This is a really complex issue – maybe a “hot rod” analogy will help to ‘splain some of the problems / issues.

The previous version of Club Hot Rod was based on a “mature” platform – let’s say like a 392 Hemi from the late 1950’s. Brent and Bill had that baby tuned to a “T” and we all liked it a lot. Hummed along and really had no issues. The unfortunate reality of cyberspace is that the system administrators across the globe tire quickly of “current technology” and move to bigger, better and different configurations. The “engines” used to power other forums were replaced and from a technological standpoint, began to leave the old Hemi behind. Now that’s not to say the Hemi was bad mind you, but she didn’t have dual overhead cams and only sixteen valves and well, the “mechanics” moved on and stopped supporting the old gal. There came a point when there was no more leaded fuel and all the really ace mechanics were gone so the Hemi needed to be retired…

Now we have vBulletin – which is a content publishing and bulletin board software that used by a lot of online forums. In a perfect world, we could equate it to say an “LT-x”, where “x” is the latest generation from GM - loads of new technology and lots of spunk. Good support from lots of fresh young “mechanics” (read system administrators, programmers, etc…) And herein lies the problem – we’ve still got a lot of guys (and gals) who are thinking “392 Hemi” in the hot rod! We’ve got a Fatman frame and parts from Jegs, Speedway and maybe an ol’ “racer Brown” camshaft. Well these new mechanics don’t know beans from sour grapes about this stuff so when we try and log on – there can be issues.

We probably have five different versions of Internet Explorer, several versions of Mozilla (Firefox and Minefield) and some Macs – all different eras and all different Operating Systems (OS) from Windows 95 to NT to XP to Windows7 and probably some Linux and “Freeware” thrown in for good measure. We have Dells, Sony, Toshibas, Gateway, IBM, HP and a slew of other brands and some “roll-your-own” that people have built from parts. All have different “insides” in terms of software, firmware and hardware. There are numerous combinations that all use some “common code” but have unique (proprietary) end points to work with their particular brand. It’s like trying to connect AN brake lines fittings to metric calipers – you need to know both sizes and supply an adapter. Once in place, the adapter works fine and you never worry about it again.

This will sort out as the problems are logged and the system administrators fix the bugs – kinda like metric to AN – except there are a group of folks out there that delight in dumping sugar in the gas tank or the master cylinder and destroying things “just because they can”. As such, every bug has to be considered “hostile” and worked backwards to make sure the fix will not be worse than the problem. The process is brutal – and sometimes the fixes only work on the latest generation(s) of software. That’s part of the “planned obsolescence” program that eventually forces people to upgrade their hardware and software because support moves beyond their environment and eventually will not work.

Bottom line – XP and later OS is well supported, older not so much. Latest Internet Explorer (8.0.xx) – good support, several versions back (7.0.xx), fair support - older not so much. Firefox 5.0 okay – older will have some issues. And 32 versus 64 bit OS – well that’s a whole other set of issues. As painful as it is to say – the “latest greatest” is probably going to give the best performance on this site but even those with the "latest" will have to reload pages now and again..

Regards All,
Glenn