This post is extracted from a thread in the Scribe of the Council forum (see here).

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Yes, Lýthia.com has finally had a face lift after many years of looking the same. The new site uses WordPress, a popular weblog software package. I hope this makes the content of Lýthia.com fresher and more constantly changing. There is an RSS feed for those of you who like that kind of thing (I’ve just started using Google reader myself, so I know it works). But let’s begin at the beginning for those that are confused.

So what the hell is going on?
Lythia.com and the HarnForum used to be two different web sites built using different software packages; Lythia.com used Post Nuke, and the HarnForum used (and still uses) phpBB. Each website required a user to register; that is, a user had to register on both sites, each independent of the other. Not long ago, I amalgamated the two sites, putting the forum software “underneath” the main Lythia.com site name. But that didn’t change the need to be registered on both areas.

Now the main site has been updated. I no longer use Post Nuke; instead I decided to use blogging software from WordPress. Just like Post Nuke, it requires registration of users, and this is still separate from the phpBB software that the HarnForum uses. And, unfortunately, I was unable to copy user registration details from the old Post Nuke software to the new WordPress sofftware; the two systems are incompatible that way.

In case you don’t know, blogging software allows for others (subscribers) to respond to individual blog entries (called posts) with comments of their own. I have set up Lythia.com so that only people who are registered with the blogging software (NB, not registered with the forum because that’s separate) to make comments on posts. You don’t NEED to be registered if you have no intention of leaving comments, you can use the site the same way everyone else does. Or you can delay registering until you DO want to make a comment. Either/or, I don’t mind.

So what’s this about the forum again?
Going back to the beginning; phpBB, the software used for the HarnForum, has recently gone through a major upgrade (from v2 to v3). This new version was five years in the making. It has significant new functionality and new security. It’s hands down a vital upgrade. When I moved the HarnForum from its own website (the old http://www.harnforum.com) to its new home under Lythia.com, I upgraded the forum software to an early release candidate (a beta version, if you like) of the new v3 phpBB software. All was good for a long time.

But finally, the developers of phpBB finalised the new software and released the official new version. I didn’t know this, but there had been 5 other beta releases since I installed the new HarnForum and some of these made changes to the behind-the-scenes database. So when I upgraded, things went south a bit…the HarnForum suddenly became unusable. And the only way I could see to fix the problem was to start from scratch and then move the information from the old into the new.

Now comes the part where we join things together. Since I was intending to update Lythia.com with the new blogging software in the very near future anyway, I decided to bring that forward to mesh with the new install of the Harnforum using the brand new version 3 of the phpBB software. Of course, I hadn’t quite finished porting all the downloads across….

Where are all the downloads?
Very few of the downloaded are available. I plan to rectify this over the next few weeks, but there are a few hundred files, and each has to be linked in, and a post made. Yes, I have found a way to track downloads.

Why Blogging Software?
I wanted to use blogging software for several reasons; the first and most important is to allow easy content updates to Lythia.com. The second is to allow me…or force me…to write. I want to be a writer, and the strongest , most frequent advice I get is to write, then write some more, and then write again. Write every day. Writing is something that must be practiced, so I’m told. Blogging about myself has no attraction, but blogging about Hârn, well, that’s something I can try to do. The third reason is to open up authorship to a select few others; to give other Harn writers an opportunity to write short blogs on their topic of choice.

But that doesn’t mean I’m restricting authorship; far from it. I encourage everybody to have a go, but you will need to contact an author with your piece and they will advise, edit and put the piece up on Lythia.com. This, I hope, will encourage contributions from those for whom English might be a second language, or for those English speakers who don’t have as solid a grasp of the technical aspects of writing as they might like. This is where you can start to learn. The authors I plan on having will have a proven track record of publishing material.

OK. So, anything I should know about?
Yes. Installing the new version of the phpBB forum software has had the undesired effect that you will have to delete all Lythia.com cookies from you browsers (see here for details of how to delete cookies), and you may have to upload your avatars again. I don’t know about uploaded attachements; these may have failed to link back in, although I did copy them across. If you have uploaded files in the past, please check your threads to see if they still link to them. If not, please upload them again (you can edit your own messages), and let me know (see address below).

If you have any problems or you want to contact me for any reason at all, then please send me an email. For the time being, the address is new-lythia@lythia.com (this address won’t last very long).

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NOTES:
Registering: Sorry for the confusion; Lythia.com is made up of two main components; the BLOG site and the FORUM site. You will need to register on the BLOG site if you wish to make comments on articles written on the BLOG site. If you are already a member of the FORUM site, you don’t need to register there again. If you are new here, you will need to register on BOTH sites.
Register here for the BLOG site
Register here for the FORUM site <— Don’t do this if you are already a member of the HârnForum!