FAQ regarding the forthcoming upgrade.

[Morrus]

I chose to do it in two stages because, to be honest, I feel more comfortable doing it in stages.

 

[barsoomcore]

It's the correct approach, though, Morrus.

If you make one change, and something goes wrong, you know what caused it (broadly speaking).

If you make two changes, and something goes wrong, the amount of work involved in tracking down the source of the problem just doubled. That's a best-case scenario.

And with little things like COMPLETE DATABASE REWRITES and COMPLETE HARDWARE REPLACEMENTS, you know things are going to go wrong. It's never going to be a question of "hoping it all works" -- the question has to be "making it as simple as possible to figure out why whatever went wrong went wrong".

Any time you change your software, you introduce issues. Guaranteed. The trick is to manage those issues and make it as simple as possible to solve them.

 

[BSF]

Speaking from the standpoint of a System Administrator, I cannot echo Henry and Umbran enough! Yes, you can make all the changes at once and hopefully everything will be fine. I have watched far too many people make multiple changes at once and burn themselves badly. It will be an inconvenience to have the site down. However, I would rather see Morrus stage the changes and reduce the risk of losing key portions of the site.

As Barsoomcore says, it is the right choice.

 

[guedo79]

But will this include the new smiles?