Security and Other Upgrades to The Chase Lounge - 2018

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Hello All,

As part of my commitment to maintain this forum for long-time members who still occasionally stop by and to keep it attractive to the (still-expanding!) universe of new visitors, I've just completed a hair-pulling round of upgrades. Most are aimed at security and compliance with current web technologies and include the following:

  • A move to the https (SSL) protocol. In plain English, this means information/content exchanged between a user and the site will utilize an encrypted connection of the type used in e-commerce for years. This will essentially guarantee that what you see in your browser when you visit a Chase Lounge page actually came from the site and not some hacker and that any information you send the other way (e.g., your password and login information) is not stolen. Trivial as it may seem for someone to intercept your login info for a message board, many people use the same password or login information across many sites, including email hosts and sites collecting sensitive financial information. And that's part of the reason Google has led the way to get the entire Internet encrypted. So now when you login to the forum, you will see the green "Secure" padlock in the left-most portion of the address bar in Chrome or Firefox (or the equivalent symbol in your browser of choice.) You will also see that same padlock on the vast majority of forum pages. The only exceptions are pages where embedded images originate from http (non-https) sources. These pages will give you a "partially insecure" warning in the address bar, but the only content not authenticated via encryption is the images themselves. You might also not see the padlock if you're using a really old or out of date browser, in which case "shame on you." :icon_biggrin:
  • Upgrade of the server database environment . This should result in swifter and more reliable performance, especially when searching the forum for content of interest.
  • Upgrade of the forum software. This should keep the forum as secure as possible from spammers and those seeking to hack the user database for email or other information.
  • Update of the forum theme. Anytime you do the kind of upgrades listed above, the code for the "look" of the forum will almost certainly have to be updated also. To minimize my own work, I tried to keep things pretty much as before, but a few cosmetic changes are visible. Most notably, there's a new header image on all non-home pages and a new option for a dark theme, which you can find in the right hand side bar on the home page. The default is for the light theme (dark text on light background.) But if you choose the dark theme while logged in, the board will remember that choice the next time you visit. I actually found myself liking the dark theme more (takes me back to the dark, blue-grey feel of the Chase Lounge early days!), so that's what I'm currently using.

Most everything else functions the way you are used to or would expect. But please let me know by replying to this post if you're experiencing any issues with forum performance.

Thanks and happy reading/posting!

FlyOnMelfisWall
Administrator
The Chase Lounge
Tony, his spirits crushed after b-lining to the fridge first thing in the morning: "Who ate the last piece of cake?"

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