Site updates, July 2017 (Resolved)

[Stephen Houser]

I wanted to alert everyone to a few updates on the site that will take place in the next two weeks (exact date not yet determined).

1. (Done) Users who have not logged in since June 2016 will have to set a new password when/if they do log in. This is to clean up old data from the migration last year. We won’t be removing the users, just their old passwords that were copied from the old system.
2. (Done) Remove other migration scripts and data that will no longer be needed when we remove old passwords (above). These scripts have caused us short outages when we update the base WordPress system for the site. Removing these scripts will make future updates cleaner and smoother.
3. (Done) Remove now broken spam filter and use an alternative. The WangGuard spam system we have been using is no longer available. We will be switching to an alternative, yet to be determined.
4. (Done) Remove other plugins that were installed but better alternatives are now available. The alternates should be “faster,” which means members should be happier.
5. (Not Doing) Investigate alternate hosting providers to solve slow page loading problems. We periodically get reports from our current provider that the site “crashed” by using too much memory and there are reports of slow page loading times because of this. Their solution is an “upsell” to a more expensive product of theirs and they don’t provide any tools to diagnose the problem. I’m looking at alternate providers that have more/better tools and may provide a better service.
6. (Postponed) Start testing an image uploader that works inside forum posts. It’s different in that the image gets attached to the post and not to a user. I’m not entirely sure if this will work for us or not. I’ll do this testing with you on a “draft” server so we can work out the details. The reason it might not work is that it does not allow people to manage their “gallery” in one place like we have had in the past.

As always, your (constructive) comments and thoughts are appreciated to make the site better for everyone!

[Edit, August 17, 2017] Completed a few of the items this morning while upgrading to latest version of WordPress.

[Edit, January 25, 2020] Marked completed items and resolved the thread.

• This topic was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Stephen Houser.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Stephen Houser.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Stephen Houser.

Buxton, Maine
1982 London Roadster - "Kit Kat"

[Stephen Houser]

Oops, forgot one that I took care of this evening;

7. (DONE) Make ‘Forums’ a drop-down menu. Include the major forum headings for quicker access to specific forums (e.g. ‘site’, ‘picture gallery’, etc.).

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Stephen Houser.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Stephen Houser.

Buxton, Maine
1982 London Roadster - "Kit Kat"

[Stephen Houser]

8. (DONE) Should I change the title from “MG TD Replica Owners Club” to “MG TD Replica Car Club”? Seems we have some folks who might not yet “own” one of these wonderful cars.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 9 months ago by Stephen Houser.

Buxton, Maine
1982 London Roadster - "Kit Kat"

[Paul Mossberg]

As always, thank you for your hard work on our behalf!

I’ve no problem with the name change to “MG TD Replica Car Club”.

While the primary membership has been owners, we have always had “fans” and “seekers” here.

Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica Roadster

If you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)

[Dbanta]

Yes – Thanks for all of the attention to the site. Car Club is cool. I agree there are those that are interested in the car yet don’t own on and may be thinking about buying.

In wine there is truth, in water health.

[Stephen Houser]

• (Done) Users who have not logged in since June 2016 will have to set a new password when/if they do log in. This is to clean up old data from the migration last year. We won’t be removing the users, just their old passwords that were copied from the old system.
• (Done) Remove other migration scripts and data that will no longer be needed when we remove old passwords (above). These scripts have caused us short outages when we update the base WordPress system for the site. Removing these scripts will make future updates cleaner and smoother.

Buxton, Maine
1982 London Roadster - "Kit Kat"

[Author]

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