what version of SMF are you using?

[Lord Anubis]

Leaps = converting forum to SMF 2.0, which also equates to having to reestablish mods, code, and the works   so yep its inevitable but I did the RCs for SMF 1 and know its like babysitting

But agreed if I had to start mine over I would use a newer TP for one sheer fact, no need for special themes

[lurkalot]

Why have those versions? Because you still need to support upgrading from those versions.

What about people who are upgrading from 0.9.8 then? 

but the plain fact is that older versions of SMF may have security issues, so it should be updated and to some extent the same holds true for TP... not because of security, but because it is designed with SMF2.x in mind and our support here needs to be focused more to the up to date versions of SMF/TP.

That's the very reason I have held off the actual upgrade for now, SMF2 RC3 is still not supposed to be used on a production site, it's for testing only.   http://download.simplemachines.org/

I will upgrade when SMF2 is released as stable though.  And will continue playing with these new versions on my test site. 

[IchBin]

If you haven't upgraded for over 2 years, that is your problem not ours. lol

[ZarPrime]

lurkalot, and others,

That's the very reason I have held off the actual upgrade for now, SMF2 RC3 is still not supposed to be used on a production site, it's for testing only.   http://download.simplemachines.org/

I will upgrade when SMF2 is released as stable though.  And will continue playing with these new versions on my test site. 

This is the very reason why TP 1.0 beta 5 was written for both SMF 1.1.11 and SMF 2.0 RC3 (and RC2) and why Bloc and the Team made the decision to not go straight to a TinyPortal version 2.0 for SMF 2.0, because, at the time, SMF 2.0 was still in the RC stage, and still is.

As it has been said many times before, TinyPortal 0.98 was never considered to be a final version, or even a stable release.  However, it became the most stable release at some point and, quite possibly, the most downloaded version that was ever released.  We realize that not calling it TP 0.98 beta may have contributed to it's popularity over the years.  Just because it wasn't called a beta, many people did indeed believe it to be a stable release, if not a final release.  Most of the other Portal systems written after that were actually modelled on TinyPortal 0.98 because it was the portal of choice that worked well for everyone on their sites.

With all that being said, the popularity of TP 0.98 allowed Bloc to continue to work on improvements and enhancements and make plans for an even better TinyPortal with the release of TP 1.0 beta 1.  This is obviously because so many people were using version 0.98, and satisfied with it's performance.  That allowed Bloc and the Team to work on version 1.0 without having to worry about a large number of support issues in TP 0.98, though there were still quite a few.  Upon it's release, TinyPortal version 1.0 beta 1 took a giant leap forward and was a huge step in the development of TP.  A huge number of improvements were made and many more features that were never even dreamed of in TP 0.98 were added, and yet TP 0.98 was still the most stable version.  From my perspective, one of the greatest features of TP 1.0 from the very beginning was that it no longer required custom themes to be written specifically to work with TP 0.98.  At the time, I was not yet a Team Member and yet this feature alone is what caused me to upgrade my site to version 1.0 beta 1.  It allowed me to easily use any custom theme that worked with SMF without major edits even though I stuck with Bloc's and Crip's themes through it all.

As TinyPortal went through several revisions between the initial release of TP 1.0 beta 1 and beta 4, it became even more stable but probably still not as stable as 0.98.  With the release of beta 5, the TinyPortal core has been rewritten to such an extent that it doesn't even resemble 0.98 any more internally.  The goal of Bloc and the Team at this point is to make beta 5 stable enough that we can get TP to the release candidate stage, and, eventually, to a final version.  Many of us on the Team believe that we are very close to an RC version.  Hopefully, when that happens, people will finally make the decision to take the step that so many have feared to take, removing TP 0.98 from their live sites and installing the latest and greatest version.

Here are a couple of quotes from Bloc ...

TP v.0.9.8 is very different from the v1.0 betas, both in features and certainly in coding. And now, with v1.0beta5 supporting SMF 2.xx that difference is even bigger.

Thats why that version isn't available for download any longer, and support for it is diminishing, not at least because not many here actually know it well now. (I need to look up things too, its been *that* many years lol)

and ...

Oh, v0.9.8 was very much a beta too lol, the reason for its 0.9 numbering was exactly the same as current v1.0 betas: to reach a stable v1.0 final.

It was NEVER my intention of having v0.9 being a sort of "stable" release, but as this is a project thats getting a few years old now, the actual jumps in features/coding from v0.9 to v1.0 beta have been bigger than most I guess.

Once this next upgrade to TP 1.0 beta 5-2 is released by Bloc, maybe these quotes from Bloc will give some impetus to those of you who still insist on using TP 0.98, or at least a good reason to at least create a test site to try the new version out.  It is a very simple thing to clone your current live site and set it up as a test site that can be uppgraded to SMF 2.0 RC3 and the latest TP.  If you just do it, you may never want to go back to the old days, as good as they were.

