Not so good news about the forums (please read)

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DJKeefy
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Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by DJKeefy »

The PHP 5 (code) in which the forum runs is now outdated and come to the end of its life, most hosting companies have moved onto the new version PHP 7, our hosting company stops supporting it on the 15th April 2019, to keep using PHP 5 they require a support fee per month per website which runs to about £32 month for all the sites I have, that fee is separate from what I already pay for the hosting etc. :(

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Dear Keith,

Our records indicate that you have at least one Linux hosted website with an old version of PHP enabled, either 5.6 or 7.0. Both of these versions have reached the end-of-support with their developers meaning there will be no new updates from by the PHP community.

We recommend that you upgrade to a newer version of PHP to allow for the best performance, upgrading to a newer version of PHP will provide:

• Better performance: Online applications like WordPress run up to twice as fast with PHP 7.3
• New features for developers
• Regular updates from the PHP community

We have created guides to help you upgrade to a newer version of PHP.

If you choose not to upgrade to a newer version of PHP, your sites may be at risk, however, our developers have been providing Extended Support for the outdated versions since the start of December 2018. This Extended Support service will now be charged for each version of out-of-support PHP that you're using, regardless of how many sites you're using it on.

If any new security vulnerabilities are discovered in an outdated version of PHP, the PHP Community developers will not provide a solution, but as part of our Extended Support service, our developers will release patches to the outdated versions of PHP that fix significant security vulnerabilities.

This new PHP Extended Support will be chargeable from w/c 15th April 2019 for £5.28 (£6.34 inc. VAT) per month for each version of Extended PHP Support used.

No 1 alternative (which I probably will have to do) is to move the forum to the newer PHP 7, however the forum and all the addons like the gallery, arcade, likes, user flags and also the graphic layout will not work on PHP 7 so we will be back to a basic forum till I can find new addons to add. So if you have any important images you have uploaded to the gallery please go through them and save them back to your PC/Laptop.

Also it might not work :( if that happens we might have to start the forum from DAY 1 :cry:

No 2 alternative is to sell all the sites to someone who can afford it :ni: Any offers :lol:


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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Thanks for letting us know.

Would the plan be to just start 1 main Forum instead of the 2 (or do you still have Red Sea for U) Forums running now?

Thanks Keefy. I've really enjoyed all the chatting, friends, info this format has offered me in the past 10 (and YIKES it is 10) years I've been on it.

Thanks.....LLL
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

@Keefy - I'd like to propose if there is to be a NEW Forum that the name for all be changed to: "EXPATS, EGYPT & EVERYTHING ELSE" aka "4E" or "Four E"

I think "Expats" may garner new people and "Everything Else" affords a more expanded discussion format and takes the exclusivity off of "Egypt" and "Luxor"

This would hopefully bring in new people and lively discussion on a variety of topics.
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

I suspect that it is only the layout of the forums that will change, I have seen the new basic version and it looks OK, but it still needs a lot of work (in a short time :( ) by Keefy in order to get it back to something similar to how it is now. As to a new name, well don't forget that Keefy has to register 'domain' names and that also costs money, the ones he uses now are already registered. I agree that something that sounds a little more inclusive to others may boost membership, but whether or not that change is possible?
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I was just thinking if he is only going to start 1 NEW forum that to make it more inclusive and get rid of the niche aspect of "Egypt" and/or "Luxor" would possibly increase membership which would/could boost any advertising revenue coming in.

Readership is way down and slowly going lower so IMO it would be a thought to try and bring in new people with fresh thoughts & ideas on a wider range of topics and if you have to go to a new format anyway ......... ???
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Re: Not so good news about the forums (please read)

Post by Horus »

I agree, but as I have already said, the L4u sites are domain registered, it would be confusing to people browsing the web.
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