Ok, well, i have read this thread from page 1 (!!!) and i have noticed a constant in regards to MODded boards. It appears that while the majority of people have no problems using the "auto update" feature, some users ARE having problems.
I have also noted a lot of posts from people whining and whinging about code change releases etc.
With my board (located
here) i came in at phpBB 3.0.4 as a complete n00b to the system. That said, i did download a phpBB 2.x.x version some years ago, but did not install it due to the complexity of it. Now however, i can get by quite easily. i know a little javascript, some html and since running the board, some php. so what exactly am i getting at here ?? well, I downloaded and installed 3.0.4. I started MODding it, BY HAND CODING the mods before finding auto mod. that period of hand coding the mods set me up pretty well and allows me a "little" knowledge of php that has helped me to create my own MOD (yet to be validated i might add !!!).
IN SHORT, those who are NOT prepared to "get their hands dirty" and do a little hand coding/insert/edit a few lines of code in conflicting files need to either back off, learn a little patience and get to work, or go learn some php, however, if a person choosing to install and run a board chooses not to "learn" about that board and its complexities, should they really start ?. Alternatively, if the board was a "1 click" server install, should the person who starts the board learn more about the phpBB boards before they do so ?. Granted, some people do not find it easy to install a BB, some people have absolutely no knowledge of phpbb boards or how they work, while some (myself included) have a little knowledge of the phpBB system (through the determination to learn) and a few MODs installed on that board whilst others are phpBB guru's and have heavily modified boards.
In such circumstances i can honestly understand the frustration that they face, yet, if the auto install feature of the 3.0.5 release SHOWS the conflicting pages offers options for what to do and allows you to download the pages to reload them and recheck, i cannot see that there should be a point where "hours" of work come into the frame.
On the other hand, i can also see that people would be asking if at least "some" if not "all" of the current MODs in the MODDB could be included in the latest release, yet therein is the problem. Some features may not be wanted. On the other hand, considering the number of MODs in the MODDB, surely the developers of the phpBB boards would say no to including ALL the of the mods in the next release due purely to the great number of them. not to mention that some may conflict witrh each other and may even introduce security breaches to the coding.
With all that said though, i have just updated from 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 in under 10 minutes. I simply uploaded the new "install" pack, hit on the install url, had a few (around 20) conflicting files, chose what to do, downloaded them, reloaded them to the server, rechecked the files, JOB DONE with no problems.
Overall, it was so painless, so easy, so fast and so hassle free that i will gladly do it again this way.
To the developers of this board system THANK YOU FOR YOUR DEDICATION and for such a fantastic release pack. A great job EXCELLENTLY executed