Ok, I'm not very technically savvy when it comes to web development, in fact. I know pretty much nothing.

I have built up a community using this engine with over a thousand registered users and a forum with 35,419 posts. Which may not sound like a lot, but it's a lot for us, about 2 years worth.

In any case I'm currently running the 2.01 version of newbb and would like to upgrade to the latest 2.02, don't know yet if CBB is what we need. Last time I tried to upgrad I lost everything and when I tried to put my backup files back it didn't interact with the database properly and wouldn't pull up old posts.

I'm also running 2.0.9.3 version of XOOPS and would like to upgrade to the latest version however I'm running a bunch of hack scripts (auto-login, different message system, etc.) that might not work after the upgrade. I'm not even sure where I would get the files to move from 2.0.9.3 to current. I didn't see them hosted on this site.

Any advise for a lazy admin who forgot/was afraid to upgrade?

Some initial advice from someone who has done there been that.

Get an almost free site. I happen to use Mher.org which is $1 per month.

Do a fresh install of the versions you are running.

Experiment with saving database information, upgrading, and/or pulling in database information to the newest versions if you cannot upgrade.

Keep the site (almost free) for future experiments. I always run new modules on the experimental site to make sure I am happy before installing on a live site.

does anyone know what's involved in the newbb2.01_to_newbb2.02.php script that you have to run during the upgrade?