HeK had posted this a while back in the admin section, but I think this needs to be put out for everyone to review / comment so we can upgrade this place

Original Post

Quote:So, the forum software is getting old and unsustainable. Youtube doesn't work, bunch of other crap is broken.

I was thinking of upgrading the forums to SMF 2 and ditching the front page.

I would like to convert the forums to non-SMF but I believe that may reset the passwords for all the users.


Ideas? Comments? Questions?
Suggestions? Desired features?

My Comments

Quote:* Ditching the front page

I agree, it was a failed experiment...I think just a splash page w/logo would be best as a click through to the forums

* non-SMF

Don't see a problem, Id be more concerned with thread preservation than passwords, those can just be reset


* Other ideas/comments/suggestions

Maybe an easier way to create user titles? We ran out of user group space so I couldn't add more funny things as they came up, Id love to be able to go to a user's profile as an admin and just set a title(s)

Anyway to integrate group-me/IRC? Maybe a ticker on top with the latest post?

I think the gallery should be a bit more visible as well from the forums, also probably linked up top

Thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Almost anything is better than simple machines.

From what I remember VBulletin is run by a scummy company. phpBB still seems to be big, but if we went with that we'd want to have some anti-spam countermeasures and keep up to date with updates. I remember looking at MyBB a long time ago and thinking it looked alright.

Probably your best bet is figuring out what features are absolutely needed, which are desired, but not necessary, and what are nice to have. Then look at each offering.

EDIT: Also if our admins want the "new hotness" https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB

(06-18-2015, 10:35 AM)TronPaul link Wrote: From what I remember VBulletin is run by a scummy company. phpBB still seems to be big, but if we went with that we'd want to have some anti-spam countermeasures and keep up to date with updates. I remember looking at MyBB a long time ago and thinking it looked alright.

Probably your best bet is figuring out what features are absolutely needed, which are desired, but not necessary, and what are nice to have. Then look at each offering.

EDIT: Also if our admins want the "new hotness" https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB

I leave these decisions in the hands of the tech nerds. As long as I can shitpost and generally be a nuisance, then I'm happy.

(06-18-2015, 11:34 AM)Dadtrain323i link Wrote: [quote author=TronPaul link=topic=7529.msg285372#msg285372 date=1434641724]
From what I remember VBulletin is run by a scummy company. phpBB still seems to be big, but if we went with that we'd want to have some anti-spam countermeasures and keep up to date with updates. I remember looking at MyBB a long time ago and thinking it looked alright.

Probably your best bet is figuring out what features are absolutely needed, which are desired, but not necessary, and what are nice to have. Then look at each offering.

EDIT: Also if our admins want the "new hotness" https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB

I leave these decisions in the hands of the tech nerds. As long as I can shitpost and generally be a nuisance, then I'm happy.
[/quote]

second

Well I've been told that the node js monstrosity's database is redis... so that's a wash. Someone from the intertubes mentioned http://www.discourse.org/ looks ok, but ruby.

Looks like phpBB is one of the few with an easy upgrade path. I am testing it out atm.

If anyone wants to dig around and pick out some styles, addons, etc; That would be great:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style..._styles-12

(06-18-2015, 04:51 PM)HeK link Wrote: Looks like phpBB is one of the few with an easy upgrade path. I am testing it out atm.

If anyone wants to dig around and pick out some styles, addons, etc; That would be great:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style..._styles-12

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style...valentina/

please

(06-18-2015, 04:51 PM)HeK link Wrote: Looks like phpBB is one of the few with an easy upgrade path. I am testing it out atm.

If anyone wants to dig around and pick out some styles, addons, etc; That would be great:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style..._styles-12

obviously got to be this https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/360elite/

I have a license to XenForo or vBulletin that I don't use (either of them). XenForo is what the Planetside 2 forums are run on. As are a bunch of other professional forums

Up to you.

I usually advise people to avoid phpBB like the plague because after it becoming the significantly most popular forum system out there for a very long time it also has the most security leaks and security problems. Yes they update and modernize it when they can but it still has a lot of the same problems.

In terms of sticking to open source / free, I usually try for MyBB, it's formerly commercial turned open source and is pretty solid.

