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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  General Discussion  |  Topic: Forum Upgrade, CALL TO ACTION or something I don't know (software discussion) 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Forum Upgrade, CALL TO ACTION or something I don't know (software discussion)  (Read 6733 times)
schild
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on: June 12, 2018, 01:22:07 PM

We're considering moving off SMF for The Big Forum Scare 2018.

The development on their latest versions is just kinda miserable

Problem is, we're not sure what to switch over to. If we move to woltlabs nonsense, we'll probably get the blog and gallery software also. If we switch to discourse, we'll probably all be confused forever.

Anyway, what other new shit is out there? Does anyone have preferences?
Samwise
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Reply #1 on: June 12, 2018, 01:49:20 PM

We fear change.

I like SMF better than any other forum software I've used, personally, in terms of having an editor that doesn't suck balls, decent handling of read/unread messages (including alerting you of new posts while you were composing), and general quality of life stuff.  But I'm also not the one stuck adminning it, so...

I'd suggest that open-source (with active curation) should be a requirement, because otherwise it's liable to end up as abandonware, and I like the idea of being able to make plugins for the forum even if I never actually do it. 

Being able to port over the theme without too much hassle should also be a requirement.

Flipping through a list of forum software on wikipedia, MyBB looks worth investigating, as it's been updated the most recently out of anything on the list, and apparently is easier to make themes for than phpBB.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
Sir T
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Reply #2 on: June 12, 2018, 01:56:59 PM

Anything but IPboard. Another forum I am on ran with that and the Programmers fucked up our forum with an "update" and basically denied that there were problems, so the forum went back to phpBB.

Hic sunt dracones.
schild
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Reply #3 on: June 12, 2018, 02:18:33 PM

Invision is not an option. It is garbage.

The problem with new SMF is it's not developed much and QoL does not meet modern standards. Also no one makes plugins for that shit anymore.
ezrast
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Reply #4 on: June 12, 2018, 04:59:58 PM

I've found XenForo to be generally pleasant to use, at least on desktop. Not sure about mobile.
Rendakor
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Reply #5 on: June 12, 2018, 05:39:12 PM

I know fuckall about this sort of thing, as the only forums I really go on are f13, 4chan, reddit and Hex's oforum...but something that looks good on mobile would be nice. Ideally something that doesn't require a separate app, but that's not a hard no.

"i can't be a star citizen. they won't even give me a star green card"
Fabricated
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Reply #6 on: June 12, 2018, 05:40:39 PM

XenForo is the basically what a lot of people use as far as a traditional style message board goes now.

"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
Samwise
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Reply #7 on: June 12, 2018, 05:58:02 PM

Invision is not an option. It is garbage.

When we set up a user forum at my last job, I was a strong proponent of SMF based on my positive experience using it on f13, and I put together a really good proof of concept with a skin that matched the rest of our website theme and everything.  I was overruled and they went with Invision, which is fucking hot garbage -- even its editor is only barely functional (I think the fact that it was WYSIWYG was the big selling point, but it's not actually WYSIWYG because half the time the code gets mangled when you hit save).  

The experience mostly served to entrench my bias toward SMF as being the only forum software I could trust.   awesome, for real

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
Sky
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I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.


Reply #8 on: June 12, 2018, 06:00:24 PM

Can confirm Invision is a dumpster fire and has been for a while.
schild
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Reply #9 on: June 12, 2018, 06:40:14 PM

Invision is not an option. It is garbage.

When we set up a user forum at my last job, I was a strong proponent of SMF based on my positive experience using it on f13, and I put together a really good proof of concept with a skin that matched the rest of our website theme and everything.  I was overruled and they went with Invision, which is fucking hot garbage -- even its editor is only barely functional (I think the fact that it was WYSIWYG was the big selling point, but it's not actually WYSIWYG because half the time the code gets mangled when you hit save). 

The experience mostly served to entrench my bias toward SMF as being the only forum software I could trust.   awesome, for real

if you're willing to volunteer working on some plugins, I don't hate SMF

I just hate how little work is done on plugins and such

also, SMF themselves didn't make a 1.1.10 patch to 2.x
IainC
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Wargaming.net


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Reply #10 on: June 12, 2018, 08:46:12 PM

Adding a vote for Xenforo. It has proper media embedding, a nice editor and a generally frictionless UX. Discourse is awful and it's basically what happens when one guy just wants to prove that his ideas about what people want from a forum suite are right despite what everyone else thinks.

- And in stranger Iains, even Death may die -

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MahrinSkel
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Reply #11 on: June 12, 2018, 08:54:04 PM

Adding a vote for Xenforo. It has proper media embedding, a nice editor and a generally frictionless UX. Discourse is awful and it's basically what happens when one guy just wants to prove that his ideas about what people want from a forum suite are right despite what everyone else thinks.
This is basically how we got wwwthreads.

--Dave

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schild
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Reply #12 on: June 12, 2018, 09:06:54 PM

i do like the look of https://www.woltlab.com/forum/

also we could migrate to smf 2.0 and then over to that shit so
Bungee
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Reply #13 on: June 13, 2018, 12:33:42 AM

F13 reddit sub incoming?  why so serious?

Freedom is the raid target. -tazelbain
Selby
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Reply #14 on: June 13, 2018, 05:44:50 AM

This is basically how we got wwwthreads.
Speaking of dumpster fires... we used that at Sony for 5 years and it was awful. We put up with a lot of shit way back when...

I’ll second xenforo but SMF is good too, provided you’re willing to work on it for the plugins.
Draegan
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Reply #15 on: June 13, 2018, 06:50:38 AM

Not an expert at all here, but I like xenforo too.
Phildo
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Reply #16 on: June 13, 2018, 07:30:09 AM

When do we get our own mobile app?
RhyssaFireheart
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Reply #17 on: June 13, 2018, 07:57:28 AM

As Invision has already been ruled out (anything but IPB!!!), then I'll second third fourth Xenforo as an option.  I don't have a lot of other forum experience any more other than here, OneManga, and IGN.  OM is on IPB and I loathe the admin panel, plus any attempt to create themes is a fucking nightmare.  IGN is Xenforo that they hacked to bits, but it (mostly) works and I like the options is does have.  Unhacked versions tend to not have any problems, from what I've heard. 

Have you looked or asked on the Admin Zone site for reqs?  I used to post there more but it's not a bad resource place, IMO.

schild
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Reply #18 on: June 13, 2018, 09:24:18 AM

If we do xenforo we're absolutely waiting til xenforo 2.
Viin
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Reply #19 on: June 13, 2018, 03:33:09 PM

Xenforo is what one of the other forums I read uses - looks very similar to current skin here: http://advrider.com/

- Viin
IainC
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Reply #20 on: June 13, 2018, 08:25:44 PM

If we do xenforo we're absolutely waiting til xenforo 2.

Xenforo 2 was released last November and is the current stable version.

- And in stranger Iains, even Death may die -

SerialForeigner Photography.
schild
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Reply #21 on: June 13, 2018, 09:32:57 PM

oh
ezrast
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Reply #22 on: June 14, 2018, 01:01:03 AM

Discourse is awful and it's basically what happens when one guy just wants to prove that his ideas about what people want from a forum suite are right despite what everyone else thinks.
Jeff Atwood is one of my favorite bloggers and programmers and has a lot of interesting things to say about shaping social spaces, but he really shouldn't be allowed near UX design at all.
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