Administrator

Update: Testing continues. Some functionality issues identified. Progressing.

I will say only two things on this topic: 1) I've played some imported, Asian guitars that were head and shoulders above some American-made guitars in quality and consistency 2) I like that they have the 12th fret dots a normal distance apart. For some reason, from the 80s up until present day, a lot of Asian guitars have wide-spaced 12th fret inlays and that's always bothered me. OK, three things: 3) An H-137 should *not* have a bolt on neck. WTF.

Update 4: XenForo fixed their installer, just for us. Wild. Anyway, we have success (so far). Stay tuned.

Update 3: XenForo support has identified the cause of the error in the importer script and are working on a fix.

Update 2: The importer script is still throwing an error. Seems to be related to Polls. XenForo support is on the case. Have attempted their proposed solution with no change. The quest continues.

Update 1: XenForo software installed just fine, including the Gallery. The Import Utility to migrate from IPB, however, failed. Working on a solution. Will provide another update as we progress.

Friends, HOCtonians, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come not to bury the HOC, but to praise it.... Wait, no, wrong Forum. Let me restart, please... Hello, fellow intrepid HOCtonians, This is an official notification that the HOC will be undergoing a migration from the existing IP.Board software to XenForo. This will not occur tonight, as I've had far too much wine with our traditional NYE Swiss Fondue dinner. I'm fully satiated and have something more than "a little glow" going. That being said, over the next several days, there will likely be some ups and downs, perhaps even--dare I say?--outages, as the software migration kicks off. Whatever you do, don't panic! You do have your towel, correct? That's all you need to get through what will surely be a trying time for us all. This will be the third iteration of the HOC. We originally started out on the free Simple Machines platform. That's where most of our goofy emojis/emoticons (does anyone know the difference?) came from. I'm not sure if those will make the transition this time. Once we had grown beyond what that board offered, we moved on to IP.Board, where we've been for many, many years. Possibly as long as a decade. Or, at least, near to it. It's been a good run, but...sometimes change is good. One of the things that seems to have gone missing through various IPB upgrades and backup/restore cycles, is the original HOC logo. As I recall, this was commissioned and delivered by Mr. @Jim W way back in 2008. I do not seem to have a copy of the original, alas. If you (@Jim W) or anyone else has the original file, I'd be forever indebted to whomever can restore this treasured, storied piece of HOC history. I recall it appeared on banners at PSP I, also provided by Jim's selfless generosity. Please bear with us as we begin yet another "new era" of the HOC. Be well, Me

Merry Christmas to all, and a great big HOC thanks to each of you for being here!

Oh, there is for sure some lingering wonkiness. Aggravating. Just as a heads up, I am once again considering migrating off IPB to Xenforo. Very similar look/feel/functionality, lower licensing cost. And maybe migrating would fix some of the lingering wonkiness (What was the last thing left in Pandora's box?).

Well, there are still issues. For some reason there are *some* profile images that are still broken. There are *some* of the rank logos broken. Etc, etc. Doesn't affect the functioning of the board, but I'll tell you what, it bothers me. Very unprofessional looking. Still digging in to it, so bear with us.

Found some lingering issues. Resolved those. Last one outstanding is that outbound mail has opted not to send. Working on it. If you've forgotten your password, or signed up a new account...apologies for the delay in getting those emails to you! Update: Email sending is fixed

No clue what happened here. The old system decided to suddenly stop processing the IPBoard scripts correctly. This led to an adventure I'd rather not recount, and most people would be bored to tears by, anyway. Looks like everything is back up and running, thanks to a new server. I'll check logs periodically to make sure nothing is amiss. Hoping everyone has a very happy holiday season--whichever you do or don't celebrate--and fantastic end of year/New Year!

Could be any number of things. There are some 250+ tables in the database that underlies the HOC. Backups run nightly, weekly, monthly. Could be the backups are running long. Could be someone hasn't done any database maintenance in many months (but is now done). Could be the board software really prefers/is optimized for (in recent versions) a different db engine than what half the tables are using (something someone will definitely have to address at some point, but it's kind of a pain). Just as an aside, there are somewhere north of 2.1 million rows in the HOC database, spread across the various tables. You all have been...busy these last 16 years.

I have updated the board software this morning. This should resolve a few issues that users seemed to be experiencing. I've also changed the base URL from http:// to https://, which should force SSL. Maybe. We'll see.

After more than a year of planning, testing and procrastinating, the board has been upgraded to the latest version of the IP.Board software. Many changes have occurred, but the foundation of the HOC--it's members--remains in place. Hopefully, the new features will be a positive factor and not detract from the discussion and interactions. If you notice anything broken, or experience any difficulties, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM. -Admin

The developer of the software this forum runs on released a major upgrade several months ago. Based on my experience with such things, I opted to wait out the first few bug fixes and see how it shook out. At this time, the code has more or less stabilized, with several bug fixes having been released. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I will be putting up a new test system and investigating any upgrade issues. Once the test system has been fully wrung out, I will make an announcement regarding the upgrade process and how it will afffect the production system. Your patience is appreciated.

As many of you reading this are no doubt already aware, the Heritage Owners Club (HOC) forum software received a major facelift in late April of this year. Actually, a major transplant is probably a better analogy, as we shifted off the free (no cost) Simple Machines Forum code to the commercial Invision Power Services (IPB) Community Suite as well as moving from our previous webhosting service to a tier one provider. If you vist the Forums, you can explore the new functionality that IP.Board provides, as well as enjoy the new, cleaner look. If you were a regular user of the old board, you will likely experience a bit of a learning curve. In the end, though, I think you will find the new board to be much more flexible and powerful. Hopefully, we will also find the new (hardware) system to be much more reliable. As part of the Community Suite, we also have the integrated IP.Gallery image component installed. If you have not taken the time to create your own album in the Members Gallery, please do! Our new Gallery Moderator, mars_hall, has also taken the time and expended significant effort to create a Rogues Gallery of various Heritage guitars owned by our members. The pictures came from the previous Photobucket site, but if you have specific model images you would like to have added, please contact mars_hall either through the board's personal message or email systems. Lastly, we have the IP.Blog component of the Community Suite. What you are now reading is a part of the blog system, which still requires some further tweaking. Members of the HOC forum are allowed to create their own blogs, and can choose to make them private (the member chooses who has access to view their entries) or public, which would be open to everyone. As we move forward, I will be going through the various blog configuration items and (hopefully) improving the functionality. With the move to this new environment, I think we have an opportunity to create an even more impressive community than we already have. The integration of the various IPB components should allow for easier inclusion of images in the forums, as well as bringing both forum posts and gallery images into any blogs that are created. In the end, though, the HOC is not a pile of hardware located in some data center. It is more than the transfer of electrons over wires, or the interplay between software packages. The HOC is what it is because of its members. The participation of people like you who have an affinity, if not love, for these works of art in wood and steel and abalone are what make the HOC a community. Please accept my sincere appreciation for being a part of the growing, evoloving Heritage Owners Club. We couldn't have done it without you. Admin