Let me actually enforce my true feelings here.
phpBB is a really bad idea. I hate it and this is founded in the fact that thousands upon thousands of people's emails and passwords got hacked years ago due to negligent development so phpbb forum systems became an easy target. Plus they've never had good antispam. Ever. Even if your 90% of your way through the transition I still recommend NOT following through.

Ultimately the decision is up to you. But I've voiced my opinion.

Just for the sake of listing the sites of each I've done.

I'm going to mark if the design is responsive out of the box or if it's with add-ons (meaning mobile web site compatible)

Note that this list is in order of ones that I like the most and/or have the most experience administrating.

Though if you want to stick to free, and Open Source I really like MyBB out of all Options. I've never been a big fan of PHPBB

XenForo
- Planetside 2 and many other games use this Forum Software, lots of free or commercial add-ons, and very active community with solid Add-In Support and VERY customize-able (to the point of it's hard to not customize, plus it's hard to break even after customizing)
- Internal Update Feature: With Add-On for some Add-Ons that support this
- License: Commercial
- Responsive: With Add-Ons
- Import Feature: I believe either included or included with license as additional tool to be installed (same as vBulletin's import method)
- Front Page System: With Add-On
- http://www.xenforo.com

MyBB
- A very strong solid formerly commercial turned open source product, easy to customize, but does have a history of spammers getting easy access, you'll want to enable a strong anti-robot system with it, I've done some neat theme stuff with older versions [that I no longer work on so I can't show anymore]
- Internal Update Feature: Not sure (old versions had add-on updater)
- License: Open Source
- Responseive: With Add-Ons (I think)
- Import Feature: I believe there's one included or With Add-Ons
- Front Page Feature: Included (I think)
- http://www.mybb.com

Vanilla Forums
- Rapidly becoming popular with game developers and designers (my first view of this was the CAD-Comic forum), this is a bare bones forum system. It has no group system built in, but there's an add-on for that, and that's just the first thing in the list, many common add-ons are pre-packaged in a particular download.
- Internal Update Feature: I don't know
- License: Commercial or Open Source
- Responsive: With Add-Ons
- Import Feature: With Add-Ons (I believe)
- Front Page Feature: With Add-On
- http://vanillaforums.org/

vBulletin
- One of the oldest commercial Forum Systems around, to be quite frank, not that great, I just have an old unused license (but is up to date)
- Internal Update Feature: Partially With Add-On for some Add-Ons that support this
- License: Commercial
- Responsive: With Add-Ons (I think)
- Import Feature: With the ImpEx tool (separate download but with vBulletin License, easy install and process, added into vBulletin Install)
- Front Page System: Included with License as another add-on install
- http://www.vbulletin.com

FluxBB
- Very Small and Lightweight, I first used this in a software development forum. Its original concept was to be "as little forum as possible" it did not support sub-forums, it did not support groups, it basically did almost nothing a modern forum did (out of the box) this has long since changed, but it's still very fast and has kept to a simplicity root.
- Internal Update Feature: I don't know
- License: Open Source
- Responsive: With Add-Ons
- Import Feature: I don't know
- Front Page Feature: I don't know
- http://fluxbb.org/

PunBB
- Same concept as FluxBB (I also tried this one at that time)
- Internal Update Feature: I don't know
- License: Open Source
- Responsive: With Add-Ons
- Import Feature: I don't know
- Front Page Feature: I don't know
- http://punbb.informer.com

I am also happy to house any of these on my web space for you guys to play around with prior to making a decision.

And just for a useful reference: http://www.forummatrix.org/ and http://alternativeto.net/software/smf/

As a last point because it has come up in the past. If a forum viewing app is used the only alternative to Tapatalk that I have found other than Responsive Web design is Forum Runner. Here is the list of Forum Systems it officially supports according to its Web site (there may be more though and some of these have newt versions but no change to the plugin/add-in system like mybb).
- vBulletin versions 3.6.x, 3.7.x, 3.8.x, 4.0.x, and 4.1.x
- XenForo versions 1.0.x and 1.1.x
- phpBB versions 3.0.x
- myBB versions 1.6.x
- IP.Board v3.1.x and 3.2.x

Also I've used NodeBB and other similar forum systems. I really can't get use to their set ups.  I know it's suppose to look more conversational but I have more trouble following the conversation on those.

