Question Why are people using old versions of Kunena for new installations?

Recently, in the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that a number of people have asked for support for some really old versions of Kunena K 1.5.11 seems to be a common one - and it is soon revealed that they have chosen these old versions for new websites. This raises a number of very interesting questions.

I think that one of the possible reasons that people are deliberately choosing K 1.5 (instead of K 1.6) is because of the version numbering. People see K 1.6 and they may be assuming that they need to have Joomla 1.6 installed in order to be able to install it.

There's a very wise old saying: "ASSUME makes an ASS out of U and ME."

People should not make these kinds of assumptions, or choices, without obtaining the facts. The facts about K 1.6 (the technical requirements, the installation procedure, the features and the known problems) are quite clearly explained in the release notes: see Kunena 1.6.1 Read Me .

It also puzzles me that people would be choosing K 1.5 over K 1.6 when all the signposts on this site (the home page, the download section, the activity in the forums, etc.) are clearly directed towards K 1.6 ... and, at this time, K 1.6.1 in particular. Evidently it's a difficult message to get across.

You do not need Joomla 1.6 in order to use Kunena 1.6. The version numbering is purely coincidental.

We recommend that people should use K 1 6.1 for new installations. We do not recommend K 1.5 for new installations. K 1.5 exists for those minority of cases where people have installed other Joomla extensions that are not "native" to Joomla 1.5.19+. We recommend that users upgrade to J! 1.5.22 in any event. Support for K 1.5 will not last indefinitely; at this time, there is a majority of users who have adopted K 1.6 as the way forward and, consequently, user support for K 1.5 is disappearing.

The development team is committed to eliminating serious errors within K 1.5 (as long as it's still possible to do so) either by maintenance releases or by advisory information notices instructing users how to work around problems. K 1.5 will not be enhanced.

I hope this information helps users who may be confused and who are seeking the best, possible way to future-proof their investment in a durable and long-lasting discussion forum that will meet their growing needs.

I didn't want to use K 1.5.13

I originally installed K 1.6 but it requires MooTools 1.2.4, and there was a incompatibility issue with another Joomla extension so I had to uninstall it and install K 1.5

Jentekk: Why didn't you work on fixing the Mootools 1.2.4 incompatibility? There's plenty of help here for that. Why not look at the topic [Merged topic]The great Mootools/Javascript conflict discussion ?

Most of the time these problems have been fixed. 9 out of 10 problems have been caused by old, outdated Joomla templates. In the remaining 10% of issues, the problems have been caused because users have tried to run hundreds of Joomla extensions on their websites instead of trying to keep things simple and uncomplicated.

If people start with the basis that what they want from their website is a clean, smooth running forum as the centrepiece of their websites, then all they need to do is start with a clean fresh installation of Joomla 1.5.22 and Kunena 1.6.1 and they wouldn't have any problems at all. (Well, they shouldn't have! Every once in a while a webhosting issue comes along that we've never seen before and it wouldn't matter if you were trying to run Joomla or whatever else, they would never get their sites running well).

If you start with a clean basis and then add, one-by-one, other Joomla extensions (testing to make sure that these added extensions don't wreak havoc with your well-running forum) then there would be a lot less problems. Unfortunately though, try as we do, people are reluctant to part with the Joomla template that they saw on the 'net hat was designed years ago and that defies all modern conventions to make it co-operate with anything else. C'est la vie, I suppose.

Mootools is not going to go away. Kunena is not the only web-based discussion forum developed for Joomla that has to deal with this situation. Other forum software, too, (no names, no pack-drill, but I'm sure you can easily make an educated guess as to what I am referring to) also have their users "stuck" in a kind of Mootools limbo because their users won't give up outdated software. The future is Mootools. K 1.5.x has a limited life-span before all support for it will cease.

1.6 simply didn't work for me. No error, no nothing.. Just a blank page. Probably a mootools issue but I'm not a competent enough of a coder to isolate the issue. 1.5 simply worked.

I'd like to use some more modules and extensions but I guess they are no where to be found. now that the forum is live, I'm not one to 'fix' something that isn't broke so I'm running with 1.5... Since my template doesn't work with joomla 1.6 and kunena 1.6 doesn't work with my joomla 1.5 template, I'm stuck running older stuff.. Again.. Why fix something that isn't broke?

sozzled wrote: Most of the time these problems have been fixed. 9 out of 10 problems have been caused by old, outdated Joomla templates. In the remaining 10% of issues, the problems have been caused because users have tried to run hundreds of Joomla extensions on their websites instead of trying to keep things simple and uncomplicated.

Thank you, I hear what you're saying but this was not my case. The template was just released, aka: hot-off-the Joomlart.com press.

sozzled wrote: If people start with the basis that what they want from their website is a clean, smooth running forum as the centrepiece of their websites, then all they need to do is start with a clean fresh installation of Joomla 1.5.22 and Kunena 1.6.1 and they wouldn't have any problems at all.

The problem does not lie in the Kunena 1.6.1 software. It doesn't lie with the end user, it is a an Extension/MooTools 1.2.4 incompatibility issue.

Kunena 1.6.1 runs only with Mootools 1.2.4 and therein lies the issue. It is NOT with Kunena 1.6.1 software but with extensions that are not YET compatible with this version of Mootools 1.2.4.

Enabling Mootools (for Kunena 1.6.1) interfered with one of my extensions. Address the extension developers not the end user for this issue. I'm not going to start hacking away my site for MooTools incompatibility issues... so much for a clean, smooth running Joomla site.

SOLUTION: As soon as the Developers update their extensions to run with the new version of MooTools this will cease to be an issue.

In conclusion, a HUGE thank you for an amazing product.. in every way! It is - imo - the best forum software out there for Joomla!