Author Topic: What are your thoughts on...  (Read 8594 times)

Offline EzequielM

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What are your thoughts on...
« on: July 06, 2015, 12:42:25 pm »
So, I thought it would be interesting to discuss and open a thread about this. So... What are your thoughts on... The forum software this website is running: Simple Machines Forum (SMF) ? Discuss.
« Last Edit: July 06, 2015, 10:50:22 pm by EzequielM »

Offline Moody

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2015, 12:59:09 pm »
I think it's alright. Could use some improvement, like an easily accessed list of text code so that it'd be easier to make quick replies without opening the full interface. This would also make it easier to put things in signatures (I had to ask someone how to get links into mine).

Other than that, I've got no real complaints about it.

Offline Barry the Nomad

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2015, 10:25:06 pm »
Will, George, and myself have been talking for months about improving the forums and moving to a new software. If Will sees this tread he can elaborate.

Offline EzequielM

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #3 on: July 06, 2015, 10:49:31 pm »
Well, I would recommend never moving towards phpBB, it's a buggy mess. SMF in my opinion is alright like Moody says, I think it's not THAT bad like phpBB but it's not that good either, it's somewhere in the middle.

Frankly, I wouldn't move from SMF, but I would recommend moving to MyBB if what you guys want is a free software. For commericial softwares I would recommend vBulletin (?)

Just my opinions though.

Offline George

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2015, 11:35:32 pm »
We are thinking of moving to XenForo; which is a paid forum software. I think that using a paid software would be good in the long run due to the fact that they update it more regularly compared to SMF or phpBB.

Offline MadeManG74

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2015, 07:59:05 am »
Let's go back to that weird red forum SegaNerds used back in 2006 or thereabouts.
The one where you could see who was printing out forum topics.

Offline George

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2015, 04:17:01 pm »
We will add a print page who function.

Offline Happy Cat

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2015, 07:14:46 pm »
SMF has served us well. It's still decent forum software, but it's open source, which means people are maintaining it in their free time, and there isn't an actual team of people paid to work on the forum software, which means support could end at any time if no one has interest in working on it. Development on SMF has seemed to have really slowed down over the past few years. It's possible people are losing interest in the project. Which is understandable, no one has the same interests forever.

This is why if we are moving forum softwares, it's going to be to a paid forum software. You get what you pay for. You are paying for top quality software backed by a support team and timely updates along with features. I've messed around with myBB before. It's cool, but not all that different from SMF, and has some cons of it's own compared to SMF.

At the moment, Xenforo is looking like the most likely candidate. But if you have any suggestions of paid forum software to check out, we're definitely still willing to look at other stuff and see if it can fit our needs. I will say though that I have done a ton of research in regards to forum software.

I've been working on a Xenforo theme in my free time, that's how likely we are to go with Xenforo, it will be done when it's done though. It's really different from SMF and has been quite the learning curve for me in regards to working with making a theme around it. I'm not a fan of the default Xenforo theme so I plan to make the SEGAbits theme for Xenforo look quite a bit different.

Let's go back to that weird red forum SegaNerds used back in 2006 or thereabouts.
The one where you could see who was printing out forum topics.

« Last Edit: July 10, 2015, 07:35:33 pm by Happy Cat »

Offline EzequielM

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #8 on: July 13, 2015, 08:11:18 pm »
Quote
if you have any suggestions of paid forum software to check out

I can't help but if I had to go with a paid forum software, I would choose Invision Power Board. I have ran a site with IPB in the past and it was a pretty nice experience. They are regularly updating it and comes with a lot of extra addons such as a blog, a portal, a download manager, etc.

IPB is also the forum package most Sonic and Sega fansites use.

Offline MadeManG74

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2015, 09:32:58 am »
*HAJIME SATOMI PICS*

Printing them out for... research...

Offline Happy Cat

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2015, 08:02:11 pm »
I can't help but if I had to go with a paid forum software, I would choose Invision Power Board. I have ran a site with IPB in the past and it was a pretty nice experience. They are regularly updating it and comes with a lot of extra addons such as a blog, a portal, a download manager, etc.

IPB is also the forum package most Sonic and Sega fansites use.

Thank you for your input. Might be worth giving IPB another look. Always hard to decide on a forum software. Will never find a perfect one. Well, actually, nodebb really intriques me, but it's not a good fit for SEGAbits. It's too developerish and experimental for what we need. Really catches my attention though. It's very fast and slick looking.

Offline Happy Cat

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #11 on: July 17, 2015, 11:11:57 pm »
What is your guys opinion on forum signatures?

I personally think they are a relic of the past. but I'm curious to see what other people think.

Offline Moody

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #12 on: July 17, 2015, 11:18:45 pm »
*looks at shameless plugs in my sig*

Uh, yeah, signatures are really good and everyone should have them. Yeah.

In all seriousness, they're pretty antiquated, but, as I demonstrate, they're a good way to put links directing people to social media or projects you're involved in that may interest other forum goers. Whether or not that's a good thing depends on your outlook, for me I think it's pretty good, obviously.

Offline pirovash88

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2015, 12:27:14 am »
Same, I like to let people know how they can contact me in the console space and my gamerscore =)

On segaboards I advertise SEGAbits, though.
Gamertag: Pirovash88 Twitch.TV/Pirovash88

Offline Happy Cat

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Re: What are your thoughts on...
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2015, 01:49:10 am »
Cool. Thank you for sharing your thoughts you guys. I was just curious to see what people thought. It's not a discussion that was going to affect the forums at all, as it's an option that can be turned off by anyone at will in the settings.