Finally, as a Support Member here, I don't relish the thought of needing to have multiple test sites setup just so that I can check something in an old version and answer questions for it.  I would much rather concentrate on the future than having to languish in the past.  I could easily setup test sites with every version of TinyPortal that was every made, though at this point I would have to look for some of those versions ...

TP 1.0 beta 5-2 on SMF 2.0 RC3
TP 1.0 beta 5-2 on SMF 1.1.11

This will be the proverbial line in the sand, at least for me.

TP 1.0 beta 5-2 on SMF 2.0 RC2
TP 1.0 beta 5-1 on SMF 2.0 RC3
TP 1.0 beta 5-1 on SMF 2.0 RC2
TP 1.0 beta 5-1 on SMF 1.1.11
TP 1.0 beta 5 on SMF 2.0 RC3
TP 1.0 beta 5 on SMF 2.0 RC2
TP 1.0 beta 5 on SMF 1.1.11
TP 1.0 beta 4
TP 1.0 beta 3
TP 1.0.6 beta 2
TP 1.0 beta 1
TP 0.9.8
TP 0.9.7.1
TP 0.9.7-191106
TP 0.9.7
TP 0.9.7 beta
TP 0.9.6
TP 0.9.5
TP 0.9.5 beta
TP 0.8.6
TP 0.8.5
TP 0.85a
TP 0.8
TP 0.7.5
... and even older versions.

Could I setup over 25 test sites just so I could answer support questions on old versions of TinyPortal?  Of course I could, but why would I want to.  It's time to look to the future.  What is in the past is long gone, as it should be.

ZarPrime

[Blue Steel]

keeping support for 0.98 as such (if they decide to) would also open up a can of worms where others could also argue that the other versions should still be available as well.. and because they've said yes to TP 0.98 then they'd have to say yes to all the older beta's too.

Does Microsoft still have windows 1. windows 3.11 windows 95, windows 98 , windows me, still available .. no..

about the only real places where you can guarantee access to older versions are those using source engines like svn or git etc.. and even then they'll only go back so far.

[JPDeni]

keeping support for 0.98 as such (if they decide to) would also open up a can of worms where others could also argue that the other versions should still be available as well.. and because they've said yes to TP 0.98 then they'd have to say yes to all the older beta's too.

I disagree. I think that Bloc can decide exactly which versions should be available and which shouldn't. He could choose to have 1b5 and .9.8 if he wanted to. Or just 1b5 or any other combination. People might wish that he had others, but he wouldn't have to.

[Blue Steel]

Thats what they are saying at the moment he appears to have decided now to only have 1.00+ , because he removed 0.98 and they don't like it, they are wishing him to still support 0.98.

My point was that if he only wanted to support one major version (eg: 1.+ ) and he did what people asked about 0.98 then others would complain about other older versions not being still available. and being able to site the fact that he put 0.98 back up why not the version they want.. If you follow

 

[lurkalot]

Thats what they are saying at the moment he appears to have decided now to only have 1.00+ , because he removed 0.98 and they don't like it, they are wishing him to still support 0.98.

BlueSteel, I think you misread what I said in a earlier post.  I never said anything about supporting 0.9.8, I merely said it would be handy to have a Archived version on the download page for anyone still using it.

Archived releases = No support.  TP 0.9.8

That said, I wouldn't go as far as the archives over at simplemachines.org, they appear to have 68 pages = 667 versions of them. lol.. 

[JPDeni]

My point was that if he only wanted to support one major version (eg: 1.+ ) and he did what people asked about 0.98 then others would complain about other older versions not being still available.

Possibly. But "others would complain" is not the same as "they'd have to say yes". Although ... I haven't seen anybody ask for a version prior to .9.8 in the years that I've been coming to this site.

As I said before, my reason for waiting to upgrade is that I don't trust SMF and their RC versions. I have this sneaking suspicion that if I started in with all the alterations I'll need to make on SMF2.0RC3, they'll come out with a completely revamped RC4 and I'll have wasted weeks of work that I could have been doing something else.

Nothing is used "out of the box" on my site. There's lots of things that are considered 'features" by the authors that I find just annoying, so I go through and delete lots of stuff. And there's things that seem to me to be basic things to include that nobody else seems to think are important, so I add lots of stuff. With previous versions, I eventually created a personal mod I called "Tweaks" that would fix everything in new versions, but there have been so many changes that it doesn't work any more.

[Crip]

SMF2.0RC3, they'll come out with a completely revamped RC4 and I'll have wasted weeks of work that I could have been doing something else.

Exactly right JPD.