Major mnscuba.com website update

[jasondbaker]

Members, I am working on a major website upgrade that I plan to initiate in a little over two weeks.  The upgrade will add a number of new features to the website including better performance and social media integration.  The website forum software will change from SMF to MyBB.  We've been using SMF for almost 10 years now (since it was called YaBB SE).  But development on SMF has stalled over the past two years while MyBB has become the highest rated open source forum platform. 

My goal is to transition all member accounts and forum posts from our existing system to the new system.  I've done this in a test environment and the process worked fairly well.  I don't expect everything to transition perfectly. For example, I had an issue transitioning some of the avatars and post attachments. I'll do the best I can to preserve all the data in the forum.  Hopefully we will not need to transition again for another 10 years.

I am not planning to transition the "gallery" to the new system.  The gallery served a purpose years ago when online photo hosting websites were rare.  But now there are dozens of places where you can create a free photo gallery -- like Facebook or Flickr.  These online gallery systems are much more sophisticated than the one on our website.  I plan to add features that will allow members to connect their profile with an online photo gallery.  Please download any pictures in your photo gallery that you would like to keep.  I won't delete member pictures, but after the website transition members will not be able to access their mnscuba galleries anymore. 

I appreciate your patience as I upgrade the website in a few weeks.  I will correct any issues that are identified after the transition as quickly as I can.  Best, --Jason