and the site is pretty much hammered by script kiddies every single day.
It's simple. If Xoops 2.0.7 works with PHP 5, I'll just shrink into the background again and let you guys enjoy the antiquated site this has become. Otherwise, it's not worth the trouble to upgrade to Xoops 2.**, so, that just leaves "change".
Sorry about this rant guys, it's late and I just watched a really deep movie ("Knowing") so I'm a little philosophical. If anything, I'm deeply moved by the fact that everyone who's responded cares so much what happens.
I started out with the intent just to warn you of the potential for change. Now, I'm just not so sure that change wouldn't be for the better.
Wayne