New forum software?

[jacek]

Hmm. I think we may need new forum software.
I'm really feeling the limitations of the current thing :/

[Helx]

>> ip.board <<
Soooo good (but paid)

[jacek]

>> ip.board <<
Soooo good (but paid)

I've heard good things about that but I'd really like to avoid paying for anything since I get no income from this really.

http://vanillaforums.org/ looks pretty good but I don't think it's super well used.

Might just be a case of setting a few up locally and having a play. There is also the headache of migrating the data over :/

[Helx]

I've heard good things about that but I'd really like to avoid paying for anything since I get no income from this really.

http://vanillaforums.org/ looks pretty good but I don't think it's super well used.

Might just be a case of setting a few up locally and having a play. There is also the headache of migrating the data over :/

Yes, Vanilla is very good. There is a massive database of user-submitted mods and plugins. I suggest you have a look through, it's quite substantial.

Migrating the data should actually be relatively easy, there's a script built by VanillaForums that does it for you (can't find it right now, but it's somewhere! )

[Temor]

Yeah I really do think someone has gone through the pain of migrating phpbb databases to other platforms before. Those open sourced ones usually have some kind of plugin for handling that stuff.

Have you completely given up on the custom one you started on? I cant remember how far along you came with it.

[jacek]

Haaay, who moderated me

Have you completely given up on the custom one you started on? I cant remember how far along you came with it.

It's done really I just sort of figure there will be stuff I haven't thought of that needs doing and it will end up taking up a lot of time I could spend on other things :/

I've installed Vanilla locally and it does look pretty good, I'm not too sure how to theme it yet :/ The default looks a bit more like stackoverflow than a full forum - might take a bit of work. The moderator and admin features are all really nice too.

[KnightMaire]

As long as it doesn't look anything close to how PHPAcademy changed to their new discussion "forum". That was awful IMO.

On the other hand, this is an older version of phpBB. The newer version I have found I have not run into any problem customizing anything. Anything you could possibly need is either a plugin or can be done in the ACP.

Shameless plug: I speak from experience since I am an Admin of the Town of Salem Forums (no access to the server-side of things though - developers of the game haven't given me permission for that lol. Can't even customize the look until they do it themselves)

[jacek]

I'll certainly be sticking with the more full featured traditional style forum. Basically exactly like this but with a nicer look

I'll have a play with the new phpBB, not really something I thought about weirdly

[killfrog47]

my all time favorit forum software is XenForo. Its expensive, $140 plus $250 for branding removal, but I really love it haha

[jacek]

Yeah I'd really like to use XenForo, it's just paying for it :/ Really want to keep my costs down since this makes me no money really.

[killfrog47]

Yeah I'd really like to use XenForo, it's just paying for it :/ Really want to keep my costs down since this makes me no money really.

I dont blame you! lol Well as far as free forum software goes Im a fan of phpbb so maybe an update would be good! Or try MyBB. That one is pretty good looking

[jacek]

Yeah to be honest I am pretty happy with phpbb. It just feels like its limiting the site a lot. I'd ideally want everything to be more integrated instead of the forum being separate from the website :/ maybe we'll have that problem with everything too.

Edit: oh also something mobile friendly! I'm on my phone atm and its a nightmare :p

[killfrog47]

Yeah to be honest I am pretty happy with phpbb. It just feels like its limiting the site a lot. I'd ideally want everything to be more integrated instead of the forum being separate from the website :/ maybe we'll have that problem with everything too.

Edit: oh also something mobile friendly! I'm on my phone atm and its a nightmare :p

hmm check this out https://buddypress.org/. Im not sure how you feel about wordpress haha I kinda hate it but have been learning to like it a little more these days.

[jacek]

I'll probably end up doing something a bit custom. I've always found WordPress pretty limiting when it comes to some stuff, plus it can be slow as hell

[Ecaz]

XHBB?

[jacek]

XHBB?

It does exist

Never been used properly though and I don't really feel like maintaining it will be fun.

[wrichards8]

As for mobile responsiveness of phpBB, I don't know how the latest version fairs on mobile but I know, for sure, there is or, at least, was a script you could put in the root of the forum that would allow you to use your phpBB forum with an app on iOS

[jacek]

Is that app that Tapatalk thing? I always find the prompts to install the app really annoying.

the alternatives really do suck though, phpbb seems to be the best there is and it's rubbish

[killfrog47]

Is that app that Tapatalk thing? I always find the prompts to install the app really annoying.

the alternatives really do suck though, phpbb seems to be the best there is and it's rubbish

I say we stick with phpbb but just maybe reskin it! =)

[jacek]

I say we stick with phpbb but just maybe reskin it! =)

Yeah that's pretty much the current plan when I get some time, feel like I've been saying that about everything recently.

One of the things I really don't like about phpbb is how hard it is to modify. The addon market is pretty good but they all require modifying to core source code which means you have to carefully unpick everything whenever there is an update - that's why the version we have here is painfully out of date

One of the nice things XHBB had was a plugin API type system where mods were packaged as zip files and could hook into events.