One thing that seems a bit odd to me is that the Linode forum is using a severely outdated phpBB. phpBB 3.x has been out for awhile now, and 2.x isn't being maintained. phpBB 3.x has a clone of the subsilver theme that Linode. I forget what it's called, but IMO much better than phpBB 3.x's default, and it can be set to the forum default.

It just seems odd that we are always told that the latest stable will have the latest security updates, and on a forum running outdated software no less. I don't know what plugins are being used, but I'm sure they've been updated (or an equivalent created) for phpBB 3.x by now, and there is (should hopefully still be) a converter to convert the existing forum content. It doesn't have to be switched right away, a testing phase can be done to make sure it goes smoothly, but a well-maintained software is better than a severely outdated one.

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Kris the Piki Geeker

See also viewtopic.php?t=7364

If they do have reason to stay with the older version, I'd like to know what it is. If they're providing security updates themselves, that's fine by me, and I have no problem with that. It just seems strange that everybody says "use the latest stable to make sure you have all the security updates" and yet we're not at the latest stable for the forum. Putting out the latest release in 2008 provides three years to find new security holes

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Kris the Piki Geeker

If it aint broke, dont fix it?

Im sure the linode team review the security issues and fix where appropriate.

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ServerAdmin - www.our-lan.com
"Diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy whilst looking for a really big stick"
"In my experiece, any attempt to make any system idiot proof will only challenge God to make a better idiot"

I know it's not broke. It's more a matter of if security updates are being applied.

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Kris the Piki Geeker

The 'Memberlist' section _is_ broken.

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/ Peter

Memberlist works fine here.

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Kris the Piki Geeker

Try sorting it.

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/ Peter

Broken

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Kris the Piki Geeker

Even if the forum is built like a tank, it looks *ridiculous*. It's like having an IT consultant show up with Windows 98 on their laptop. People are going to draw their own conclusions.

If an IT consult were to show up with any version of Windows, my conclusion would be that he isn't a real IT consultant because Windows isn't a real OS.

Personally, I'm not concerned with the appearance of the forum. I like this theme better than the default in phpBB 3. If they were to upgrade to phpBB 3, I'd request that they switch the default to this one (I think the phpBB 3 version is called prosilver or something similiar, it looks like a more sleek version of the phpBB 2 subsilver theme, but it's still the basic theme).

I'm more concerned with security updates. If we could at least get Linode staff to comment either, "We're providing security updates for the forum" or "We're preparing to upgrade", that'll calm my nerves

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Kris the Piki Geeker

Yes it would be tragic beyond compare if this highly classified forum full of gossip, bitching, pie-in-the-sky wishing, crying wolf, and the occasional tech solution was hacked.

Plus, imagine the disappoint if it did get hacked and Linode had to fall back to the latest snapshot, we'd all lose our precious post counts.

OH MY GOD

I like how we can abandon our security principles when not doing so could be construed as an insult on Linode.

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Matt Nordhoff (aka Peng on IRC)

I'll pretend that I'm not being insulted here just because I believe in safe security practices...

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Kris the Piki Geeker

I am willing to bet that some users use the same username/password combination both for forums and the Manager.