Note that myBB does have what is called the merge tool.  That's for importing other forum systems.  It does support SMF import.

But remember NO import tool is perfect.  You will have problems with any one of them.

First forum I ever hard or installed was one called "Yet Another Bulletin Board". It was a Perl based system.

After that was "Yet Another Bulletin Board SE" the php successor.

Then it was "phpBB" which I hated and was one of the last secure forum systems out there (and still is as far as I'm aware), it also had a horrible install experience (i know that has been fixed,  kind of).

Then in looking back at "YaBBSE" that is the team that moved on to make SMF. I tried it and at the time I liked the ease of update if you had it configured right.  But that really was its only plus I always felt like it was limited and the themes were always really ugly to me.

I decided to try out a commercial option which led me to vBulletin but it has a complex and convoluted control panel (not to say it isn't very functional though). Let that license laps but renewals are cheap so once in a while I go back and reup.

After a while I found myBB and started using that (and loving it and still do) I still use it whenever i needed a quick free option.

Then when a fellow plugin developer for SourceMod raved about XenForo while I was working on SourceBans I decided to give that a go.

In terms of commercial though the best I've used is invision. But they are also the most expensive and I don't have that license.

But of what I've used over the years.  #1 is XenForo and #2 is myBB

phpBB to me ranks dead last

SMF sux, literally anything (except maybe phpBB by the sounds of it) is better

Discourse looks sexay

(06-19-2015, 11:12 AM)Nitrous Oxide link Wrote: SMF sux, literally anything (except maybe phpBB by the sounds of it) is better

Discourse looks sexay

It looks nice, but ultimately I feel it's functionality is limited and flawed, that and NodeBB (both have a similar style), I always have trouble following new threads and posts with those ones.

Tech-heads decided yet?

I'm mostly indifferent to the layout or software...biggest concerns would be preservation of posts via an upgrade path, and user titles

Long term the decision is really up to you and HeK. I've voiced my opinion and offered up options. As well as provided my "ranked" opinion (open source MyBB is my #1 pick).

A common option if you don't want to use phpbb but need maximum import and export compatibility is to use the import to a phpbb forum then install your actual desired forum and import from phpbb. But most have a tool that works with smf too.

Sent from my wireless communicator.

Right now I am testing different forums for their import options. Not having the best luck yet, but I also haven't applied much time. Busy, sick and such.

Do eet, just make sure it has Tapatalk support

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Tapatalk is such a pile of shit now.....


Anyways, I have a test forum up at http://www.brbuninstalling.com/testforum/MyBB/index.php
MyBB was the only forum so far that actually converted from SMF correctly.

Please mess with it, try and break it, etc and report back here.

Issues so far:

• Karma is missing. Don't think there is an easy way to copy over due to how it works in the new forum
  
• Avatars are missing. This is on purpose from the merge util devs.
  
• User groups, which we were misusing as tags/titles is kinda wonky.
  

Please feel free to pick out some themes: http://community.mybb.com/mods.php?actio...ory=themes

(06-24-2015, 09:03 PM)HeK link Wrote: Tapatalk is such a pile of shit now.....


Anyways, I have a test forum up at http://www.brbuninstalling.com/testforum/MyBB/index.php
MyBB was the only forum so far that actually converted from SMF correctly.

Please mess with it, try and break it, etc and report back here.

Issues so far:

• Karma is missing. Don't think there is an easy way to copy over due to how it works in the new forum
  
• Avatars are missing. This is on purpose from the merge util devs.
  
• User groups, which we were misusing as tags/titles is kinda wonky.
  

Please feel free to pick out some themes: http://community.mybb.com/mods.php?actio...ory=themes

Most of those bullet points you listed I would argue are not that important. However, they are arguably comparable to the currently broken features which precipitated the migration. *shrug*

I favor darker skins (or at least not blue ones) that are relatively easy on the eyes, especially for night browsing. Don't see one that's distinctively great, though. Do we still have official colors? Orange/Teal?