I have been a YABB user for over 15 years but never went beyond YABB 2.2.1.  My hosting company (BlueHost) says the problem I am having is probably because I am on an old version (that the DNS etc is okay) the message everyone is getting is "The information you are about to submit is not secure." Since it IS most likely that I have to upgrade my YABB 2, I have NO clue hoe to do it . I am not a programmer and just know how to use the tools within my forum. Can anyone help me upgrade? Over 10 years ago someone on the YABB2 forum did it for me. ???? help??? My site is a poetry forum with about 300 members.

Thanks so much Dandello --- I sent you information through PM and will await your help.

Well, I do not know. I'm currently on your FTP and pulling down all the data because I couldn't log in to the forum. Doesn't work. I discovered that the forum was installed completely incorrectly. You have installed the cgi-bin in the public_html. That will not do. I'm just pulling down all the data. This will take a while. When I'm finished, I'll be in touch.

Update:

Okay, I found two forums. The showcase is totally out of date, but I can add the data to a forum if you want. Otherwise I'll do two forums. Then I found a folder (bad but leave along) under the directory. Here, too, I may be able to transfer the data. Shouldn't really be a problem. Both forums are installed incorrectly and therefore no topics are displayed. Why members are shown is a mystery to me. It shouldn't work either and that's why I can't log in there.
Now you have to tell me how to do it.

2. Update

I can still find files from Wordpress. Do you still have WordPress installed? It's all in the public_html and it doesn't really belong there.
Is there anything else installed in the public_html that doesn't belong to YaBB? I have to delete the directory completely.

Bluehost login details are not working. I need access to the server. FTP is not enough.
Otherwise I cannot do SSL encryption or import a certificate. Your server is then always http and therefore not secured.

Now we have the problem. I was able to install the last version of YaBB, but it no longer works correctly on your server. The reason is as follows: The Linux version installed is totally out of date. Unfortunately I can't find out which version was installed on your server. The power panel doesn't do anything in this regard. The Perl modules are also from the last Stone Age at least 2009. It's probably mainly due to the CGI module and that can only be changed with root access and you probably don't have that. Debian 5 is probably still installed on your server. The Perl version is also from 2009, so it's totally outdated, so it fits Debian 5. I can only install an old version of YaBB (as long as I can still download it from SVN), but then security suffers again, because in the old versions The password was not stored encrypted. What do we still have? Net:NS is also not available on the server and is important for sending encrypted emails. The FTP is also totally insecure (not SFTP) and not verified and probably cannot be verified. In summary: You will no longer have any fun with the server, an old YaBB version will not achieve the security standard that is required today.

Check it out for yourself:
https://www.poemtrain2.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

[url]and compare it with my test forum:

https://www.yabbtest.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl[/url]

Good advice, cancel this server, it's not worth the money.

Unbelievable! Pyrgony54 I cannot thank you enough for this! I will work on it this coming week but so far all looks perfect. Regarding "As a next step I will try to update and link to the "showcase" forum. To do this, I will install a subforum on the server," there is no need to fix that link. It has been dormant for years and not used by the members.

I am humbled and so grateful for your efforts on all of this.  I'll stay in touch as I progress checking everything out. Please keep handy all the information that you needed from me to resolve this...just in case.

Normp wrote on Oct 9^th, 2023 at 3:11pm:

Please excuse the interruption, but I had something similar happen in a YaBB 2.4 forum that I operate. I don't know if my solution will work, but it may be worth a try. It worked for me.

The error that I noticed was that the "Forum Start Date" was incorrect for some reason, which can easily be corrected in the Admin Center.

If my solution doesn't work, you can simply change your "Forum Start Date" to whatever it was before.

Edited:

As you can see, not all members were transferred when converting. I transfer them manually.
I have created an admin account for myself. Please don't delete this. If there are errors, it will be easier for me to get into the forum.

Normp wrote on Oct 9^th, 2023 at 9:36pm:

I'm sorry that didn't work. It worked for me, but I also remember engaging the "Rebuild Members List" after that, which temporarily put the forum into maintenance mode.

Because your forum was still in maintenance mode after you changed your forum's start date, I'm guessing that you're correct about it being worked on. As such, you seem to be doing the right thing by waiting to get word back from pyragony54.

Edited:


Edited:

@ Normp

I put the forum in maintenance mode because I saw that some forums are not intended for the public. This was not taken over correctly during the conversion. You have to make these settings yourself because I don't know them. You can then cancel maintenance mode.

pyragony54 -- I can't imagine the amount of time you've put into "saving" my forum! I am SOOO appreciative. Is there anything I can do (manually) that can help? Also, can I try the suggestion made to "Recount Membership" & "Rebuild Members History"? Or that is not an option here?

