how i handled a rolling upgrade notice without cluttering the forum

I needed a clean way to warn everyone about a rolling upgrade without creating a permanent post that people would keep bumping. What finally worked was using the site banner for the active window, then following it with a single pinned topic in a public area for the details.

I kept the banner short and time-bound. Then I put the longer explanation in the topic body so users could find the maintenance scope, expected downtime, and who to contact. That gave me one urgent surface and one durable reference. Once the work was done, I removed the banner and left the topic pinned only until the upgrade was no longer relevant.