When do you close your board? (Xenforo related maintenance)

[sbj]

Hey,

I haven't launched my project but soon hopefully my board will be active.

But I asked myself, because this is my first attempt in running a forum, when I should go inactive with my board.

Like now I can install whenever I want a new add-on and also can rebuild whenever I want caches.
But if my board is active and people are online and messaging, are there any maintenance stuff I should be careful of? Like first closing the board and then doing the stuff I need to do.

Can you tell me which kind of maintenance stuff I should do always when my board is closed?
First just Xenforo related things, but also in general?

When do you close your board?

 

[Paul B]

I close it when doing a XenForo upgrade for a second point release, to allow time to update any templates, options, etc, and when I do a full back up of the database and file system.

It isn't usually necessary to close it when updating an add-on but it won't hurt to do so.

 

[sbj]

Ah, yeah, updating the forum software and backing up of database/files were not in my mind.
I assume at the latest I would realise that I should close my board before I update the forum software and do back ups. Thanks.

So, but for updating add-ons it isnt necessary you say. Ok, good to know. How about rebuilding caches?

 

[Paul B]

Again it's not necessary but it won't hurt to do so and may mean it completes sooner if it's a busy/active site.

 

[rdn]

Uploading latest files from upgrade zip archive will automatically close your forum also
So no need to manually closed your board.
Then it will re-open your forum automatically after you run the upgrade.

 

[rdn]

Post #5 Edited:
So no need to manually closed your board.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

My backups run automatically in the background, as above, upgrading auto closes your board... but I do manually close it for major point releases, purely because there are always some minor issues I find, thus allow for them so I can fix before the public view the site.

I may also close it when playing around with add-ons that may break a primary function of the forums operation.

 

[keith.arvixe]

I found that closing my board on off peak hours is a perfect way to do it. I usually give my members a 24-48 hour notice with about how long it will be down. I also do it when I do upgrades etc.

 

[Verringer]

If I need to update something that requires closing my board, there's a few things you can do that I advise from experience.

1: Provide a way for users to continue communicating, IRC is a good way of doing this.
2: On your "forum down", provide the time that it'll be back (latest - they'll be happy when it doesn't take that long) and don't tell too much, let them be excited for updates.
3: Do it in AUS hours (early morning GMT) mid-week, possibly 7-10am (UK time).

Gl.