Patrick

Hey all, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree this time is... @P.A.L for the third time! May marked 22 years that P.A.L has been a member here. Thank you for being a great part of our community for so long! Patrick

Welcome @SemperMorosus! Glad to have you.

Hey all, July 31 marks 20 years since Brian (@bushido_man96) joined our staff here at KarateForums.com. As you may know, we recently celebrated 25 years as a community. Which means that Brian has been on staff for roughly 79.5% of our existence. We've never had a staff member here reach this milestone, but it isn't just rare here, it is rare in online communities in general to have a volunteer staff member who commits to a community like this in this fashion for such a long period of time. When he hit 10 years on staff, I noted that Brian had made more than 26,000 posts and was the first member to hit 25,000. Building on that, he now has more than 31,000 and was the first to reach 30,000. But as I said then, the number only tells part of the story. Brian's posts, having been a member for well over 20 years now. What I think is most impressive to me about Brian is that even as his knowledge in the arts has grown, he has continued to be the same person when it comes to how he listens, creates space for others, makes them feel welcome, and is open to their viewpoints. I believe that is what separates a member with a lot of posts from a member that truly makes an impact within our community. This is demonstrated in many ways, among them our KarateForums.com Awards. At the time when he reached the 10-year staff mark, Brian had been nominated in the awards more than any other member and was second all-time in award wins. Those two things are still true today, and the numbers have roughly doubled, from 36 to 68 and 13 to 27. When I talk about the private, staff-facing side of Brian's contributions, I can say that he is someone who has carried his weight as a moderator and has made this a better, friendlier, safer, and smarter place. He has put in time to ensure that this community, that he has derived value from, can continue to create that same value for others. I am grateful for all of the contributions that Brian has made to our community, both in public and on staff. Thank you for your friendship and all of your support over the years, Brian. It means a lot to me. As we neared this date, I reached out to a handful of members to ask for their thoughts on Brian. Here's what they sent back: In addition to the gratitude expressed on this thread, I am also mailing a gift to Brian, and I will post a photo of it once he has received it. Please join me in congratulating Brian on this unique milestone by replying here and sharing your memories and thoughts on the impact he has made here. Thanks, Patrick

Thanks @camotheman, @KarateKen, and @sensei8. I appreciate the understanding, flexibility, and kind words. One thing that can't be overstated with these types of updates is just how it ensures the community's future. Keeping with the latest edition of the software we use helps to keep the site secure, and provides flexibility for future adjustments and changes.

Hey all, I was able to complete the previously announced software update over a few hours today. I hit a handful of roadblocks over the last two weeks as I worked to get this done and navigated those as my schedule allowed. I hit a couple of other issues today, but was able to research my way around those, as well. Since this is a new version of our community software, the site will look a little different. I tried to customize the colors so that it wouldn't be too jarring, but a few elements have been shuffled around. If you can't find something, please feel free to let me know, either here or via private message, and I'll be happy to help. As I did in the months leading up to this update, I will draw your attention to a key difference which is that, when you login, you will now login with your email address and password, instead of your username and password. This is as good a time as any to ensure that you have a valid email address on file. Thank you for your patience and understanding during this downtime. Patrick

Sorry Bob. That's a massive pain.

So sorry for your loss, Bob.

Moving to this thread: https://karateforums.com/topic/52616-july-3-2026-software-upgrade-status-updates/

Hey all, Just following up on this thread, as I thought it would be helpful to have some running updates as I upgrade our community software. All times Pacific (UTC -7). I will come back and edit this initial post as things progress. Thank you for reading and for your patience. Patrick July 3 4:09pm: I have mostly spent time today on backend checks that didn't require me to take the community offline, so that's why everything is running as normal. When I apply the update, and the site comes back, it might look different for a bit until I correct the design issues. Mostly, I expected this to be changing the colors to fit our normal KarateForums.com color scheme. 7:09pm: I am going to push the actual update to this weekend as it is a bit late tonight, and there's no rush. Please use the site as normal. July 6 9:03pm: I decided to hold off a bit as I don't expect any trouble with this update, but I do need to be in the same place at the same time for an hour or two, which is tough when I am chasing my son around, but I hope to get it done this week. July 8 2:25pm: I have been trying to get this done, but am having some difficulty creating the space needed to run a full backup prior to the upgrade attempt. Once I figure that out, I will process the update. July 9 3:34pm: We appear to have the disk place issue sorted. Unfortunately, I have some other plans for this weekend, so I am going to go ahead and push this to next week. Thank you for your patience.

You're sort of inadvertently making the point there, Bob. I will say, as much as I love baseball, I have found the pace of play improvements to be a plus. I find myself watching more baseball.

Bummer to hear this, WalterJ. Annoying to have to wait. Maybe they'll have a cancellation and can get you in sooner.

Hey all, just wanted to come back on today, the actual day that makes 10 years! Congrats again, Bob. Thank you.

Updating my February 10 post: Now that our 25th birthday celebration is complete, I am going to go ahead and move forward with this change on July 3. Thank you for your patience!

Hey all, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. We recognize one member every month as the KarateForums.com Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. Our honoree this time is... @Bulltahr for the third time! It was so good to see you pop back up for the 25th birthday celebration. Thank you for being a part of this community for the last 11+ years! I appreciate all of the contributions that you have made. Patrick

My pleasure, Bob. Thanks!