RichM

I have removed it from displaying at the bottom of topics. The Chatbox is only temporary and will be replaced soon. Cheers RichM

Sorry, what I meant to say was that I don't want to dwell too much on the reasons for upgrading the forum software as it was felt that it would have been unreasonable for us not to and in any case, reverting back is not feasible. We are still keen to make improvements based on user feedback but going backwards isn't a realistic option. The forum software is not in beta, no. The developers of the forum are in the process of developing IPBoard 4.2 which has some minor functionality and feature improvements without any major design changes. As for the look and feel of the forum, it was designed by IPSFocus and it's likely we will provide feedback to them based on the feedback we receive.

I believe lulu fish fish was referring to SSL certificates, or the lack of in our case. This is when you see a padlock to confirm that the connection is encrypted over HTTPS. This is a necessity for pages which take sensitive details such as billing addresses and credit cards. We don't handle any of that as all transactions go through a payment gateway, i.e. PayPal. That said, it is now considered best practice to use HTTPS and as such we will be installing a SSL certificate and soon. This will mean that all login sessions will be handled over HTTPS. The security enhancements I referred to previously were more specifically in regards to software patching which prevent against attacks such as SQL injection attacks which Jess-- kindly explained. I'm sorry you feel that way but in any case, there is no downgrade option from IPBoard 4.1 to 3.4. It would technically be possible to restore from an old backup meaning we'd lose 6 months of content but to be frank, I'm not doing it. Thank you You are right in that this version of the forum software requires more server resources than the old one. As such, we migrated to a new server with more CPU cores, more memory and solid state disks in order to address any performance issues and to add storage capacity to accommodate the increasing size of the database. We also offload to AWS. As you may recall, I have a lot of admin experience with vBulletin. More than I do with Invision in fact and to be honest my personal preference is vBulletin by some margin. That said, the functionality is significantly different (Moreso than the change from 3.4 to 4.1) and I had concerns that some users may not accept such a significant change. I agree that the VNC issue could have been handled better but we responded to user feedback as quickly as we could. This was an oversight on my part. I don't agree about your comments in regards to security being overplayed. Call be paranoid, but I've had to recover 2 forums from SQL injection attacks in 14 years. - The old version of IPBoard was developed using an older version of PHP. What would you do when PHP 5 is deprecated? - The old version of IPBoard no longer receives security updates making it vulnerable to future cross-site scripting attacks and SQL injection attacks to name a few possibilities - The old version of IPBoard is no longer supported. If you encountered a major software issue and required the support from Invision, how would you go about this? We rarely needed to contact them to be fair but when we did, they did not always provide any support because we were using an unsupported version of their software. I have no doubt that you will come up with at least some answers but these were the challenges we faced and all things considered, we felt the need to apply the update. I don't want to dwell on that too much as it's not something we can revert. Sorry if I've missed anything. I've just got home from work and now need to do my boating chores! Rich

Might need to clear your browser cache. I see it as below.

Yes but not overnight though I am sure someone will be along to show a way of doing it with a browser plugin in the meantime. I've not really noticed it until you pointed it out but it could be neater.

I appreciate that and agree. Unless they're software developers and able to patch the code themselves, they run risk of being vulnerable to exploitation. I'm sure you have seen it but this is the closest replication we could get within the capabilities of the forum software but appreciate it's not identical.

Thanks Mike. I will have a look to see if there's a way to address those issues. Can I confirm if by "default page" you mean the VNC page? Also, posts counts are back along with this guy... P.S Also, what about the things you like?

Thanks both. I have found a way to fix this and have done so.

The old one was largely a great fit and I recall Dan being very disappointed when the forum software developers announced its withdrawal. Apparently they just wanted to focus all efforts on the forum software. Not something we agreed with but equally not something we had any control over. That aside and moving forward, we're going to implement new chat software, known as "ArrowChat". You can try their user demo on their website if you wish which can be found here or read more about it here. One advantage is that it can easily be hidden by those who have no interest in it which is great because it provides choice.

It's now nearly 6 months since we applied the mandatory software update to Canal World, known as IP.Board 4.1. I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask how are things with the site now? What do you like, what don't you like and what can we do differently? While we completed the software update successfully on the first attempt, we didn't quite get it right with the "look & feel" initially. After taking on board your feedback, I hope many will agree we've improved a lot in that respect. Unfortunately no matter how hard we try, we know we can't please everyone and there's some things that just can't be done. Though wherever possible, we will look to improve and we do that by listening to your views. But please keep it constructive. Rich

Spontaneously (and regrettably) went to see the new "Baywatch" movie a couple weeks ago. It has to be among some of the worst...

I learned that Natwest never store bank details on your phone. - Just like every other bank.

Surely this should be looked at on an individual basis rather than having a blanket rule? I.e. if there is a member who has a username which is misleading other users, then it would be worthwhile to submit a report. In any case; If a user registers with a username with intent to advertise and/or promote a business without prior permission from the site owner, then they would be in violation of the site rules. RichM

I have this engine on a 55' nb and we were contemplating replacing it with a Beta Marine 43hp engine before deciding not to for various reasons. - a couple people now have commented on her "zooming along the cut" in a jokey way. (I keep to the speed limit of 6 mph) Ok, I'm not a dawdler but point is that the engine is more than capable of shifting the boat on canals. Upstream on rivers is a different matter, not a great. - Just as well I'm not fond of rivers. It's also under-propped so I do wonder how different it would be if this was corrected.

The fan is working but thanks. And no, you're putting words in my mouth. - I merely intended to highlight that it was drawing significantly less than what it would on many occasions. Unfortunately I do not have one That's indeed what I meant