Moodle 2.0 release

Moodle 2.0 release

by Michael Betts -
Number of replies: 15

Hi,

I have a question about the release of Moodle 2. I am currently using a bersion of 1.8 for my site. I am considering upgrading to 1.9 as there are some modules I would like to use that require it. However because of how my site is hosted, there is a cost in me doing this and so it could be more prudent for me to wait and upgrade to 2.0.

Can you tell me when a stable version of 2.0 is likely to be released?

regards

Mike

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In reply to Michael Betts

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Don't hold your breath for 2.0. There are a lot of big changes planned. It could easily be a year away.

I've heard Martin say that 1.9.x is the best stable branch for a while (since 1.6), and I agree. It has had a lot of bug fixing and polishing.

So I think you would do well to upgrade.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by sam marshall -
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I agree with Tim. Our schedules at the Open University definitely don't anticipate Moodle 2.0 coming out this year, for instance.

Of course if it's expensive to upgrade, and you're not desperate for these new features, you would have to make your own decision as to which is more important. But Moodle 1.9 is pretty good imo.

(By the way I assume you have to pay money to get upgrades done even if they are minor point upgrades? If so and that's a deterrent, I'd really look into changing your hosting situation to something where you can do upgrades yourself - missing out on point upgrades means you don't get any critical security fixes that come out, which can be pretty serious.)

--sam

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In reply to sam marshall

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Michael Betts -

Thanks Sam and Tim for your help here.

In the light of your suggestions Sam, I think will have a chat with our host company today. They are very good and I have an excellent relationship with them. The costs are not massive in the scheme of things but I would not want to be making a regular spend.

I have had a look at the pages about how to upgrade in the documentation and if I have the correct understanding, the only thing I am not able to do directly myself in the list is backup the database. I am pretty sure this is done daily anyway so perhaps it would not be too much of a problem if i pick my upgrade time carefully.

On another note, I notice that you are with the OU Sam. I am currently a student doing an MA on H804. I have wondered why the OU still seems to be using a seperate mediawiki rather than using the wiki within Moodle. Is there a specific reason for this?

Mike

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In reply to Michael Betts

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Matt Gibson -
I wish the information systems dept was using Moodle. I'm taking T851 and FirstClass' forums are driving me round the bend.
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In reply to Michael Betts

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
(I work at the OU too, so LOL).

The course H804 was probably created a few years ago before we were using Moodle, and they probably did not want to rewrite all the wiki activities to use Moodle when they already had a working system - but that is just a guess.


FirstClass - that annoys me too, as a student. However, the OU has been using FirstClass for years, and there is a certain amount of resistance to change, particularly from people who have to moderate forums. So for now we are moving cautiously, with some courses trialing Moodle forums.


By the way, what are people's experiences with moderating Moodle forums? For instance, one thing that concerns us is that you can only delete 'bad' messages. After which you have destroyed the evidence of who did what. Does anyone have a way round that?
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Matt Gibson -
Good point about the bad messages. +1 for being able to hide them and having a new 'view hidden posts' capability. My only solution so far has been to replace them with edited text to the effect of 'too rude to be left visible' and/or banning the person for a bit.
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In reply to Matt Gibson

Forum moderation - deleted messages as 'evidence'

by sam marshall -
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I was thinking of just making it so that 'delete' works to hide the message - anyone who has the delete capability also gets to see deleted messages, but crossed-out or faded or whatever. That way it doesn't need to add another option to the forum message controls.

The time deleted could be stored, so it could 'really' delete the message on cron after say 3 months (or there could be a configuration option in global forum settings like 'Store deleted messages for... [Not at all = same as present] [1 week] [1 month] [3 months] [1 year]').

Just thoughts, anyhow. This is really Tim's business but I am poking my nose in. smile

--sam
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In reply to sam marshall

Re: Forum moderation - deleted messages as 'evidence'

by Ray Lawrence -
But surely if you need to retain it you need retain it for as long as the discussion remains, otherwise delete it straght away....
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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: Forum moderation - deleted messages as 'evidence'

by sam marshall -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers
Well, the important thing is not providing a choice. Choice is bad - why force people to make choices when they shouldn't have to. ('Do you want to do the possibly wrong thing or the always right thing?')

I agree it could be kept forever always - this wouldn't have a large consequence on database size (let's say you only delete 1% of forum posts, then it makes your forum database 1% bigger, who cares).

But for those 'clean freaks' who like to see their database stripped to its minimum, delete after a few months would handle that quite adequately. Nobody is going to make a complaint about an offensive forum post that used to be there 3 months ago.

Really I think that keeping deleted posts forever would be no problem, and even if this were later extended to keep old versions of edited posts, not such a huge deal.

--sam
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by sam marshall -
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Argh, I didn't notice Tim already answered this question! (More diplomatically too.)

Tim! Aren't you supposed to be on holiday?! smile

--sam
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
One thing you could do is to split them away from the main discussion, and then move them to a special forum (which could have any privs you wanted, using overrides).
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In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Matt Gibson -
Is that possible without removing any child posts as well? I've sometimes had a good thread running that just happened to be attached to a silly/unpleasant one. Maybe the good branch could be moved to a new discussion first, but it breaks things up a bit.
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In reply to Tim Hunt

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Séverin Terrier -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators
Hi,

Yes, i also think Moodle 1.9.1+ is very good smile

Also note that Moodle 1.9 will be required when upgrading to 2.0...

Séverin
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In reply to Séverin Terrier

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Richard Crawford -
Oh, for frak's sake. I've just barely got my brain around 1.8 and I'm going to be required to upgrade to 1.9 before I can move to 2.0?

I'm wondering if 2.0 is going to be worth the trouble.
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In reply to Richard Crawford

Re: Moodle 2.0 release

by Matt Gibson -
Compared to 1.5->1.8, I think the 1.8->1.9 upgrade is going to be a lot easier smile. For me, the 1.9 gradebook has been well worth the (small) learning curve given the staggering gain in power over 1.8 and I can see 2.0's file system rewrite being well worth the trouble too.
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