No...it's not "easy". Yes, it takes a lot of work, planning, configuring, etc. I do this sort of thing for a living, and have for many years.

The "grief", I think, was with the very poor job that was done. Just because it's "not easy" is hardly an excuse to do a poor job...at anything.

System migrations and upgrades involve numerous steps...a great many of which were overlooked, ignored completely, poorly implemented, or faulty....to say nothing of the fact that they involve preparation for the inevitable user reaction, which clearly had not been done. Finally, there ought to be a REASON for the migration or upgrade...and there appears to be none.

What happened here last night was, in my opinion (one formed by over 2 decades in the software industry, and management of well over 100 "forums" of all types and sizes) one of the most poorly implemented, ill-prepared, and unprofessional system upgrades I've ever witnessed.

Indeed...I have a hunch that it wasn't SUPPOSED to happen...that what we saw was an ACCIDENTAL "go-live" of something that's being worked on behind the scenes, and was not supposed to see the light of day for quite some time. One of the reasons I believe this is because it's nearly impossible for me to believe that a staff that has demonstrated the skill and quality this one historically has could have so completely screwed up.