Deciding to go 2.0??

[hercululu]

First, I am running 1.1.13. When I decided to go with SMF (about 3 weeks ago), I saw that 2.0 was a RC, and I usually shy away from them. I didn't realize that 2.0 has been in RC stage for years, and that many of the mods, especially newer ones, are made for 2.0.

We are an active forum. At 2 weeks open we have 3201 Posts in 430 Topics by 158 Members. Many of us came from a VB board, so those are the features that we are used to. Right now I have 12-15 mods installed to make it more like what we are used to. I am using DS-natural template from Dziner as my main template. Oh, I should probably mention that we are a private ungoogleable  board right now. At some point we will probably connect a site with content to the forum that is googleable, but right now I have a robots.txt file so the bots can't spider any of the boards. We are a group of parents, and having the forums not show up on google is more about protecting the privacy of our kids-- who wants their kids googling their own name in 10 yrs and finding a post by mom about something personal? We are working on ways for the forum to grow though-- thus the setting up a site connected to the forum.

Anyway, my understanding is that 2.0 will be released officially soon?Would it be beneficial for me to upgrade? How long before most new mods are not 1.1.x compatible? Is the upgrade a difficult one? Is it best to uninstall all of my mods and then reinstall them?

Keep in mind that I have been a supermod on a VB board before starting the smf forum, and I don't mind digging through forums to find out how to fix my problems, but I am not at all familiar with php. (somewhat familiar with html, and css marginally so )

Also, is there a good place to start with learning php? Other than a college class? Is it something that can be self taught, and if so, do you have any reccomendations on where to start? If I am going to own forums, I feel like relying on the kindness of others when I am pulling my hair out over an issue is probably not always the best idea (although I DO appreciate the help I got yesterday!)

Thanks for the advice!
heather

[Oldiesmann]

It's hard to say how long it will be before new mods are not compatible with 1.1. It partly depends on what exactly the mod does and also how easy it is to make it work with both versions of SMF. However, it will likely start happening around the time that 2.0 goes final simply because that's what most people will be using.

It would be beneficial for you to upgrade, as 2.0 has a lot more features - a WYSIWYG editor, more moderation features (a full-blown moderation center where you can handle reported posts, a user warning system, optional post moderation), custom profile fields and various other things.

The upgrade is not difficult at all. It is just a matter of uploading all the files, then running upgrade.php from your browser. After the upgrade you will need to reinstall the theme (as the 1.1.x version of the theme won't work with 2.0) and reinstall any mods.

I can't really say where your best place is to start with learning PHP, as I learned a lot from manually installing modifications in YaBB SE (the predecessor to SMF). There are a lot of great online tutorials though, and quite a few books on PHP as well. It really depends on what you feel comfortable with and what method works best for you. It is easy to learn though.

[TAGF]

I too am looking to upgrade to 2.0. I just upgraded to 1.1.13 and the current theme LevithanTP isn't looking to good. The center section is all squished plus I think it's time for an up grade. We are a stained glass forum and would love to be able to tweak things (background, header and such) and I'm guessing that this new format would be easier? Not too good with code.

theartglassfactory.com is our site.

[JimM]

@ hercululu - I agree with Oldiesmann.  It really sounds like 2.0 will be more to your liking.  The upgrade is not difficult, however if you decide to do it before 2.0 goes gold, you will have to do it again.  The process would be the same either way.

@ TAGF - Welcome to SMF.  Customizing either 1.1.x or 2.0 are both relatively easy.  Upgrading is definitely an individual decision, however I would bet that most all of us will be doing that once 2.0 goes gold.  No reason you shouldn't get a jump on that if you want to.

[xrunner]

I too am looking to upgrade to 2.0.

I upgraded my forum when 2.0 RC3 came out and haven't experienced any major problems. I've applied all the updates so far and I'm very satisfied.

[JimM]

Marking this one as solved.  Not really a support topic, and there seem to be lots of topics asking should I or nor upgrade.