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I suspect the links used in the single post in that pinned thread point to other past threads and are now broken due to some sort of reformatting of URLs as part of the upgrade.

This happened with a previous forum upgrade over there, and I did go back then and edit any URLs in every one of my posts to fix that. However, I'll not do that again. I don't have time to clean up the messes that keep getting made, and the new FAQ sez posts may only be edited for 360 minutes after they have been made.

Worse yet, I don't see any means to perform a Forum Search(of archived threads).

I pretty much gave up on that site months ago and only make an occassional post there anymore. Seems like "the powers that be" over there are only concerned with the discusssion of the moment and see no value in referencing ground that has already been covered.

Good thing we have this great site. I believe BigKev duplicated most of the Xref content here some time ago.

If I remember right, I think it was either you, Brian, or Craig who suggested someone make a backup of the AACA '55-'56 X-Ref pages. I hope someone took the time to do it.

i found the 55-56 x-ref at AACA and floated it to the top.

Boy... i can just FEEL the love. :)

The AACA forums are back to working as they should. The upgrade was painful, but neccessary. Migrating almost 600,000 posts were a bigger problem than I anticipated. I plan on making a few cosmetic changes still, but technically its back to normal.

Searches work
xref is 100% intact
etc.

Yup, the old url's are broken, unfortunately that is the cost of progress. Someday when BigKev has to update this site the same problems will occur. Hope treat him well when he does.

The new software will provide some additional features, faster searches, better editing, easier attachement features, more photo features, etc.

Enjoy.

Peter

P.S. J.S. - Maybe you should enjoy a beer now and again. May loosen the stick.

I am no webmaster, but while it may be inevitable that external links become dead-ends, broken internal links - even though they are within user posts - give the appearance of poor planning or simply not caring about the users. I'm no programmer, but I don't believe for a NY minute that situation couldn't have been avoided.

While the PackardInfo.com site has been up for less than two years, it has undergone some very substantial changesand revisions. There may have been some very short-lived blips in service, but I've seen no loss of data. No one's posts have been irretrievably deleted "by accident", either. BigKev must really move carefully and stay on top of things.

No wonder this online community has attracted nearly 250 registered users in such a short time - and with so little moderation.

For awhile now I have not relied on any outside software (or its developers) for the Forums or any other part of the website. So the forum is safe from Upgrade Hell.

I took Open Source software, and modified for this website. If you were to download the latest open source version of this Forum, you would see that it wouldn't have Spell Check, or have the ability to jump to the newest message. Those were features I added myself.

The Model Info Pages, Parts X-Ref, and Owner Registry were custom written by me. All of the content was of course from you guys.

All of this was done to provide a unified login to the website, very little downtime, and only one throat to choke if there is a problem, mine. The only service blips I have really seen is when my ISP is having actual server or switching problems. But that is pretty rare.

When making any updates, I back up all the PHP files locally. Make the changes, and test. If something goes south, I simply put the backup PHP back in place. No harm, no foul. Most of the time, this is done in the late PM California time, so there are very few people online at that time.

The fact I am a Software developer by trade allows be to make beneficial improvements to the website without having to resort to major upgrades and the problems that come with them. Relying on outside software is a nightmare, so I feel for the people that have to.