Now running vBulletin

[GHDpro]

As you may have noticed, the forum software has changed! We're now back
using vBulletin. EZ had used this forum software in a distant past as well, but
as I didn't pay for a "owned" license, we had to stop using it after a while.

In the meanwhile several other software were used: Woltlab Burning Board
and most recently Invision Power Board. However this last forum software also
went "pay only" recently.

Now you can argue that vBulletin is a bloated ultra-expensive piece of crap,
but I like it personally (well, apart from the price tag). Of course this time I also
did not make the same mistake as in the past, so even if my access to
download updates expires, the license to use it won't, so we can use it FOREVER.
(in theory)

Now this conversion was the result of hours and hours of labor, but it isn't
finished yet, more things may change. The skin is already pretty "EZ-like"
though - what do you think about it? It may need a couple more tweaks,
but already looks nice.

Anyway... enough from me...

[Jale]

Great! changes are going from good to better!

[Lefteris_D]

This would have happened three months ago but we chose to delay it for some time.

If you or anyone else have questions about how to use some of the features feel free to ask.

[Jet Set Willy]

The skin definitely needs sorting out a little. Blue on yellow/brown doesn't work.

[Lefteris_D]

Invision board used to accept any avatar no matter what size the picture had and simply resized it at the moment of display.

vBulletin however only checks once when you upload the avatar.

When all the users were imported all the avatars got their original sizes and that may cause some problems.

I already removed some avatars that had 4 times the size of the normal ones(Motoko, Zidane).

Please report any users that have such avatar problems in this thread so we can remove them.

[Zach]

As long as we eventually get a theme with the old blue/white colors I'll be happy

[Lefteris_D]

As long as we eventually get a theme with the old blue/white colors I'll be happy

Given the fact that the default buttons are already blue I think I'll have a blue theme probably next week

Btw, I increased the server load limit to 7. That should take care of some of the "Server Too Busy" messages.

[Zach]

Better up the load limit again methinks, cause its still dog slow over here

What the hell is eating the CPU ?

[Lefteris_D]

What the hell is eating the CPU ?

One of GHDpro's little toys called "Spider Scan". It runs once every hour between the 40th and 50th minute causing the server load to go high.

I've just set the limit to 9. If it happens again just be patient, it lasts only for 10-15 minutes.

[GHDpro]

Better up the load limit again methinks, cause its still dog slow over here

What the hell is eating the CPU ?

Increasing the load limit won't speed things up one single bit.
It will just mean you'll see less "Server Busy" messages, but that
doesn't mean the server isn't busy at lower limits!

As what's eating the CPU... EZ isn't the only site on this server. Futhermore,
the change to vB might cause some other problems -- certainly if vB uses more
CPU than IPB does.

Still... the load spikes should be temporary. While it might be slow at certain
times of the hour, it should be pretty speedy at all other times.