Thanks again.
Norm

@ Bill Myers

The problem is something completely different that I didn't notice. A maximum of 10,000 files can be uploaded using FTP before the server closes. I then switched to ftps, it doesn't work either. But there are over 12,000 files in the forum. I'm trying with sftp now. If that doesn't work either, then it's Bluehost's fault. I can't adjust anything in the power panel either. I have to see now.

This is the reason why the conversion did not work completely and therefore an incorrect date is displayed. The funny thing is that for these posts the TXT file is not on the server, but the post is still shown. It's probably in the cache. I dont have a plan yet.

I don't have this problem on my server.

@ Normp


I'm not doing anything at the moment, I have to solve this problem first. If all else fails, you must contact Bluehost or I will offer you space on my server. It is ultra-modern. However, this is not free.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 10^th, 2023 at 6:58pm:

Ah, ha! Got it.

More than likely, Bluehost has a file limitation based on various plans even though that isn't made public. But like other similar hosts, that company seems to be easily scalable; up or down either way depending on one's needs. If that's the case, then NormP can check with that company's support to find out.

I lease my own dedicated server that doesn't have file limitations other than space of course. I think I've been with the same hosting company for about 20 years or so (even as they went through different name changes).

About 7 years ago, it finally dawned on me that I really don't need my own server. After all, there are other viable, and more affordable web hosting options that are easily scalable; shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, etc. I could even get a server that offers more, and that costs less than what I pay.

As a backup option, back in 2016 I moved a bunch of websites off the server I have to a company that seems similar to Bluehost. The pricing is quite reasonable, the service has always been good, and it even comes with self-installing forums.

As silly as this sounds, the only reason that I still lease that dedicated server is because of a YaBB forum that's on it. 

pyragony54 --- How much in US Dollars per year?

pyragony54 - I have sent you a PM with some additional questions about moving  my poetry forum to your server when you're finished resolving the issues you're working on.  Once again, thank so much for your help and advice.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 2:59am:

Excellent! WinSCP is the program that I use, which includes using it for regular backups of the YaBB 2.4 forum that I operate. Those backups have come in handy over the years ... makes quick work of restoring zeroed out, or missing membership files, for instance.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 3:36am:

Great price! 

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 3:32pm:

Upppps!!!

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 3:32pm:


I know. That has another problem. Simply not all data is converted because the *.ctb is missing. I have to edit these manually. This is not a problem, just very time consuming. It will take a while until everything is back and I can only work on it hourly at a time. But I get it. Unfortunately there are a lot of files. There are around 8000 files where the *.ctb is missing.

Bill Myers wrote on Oct 10^th, 2023 at 3:50pm:


I've already thought of that and it would actually be the easiest solution. The thing looks like this.

Me, begging for votes|Name|xxxxx@gmail.com|01/11/07 at 18:36:33|Name|xx|0|128.211.161.33|http://www.critters.org/predpoll<br><br>My poem is nominated. &nbsp;Only I--by Emily Veinglory.<br><br>Vote for whoever you want, of course<br><br>[ eyes]|| 

However, it is displayed Jan 1st, 1970 at 12:00am

This would be the correct entry 1168558593

Me, begging for votes|Name|xxxxx@gmail.com|1168558593|Name|xx|0|128.211.161.33|http://www.critters.org/predpoll<br><br>My poem is nominated. &nbsp;Only I--by Emily Veinglory.<br><br>Vote for whoever you want, of course<br><br>[ eyes]|| 

Then the correct date will also be displayed in the footer and the ex-member is no longer an ex-member.

I calculated it manually and that is a significant effort. I need a program or website that calculates this automatically.

Bill Myers wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 6:20pm:


Works perfectly. Shows me all the data.

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 7:50pm:


I also usually use Total Commander, but it couldn't show me more than 10,000 files, I don't know why, or I already know. Your server. It works without any problems on my server because it is a dedicated server that I can control as I want.

I can access SMTP with WinSCP, but not with Total Commander.

WinSCP is also free and freeware. You just have to be able to use the program. It's not easy.

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 7:50pm:


Christian Ghisler is German, like me.

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 3:32pm:


Works!!!!  Normpo ---> Your Password

If you're in the forum, please don't do anything, otherwise you could destroy everything. Just look around, nothing more.

Overall, I suspect that part of the forum was already converted from a YaBB 1 version and mistakes were made here. This is also the reason why an incorrect date is displayed.

