https://www.icyphoenix.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=981&p=7859#p7859
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Mighty Gorgon
Sun 21 Jan, 2007 23:56

Icy Phoenix Beta Testing Phase
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Hi all, I'm finally back from NY... :mri:

After having published the beta of Icy Phoenix the activity on this site is grown very much... and of course I'm happy to see that most of the users like what I've done so far.

Anyway I think that I've been misunderstood in some way with my release post, and I would like to clarify and point out some things.

[list=1][*]First of all:

[quote user="Mighty Gorgon" post="6491"]This beta release is meant for giving you some flavour of what the Icy Phoenix is going to be, fixing the bugs and maybe obtain some good suggestions to be implemented in the final release... Even if this package is quite stable I would suggest you to install it on live environments only if you are quite good PHP and phpBB. During the beta testing period only a limited support (focused exclusively on fixing bugs) will be given on Icy Phoenix.

If you are trying to upgrade your existing sites to this release you should consider that the final release may not contain upgrading instructions from this beta. Remember also that the old upgrading instructions won't work fine because the structure of the package has been changed... You have been warned... :wink:
[/quote]

This is a quote from the release post... and I would like to stress this point.

BETA Release means that the package is not fully tested and working. I repeat once again that you should not use this on LIVE environments, unless you know what you are doing and you think you are able to sort out all the problems that may arise.

I didn't provide the upgrade instructions from phpBB XS just for the same reason... I don't want users trying this if they are not confident with the package.

I have to write this post because I'm reading too many posts from people asking for support in upgrading their site... and I don't like it! The package is not fully tested, it is not stable, it may be exposed to risks and so on... what is most important is that [i][color=crimson]NO INSTRUCTIONS will be given to upgrade from the beta release... so you may not be able to upgrade to the final version[/color][/i].

[*]The second thing that brings me to write this post is that I've read that some features are not working, that the old template is missing, that there are blank pages and so on...

Well, once again... BETA means just that this issues are more likely to happen than in the final release (of course I'm not an expert coder, so even the final release will be buggy... but hopefully more tested and stable than this one).

[*]This package is phpBB 2 based... and won't ever be upgraded to phpBB 3... so, if you want something that will be based on phpBB 3, this is not the right place. At the moment I don't have the time to code something for phpBB 3, and what I think is important to stress is that while phpBB 2 is now running since 7 years and it is quite stable... phpBB 3 will be hopefully released this year and it will take a while before the package will be as stable as phpBB 2 is... and even most the mods need to be rewritten and adapted... and this will take much time as well.

[*]This project is based on phpBB which is released under the GNU... I would like to report this excerpt of it:
[quote]  The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU General Public
License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
software--to make sure the software is free for all its users.  This
General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
the GNU Library General Public License instead.)  You can apply it to
your programs, too.

  When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.

  To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.

  For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have.  You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code.  And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.

  We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
(2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
distribute and/or modify the software.

  Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
software.  If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
authors' reputations.

  Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
program proprietary.  To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.

  The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.[/quote]

This means that each of you can use, modify and distribute this software by accepting this... but also that you are taking all the risks to use it.

[*]This package is based on phpBB XS which I was developing together with Bicet until august, before I decided to leave that project... since most of the features were coded by ourselves, I don't see the point in changing some things we have built... I specify this because someone wrote that this package is similar to phpBB XS: why should I change something I have coded in the past even if under a different name?[/list]


[color=darkblue]I hope that you can understand my point... I don't want to be rude, I would like to stress that this release is meant for:[/color]
[list][*][color=darkgreen]You to have a guess of what the final release will be like[/color]
[*][color=darkgreen]Helping me in finding bugs[/color]
[*][color=darkgreen]Having some suggestions and feedbacks[/color][/list]

Any other kind of request is not appropriate in this phase... so in the future any request of support which is not a bug reporting or a suggestion, it is likely to be locked and not answered... sorry for that, but it is in your interest that you should not use this package if not fully confident with what you are doing.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
[i]Luca Libralato[/i]


