***UPDATE 2/22/17***
So, remember when Clay used to say "soon" and we would get all excited about something happening and then months would go by with nothing? Well, this upgrade is sort of a throwback to those days. I thought things would be happening soon but in reality it was "soon". I'm still working on things. We are still running high on resources and I believe this is why I am unable to create a backup of the forum before the upgrade. If my guy isn't able to do anything soon rather than "soon" I will see if there is someone else who can help. Like me he works 2 jobs and sometimes his time is limited. I apologize for the wait and the anxiety about what will happen to our forum. I will do better in communicating with all of you and keeping you updated with the process.
***UPDATE 2/3/17**
The forum software will be updated shortly. An attempted backup of the forum kept resulting in error messages, perhaps because of the resource limit. The update MIGHT cause some data to be lost. How much data I do not know. Hopefully it will not happen but the update DOES need to happen to help prevent further overages and site outage. I do not know how long the update will take. You may always contact me at my email listed below.
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I have been in contact with our service provider to learn why we keep receiving the error message and how to avoid it. They were able to tell me that our plan allows for 12 GB of storage, but we are currently using 14.9 GB. With their help we were able to drop that storage down to 11.6 GB, this will cause issues, as we won't be able to save/upload more files. I have temporarily turned off the ability to upload attachments to posts until I can figure out how to free up more space.
They also let me know that the software that runs our forum needs to be updated. They are not responsible for the software or the upgrade but directed me where to go for more information. I will try to do a backup of the forum before the upgrade but cannot guarantee nothing will be lost. Once I know more about how long the upgrade will take and how it will affect the forum I will let everyone know. I will not do the upgrade without informing everyone first.
If you need to reach me please email me at spacemichelle @ lycos.com (just remove the spaces in the address).