Ha, Bingo und found

https://www.unixtime.de/index.php

My "unable to log in" resolved...it worked on two other computers and it also worked when I used Firefox instead of Chrome (even after cleaning all history).  So I re-installed Chrome and it is now okay.

Normp wrote on Oct 11^th, 2023 at 7:50pm:

NormP, thank you for letting me know about Total Commander. I appreciate it. It's always good to have options.

Just so you're aware, it's no longer free to new users. The download provides a 30 day demo version, after which registration & payment is needed in order to continue using the program. It's looks great, though, and seemingly identical to WinSCP, which remains a freeware program.

On a related note, one of the reasons that I switched to using WinSCP is because the freeware FTP program that I was using for many years became shareware like Total Commander is now. For at least a couple of years, though, registered users were still able to use that FTP program without having to pay a yearly fee; only a registration renewal was required. At some point, payment was required.

Whenever I use freeware on a frequent basis, I tend to make a yearly donation. I do the same for free websites like Wikipedia, etc.

@ Bill Myers

I also just learned. I couldn't program a forum myself. But I have learned how to restore a lost forum. I do this because I feel somehow obligated to do so. As I said, I just create what is available from the existing data. I can't make what isn't there. I can do something with a *.TXT. If there is only one *.CBT, I can tell what it was about. Nothing more than that. I started with YaBB in 2008 and am now 69 years old. I've always tried to help people wherever I could, always with great success. I just do what I can. To this day I have never lost a form, there hasn't been a forum that I couldn't restore, even if only partially, but at least. But what always pissed me off, apart from a big thank you, nothing came. But I don't care about that either. But only the stars know whether I will be able to help with the next problems. I'm always happy to help if I can, but I won't be taken for a fool.

And now the next thing. You and Pieszyce discuss SMF for a long time. Just keep going. You probably don't know the disadvantage of an SQL database. SQL is fast, I don't deny that. But SQL has limits and that is 64 mB. Have fun if you have to restore this database. I experienced it with Coppermine. I was only able to restore the database with a Dogger because the 64 mB was far exceeded with 35,000 images and 64 mB is even further exceeded for a forum of my size. That's the reason why I won't switch to SMF. SMF is very good software, I won't deny that, but it's not suitable for very large forums like the one I have. My forum has 460,907 posts in 50,829 topics as of this writing and everything is working stable because I've learned. This fits into a SQL database, but try to restore it if something happens and the server's hard drive breaks for some reason. Have fun. That's also the reason why I just stayed out of this discussion. I was getting too stupid. Even if YaBB 2.6.12 has errors, it is very stable and has been for years. I won't change it, why should I? I found many errors and reported them here in this forum. This is not unknown. If you accept these bugs, it's okay, if not, then it's my tushy. I will restore "Normp's" forum as long as the data is available. What doesn't work doesn't work.

This is my opinion, I don't really care what you think about it. I've had my experiences and I think what I'm doing today is right. If you disagree, please, I'm not stopping anyone.

@ Normp

It doesn't matter what I think is necessary, nobody cares. The important thing is what I can do and that's what I do. Okay, now comes the first task for you:
In the "Recycle Bin" folder there are 14 topics that I was able to create once. I don't know what will happen next. These 14 topics must now be moved into a category. Since I don't know where to go, that's your job. That should happen soon so I can move on. After that I will backup the CTB files where the TXT files are missing and let you know what is missing. I asked you about a backup but haven't received an answer yet. Do you still have a backup of this forum? No matter how old. Maybe I'll find something else.

What I noticed is that all the attachments are gone. There were only 5 pictures in it, but I couldn't identify them. But more on that later, it's not important yet.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 13^th, 2023 at 3:22pm:

When it comes to SMF versus YaBB, I'm in agreement with you. I've always prefered YaBB. I've used it since February 11, 2002 (YaBB Gold 1.4), and I still use it (YaBB 2.4). As long as it doesn't quit on me with a 500 error that I'm unable to fix, I plan to continue using it.

Just to have experience with it, and to have an alternate backup forum in case the YaBB forum that I operate becomes inoperable, I had SMF self-installed on a Cloud server that I've had since May 13, 2016. On that same server, I also had a phpBB forum self-installed. There are 19 other forum software options that are available for self-installation. Unfortunately, YaBB isn't one of them.

As you may already know, "On June 16, 2001, 16-year-old Zef Hemel along with collaborators Jeff Lewis, Corey Chapman, T. Oswalds, and Matt Mecham released the first open source bulletin board written in Perl called YaBB 1.0 (Yet Another Bulletin Board)."

