I’ve made progress, after some time, in updating the software for this site and running it on new infrastructure. Specifically, I have an instance of this BBS running on another server, on both a newer OS and version of Discourse.
This is a sandbox. It’s intended for testing and verifying that everything is working prior to an actual migration.
How can I help?
Try logging in over there.
Post new topics.
Reply to existing topics.
Upload images.
Post gifs.
See if that YouTube embedding bug is fixed.
etc.
Report anything that works differently there than it does here, at least for those things that appear to be broken. It’s expected that some things will work differently, since the software is different.
What shouldn’t I do?
Use the sandbox site exclusively.
Have serious conversations over there.
Get attached to anything you’ve posted over there.
This is based on a snapshot of the database from here from sometime on 2025-08-18.
What’s next?
Once I can be confident that we’re not going to have any major issues, I’m going to:
Create a new server
Set this instance to read-only
Take another backup of the database here.
Restore that backup at the new server.
Update the DNS to point to the new server.
Making a backup takes time. Transferring that backup to a new server takes time. Restoring that backup takes (potentially much) time. There will have to be a period of time where this site is read-only, and you won’t be able to post or do much on the site at all. It’s not technically an outage, but it may as well be treated like one. I don’t know of any way around this.
Where is my puke emoji?
It’s coming. This is a necessary step towards being able to make any sort of significant adjustments. Once we’ve migrated to the new server, we should be able to make those changes very quickly afterwards.
Logged in over there okay… was confused when I pulled up a box to reply and only saw the one box instead of the 2, until I clicked the little thingie in the corner to see the double box…
Please upgrade your papyrus scroll to use the newest hieroglyph software. In case of any errors please contact your nearest priest, they will make an appropriate offering in your stead to appease the gods
Windows 7 is definitely EOL, but there might be newer browsers that can be had that will run on it. There are also other Operating Systems you can likely run on the same hardware, if that’s an option. Also, do you get the same message on other Discourse instances, like https://meta.discourse.org/?
Getting same message on mine re “browser will soon be incompatible with this community” etc.
MacOS 10.13.6
running
Firefox 115.26.0esr
I am at the end of both OS update path and browser update path on this MacBook Pro (2011). You read that right. This machine is 14 years old. It is an astonishingly robust beast.
I have one other MacBook Pro to try, but I am not feeling very hopeful bc it is only a few years younger than this machine.
Sigh.
I will cast about for other options.
I prefer to not use my smartphone for connecting on this bbs.
Let me not to the marriagesandbox of true minds Admit impediments
Sorry to hear about issues others are having, but it’s working well for me.
Some things seem to look and work a little differently (I use my phone), but I’m sure those will be easy to get used to. I like that an image appears in the writing box already, instead of only after posting it.
It won’t reset in both places. They have separate databases. Double-checking, it looks like you actually login via Google, or at least you can. That’s actually how I login also, so it should work for the sandbox, since I had to fix it just to be able to login myself. Probably not my smartest choice 8 years ago, in retrospect.
Click on the Sign in with Google button and it should redirect you a couple of times and probably ask permission before logging you in. Let me know if you have any trouble.
Additionally, if there are people who login in with Facebook, please do try and let me know. I don’t know if there’s a way for me to check if there are any accounts like that. I doubt Twitter login works anymore, but if someone somehow relies on it let me know. I haven’t tested passkey, and I’ll be honest I don’t fully understand how that’s supposed to work anyway.
I vaguely recall you mentioning that before. Can you link to where you reported it before, or give some quick steps to reproduce so I can give it a try as well?
