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This is a routine upgrade that I expect to go automatically and painlessly, but even in that case, there will be a server reboot and the associated few minutes of downtime.

After our fall cleaning already reduced the amount of junk in the database, it's time for the annual beginning-of-the-year cleaning on Sunday, January 2, 2011.

In case you are unfamiliar with the process, it's pretty simple: I'll remove all user accounts here and on the tracker which have never been used to post, to reduce database sizes and free up nicknames for other users.

While I'm a little early to call it "annual", I figure the server move is a good time to weed out unused accounts.

On the 16th of September, 5 days from now in my time zone, I will purge all unused accounts both on the forums as well as the bugtracker.

Usage on the forums will be determined by post count, so if you're a lurker, just post in response here once, and you're good.

I believe there are some double accounts, where one has registered one account, forgotten the password, and registered a second, slightly different account that's in use. If that is the case for you, post here with both account names and I'll try to merge them.
I have no desire to kick out legitimate users, but both services accumulate boatloads of unused spammer and lurker accounts, and all they do is take up space and block account names for those who'd make better use of them.

DNS changes propagated almost instantly (love the modern internet), web data migration went flawlessly, bugtracker and forum software were updated, and I just made sure Ares/Syringe branches for Launch Base are properly updated again.

Please take note that I finally removed the legacy Launch Base Ares version propagation system. If you haven't done so yet, update your Launch Base.
Launch Base with branch support has been out for three months, and there have been two additional updates since, so if you're still working with a version without branch support, you're way outdated anyway.
Update already.

As said, the previous server state should mostly be restored, and I didn't find any problems yet - if you do find glitches, note them here.

I will use this opportunity for some additional changes, so it's possible there's a bump here and there, but that should be the exception.

The reason for this is simple: Within the next 7 days, we will move to a new server.
There's nothing exciting or dramatic about it, we've simply been using an older line of our host's server offerings for a while, and thanks to my house cleaning, we can finally upgrade to their current line. The vast, vast, vast majority of you will not notice a difference.

The actual move should be quick and painless, as it has been the previous times - I'll set up the new server first, and, once everything is up and running, will simply re-point the domains. You'll look at the old server one day and at the new one the next day.

The only reason you'll know it happens at all is because I will disable server services once the move is imminent, to ensure no new data is uploaded to the old server after the move.

There should be no issues with this, however, since we have some custom stuff installed (e.g. Launch Base packages for Ares branches), and since I'll use the chance to update the software we're using, there might be a glitch here and there. Please report those asap so we can fix them.

Our IRC channel is on an entirely independent IRC network and should be functional the whole time. Among the briefly disrupted services will be:

• These forums
  
• Subversion
  
• The bugtracker
  

Launch Base downloads should continue to work the entire time, the only way those could get screwed up is if the new server tries to update the files before it's actually ready to do so. But that's unlikely.

As said, overall, few of you should notice anything but the brief deactivation.
I can't give you an exact time-frame of when the move will happen, simply because I don't know yet how quickly our host will set up the new machine, and how "friendly" the new server will be, but from past experience with both, it's entirely possible it'll happen within the next 24 hours.

I will announce when the move was completed both in this thread as well as a new post.
We may use this event to tinker with a few things on the server, but that will happen after the move and is technologically unrelated.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused,
Ren

Edit 12 minutes later: Just got my login data for the new server. Expect the move within the next 24 hours.

Since BurnIRC never even accommodated Mibbit with own configuration, there's nothing to update and report, so thanks to Mibbit's childish blocking, the chat widget is broken.

This new update includes a number of changes and features (for example the unification of Simple and Advanced View), so don't panic if the tracker looks or behaves a little different from now on.
If any bugs or errors appear, please note them below.