"On November 12, 2001, shortly after the release of YaBB 1.0, a second program, YaBB SE 1, written by Jeff Lewis and Joseph Fung (from Lewis Media Inc.) with help from Zef Hemel and Christian Land (from the YaBB project) was released. Ultimately, users of this rough PHP port of YaBB also reported resource and security problems."

"Lewis and Fung split off from the YaBB SE team to try a different approach for addressing the YaBB SE efficiency problems, security concerns, and to add new features. Lewis and Fung did a complete rewrite of the code and changed the brand name to Simple Machines Forum (SMF). On September 30, 2003, the first "YaBB SE/SMF" product, SMF 1.0 Beta 1a, was released."

"The development and support team for YaBB SE was shut down in March 2004 with hundreds of communities in operation, when the developers joined the SMF project. A converter was developed to convert YaBB SE to SMF."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Machines_Forum

Details after what's quoted above really only concern SMF, which again, was originally a port of YaBB.

It seems that you may be out of date in terms of SQL limits. That's to say, as of this post, for instance, the SMF Support Community forum has "3,915,892 Posts in 464,526 Topics" with "451,755 Members". Clearly, an SQL database still works well for that forum.

Nonetheless, I remain biased towards YaBB, I guess because I've successfully used it for almost 22 years. By the way, you and I are practically the same age. I'll be turing 68 in 2024.

To be clear, since you inexplicably mentioned it, I haven't disagreed with anything that you've told us you've done. After all, I consider you to be a great asset to anybody who operates a YaBB forum given your expertise. That's why I've simply offered suggestions, i.e., things to possibly try, or to think about that have worked for me as well as others.

Unfortunately for us, YaBB's team development stopped a very long time ago. Its forked SMF software relative did not stop its team development. In large part, that's why SMF is still around with an obviously active support forum, and YaBB's support forum no longer exists.

As far as I know, this YaBB support forum of Dandello's is the only one that exists. If it wasn't for her generosity, and forethought to create her own YaBB support forum, webmasters like me with little to no knowledge of Perl would be at a loss if she, or experts like you were to stop supporting YaBB.

That's why switching to SMF or phpBB, etc., is usually our only option if we want to operate a forum after a YaBB forum has become inoperable. At the very least, getting acclimated to one or more forums is the prudent thing to do.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 14^th, 2023 at 4:48am:

I'm glad it was just a misunderstanding on my part. Thank you for the clarification.

Ah yes, the recovery. That's one of the things that concerns me about having a SQL database. I already had one go bad on me. I'm not sure what happened, but it was likely caused by something that I had done incorrectly. Luckily, though, it was only for a test forum that had nothing in it, but test posts from me. So I simply deleted it, and had the auto-installer create a new forum.

---

Quote:

Thank you for providing the link to that website. The option to translate it into English worked well.

---

Quote:

That's also one of the reasons that I prefer YaBB. Over the years I've restored a good number of files when they got corrupted.

Another reason that I prefer YaBB is because it's much easier for me to customize thanks to HTML templates.

---

Quote:

I wish that hadn't happened to you. It was very unfortunate, and so unnecessary.

The development of YaBB could have continued had there not been infighting pretty much from its start. But even if development had stopped, the sofware itself was wonderfully dependable. Had YaBB's linked support forum remained online, the number of YaBB users would have likely continued to grow exponentially.

On the other hand, YaBB's support forum wasn't particularly friendly to its users. A handful of moderators alienated a lot of members to the point that they left in droves. But even then, YaBB could have weeded out the bad moderators had there been a cohesive plan of action to transform it into a truly public endeavor rather than continue as a private entity.

In a perfect world for YaBB, which at one point was the leading free forum software package before eventually porting to SMF, contingency plans would have been in place to move its official support forum to another server when that need became evident.

As I understand it, a handful of people tried to contact the owner of the http://www.yabbforum.com/ domain without any success. Ideally, under the circumstances, ownership of that domain would have transfered to Dandello. Or at the very least, a simple forwarding of that domain could have been done.

That's the bad news. The good news is that "YaBB forum help" in Google brings up Dandello's forum here.

On a related note, all of us who still operate a YaBB forum may want to think about having contingency plans. The same goes for websites that we operate. Generally speaking, though, websites simply cease to exist at some point.

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 16^th, 2023 at 3:26am:

If I had the kind of knowledge that you have about how flat files work, etc., and if I was able to keep YaBB operating without getting a 500 error, I likely would have followed Dandello's lead to create my own YaBB Support Forum.

I hope that you'll consider it.

Ideally, my thinking is that the more YaBB Support Forums that we have online, the better the YaBB community will be served. In turn, that will enable YaBB forums all over the world to continue operating indefinitely.

On that note, it would be great if all YaBB Support Forums would exchange links. That way, whenever any of them cease operations, support for YaBB could still continue.

On a related note, it would be prudent for those who know how to do it to have backup copies of the files that are needed to install YaBB.

"WELCOME TO YABB 2.6.12 RELEASE"

"This version is the latest Stable release!"

https://sourceforge.net/p/yabb/svn/HEAD/tree/trunk/

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 17^th, 2023 at 5:44am:

Yes, it would be worth a try. 

On that note, Dandello appears to be the only person on YaBB's development team to have made the effort to continue its development. But probably more important, it also appears that she's the only developer to have created a support forum for YaBB.

In a word, those two things are extraordinary!

---

Quote:

That may be, but at the present time, the link that I quoted is what Dandello has provided. It's been a while, but as a "Tester" of YaBB's 2.6.11 forum software, I remember downloading those resources to successfully install it for review.

My test forum: http://www.myersproductions.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

pyragony54 wrote on Oct 17^th, 2023 at 5:32pm:

It appears that you're correct about that.

I think I got the coding directly from Google, but I don't remember. Since I didn't find any notes about it, I'll have to create a note in my YaBB help files.

In any case, in the Admin menu under "Forum Controls" and then "Template", it looks like there are two places to enable Google Translate where it's positioned.

Look for {yabb grayscript} as I have it in the coding below, and then below that after a space, copy & paste what's shown.

 {yabb grayscript}

 <meta name="google-translate-customization" content="bc483284b366963d-637464d1a65fc0e4-g23f100ec9fc785f2-2e"></meta>
  

Also, look for <td class="small vtop">{yabb newstitle} <span id="newsdiv"></span> as I have it in the coding below, and then below that after a space, copy & paste what's shown.

 <td class="small vtop">{yabb newstitle} <span id="newsdiv"></span>

 <div id="google_translate_element"></div><script type="text/javascript">
 function googleTranslateElementInit() {
 new google.translate.TranslateElement({pageLanguage: 'en', layout: google.translate.TranslateElement.InlineLayout.SIMPLE, multilanguagePage: true}, 'google_translate_element');
 }
 </script><script type="text/javascript" src="//translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit
"></script>

 </td>
 </tr>
 </table>
  

I hope that works.

@ Bill Myers

Why don't you take this mod? It works perfectly on 2.6.11. I have tested it.

https://yabbforumsoftware.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1426875947

Here is my gift for you.

<FORM method=GET action="https://www.google.com/search">
 <A HREF="https://www.google.com/">
 <IMG SRC="https://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif" border="0"
 ALT="Google"></A><p>
 <input type=text name=q size=31 maxlength=255 value="">
 <input type=submit name=btnG VALUE="Google Search"><p>
 <input type=hidden name=domains value="https://www.xxxxxx.de">
 <input type='hidden' name='ie' value='iso-8859-1'>
 <input type='hidden' name='oe' value='iso-8859-1'>
 <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="">World Wide Web
 <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="https://www.xxxxxx" checked>your Forum
 </FORM> 

In Templates -> index.html

Search:

                 <td class="small vtop" style="padding-left:1%">{yabb newstitle} <span id="newsdiv"></span>
                 </td>
             </tr>
         </table> 

and Add after the Code.

Google Translate works.

https://www.yabbtest.de/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl

@ Bill Myers

Now all hope was in vain. Even if the translator works perfectly, I no longer see any images displayed in the forum. No matter which one I install. nuts happens.

@ Bill Myers

I think it's because of Java. The translation tools all work, but then images are no longer displayed in the forum. You can display the image, but only if you click on it. That's not the point of it. Maybe Dandello can adapt the mod from XTC, I can't do it. It runs on your Yabb version. Not with mine. That means it's already running, but the flags are nicely distributed across the screen. That's because I can't make the adjustment.

@ Bill Myers

What he writes there is once again beginner-like. The XTC mod worked perfectly for me. Whenever XTC did something, he always did it perfectly because I had always tested his mods. There was probably a misunderstanding with the flags. I meant the flags in the XTC mod. It was always the same with both translation tools. I couldn't see any pictures.

@ Bill Myers

don't worry, i didn't mix anything. I installed both versions separately and neither of them displayed the images. Unfortunately that is the case. Both worked too. Maybe Dandello will take a look and know a solution. I think it's because of Java. I'll put the script somewhere else in the test forum and see what happens.

@ Bill Myers

I think you do not understand me. The flags are only displayed in the XTC mod. I'm talking about images that are in the forum as file attachments. They are no longer displayed.