New forum software?

by Caffeine on 03/09/2007 02:29, 30 messages, last message: 03/16/2007 21:09, 9223 views, last view: 05/18/2024 19:42

Aard, or whoever's responsible for the forum: Would it be feasible to switch to a more featureful and popular forum software solution? I know better than to recommend any specific product here, but it seems like this forum badly needs two key features. Namely: email address validation and the restriction of posters' information (both email and IP addresses) to moderators/admins only. The former feature would probably cut down on spam posts. The latter feature would make it safer to post here (in the case of IP address restriction) and would cut down on spam to our inboxes if we provide real and un-obfuscated email addresses.

Not knowing anything about the underlying software here, I don't know what it would involve to add those features. They do come out-of-the-box with some fairly well-known solutions, though.

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#1: ..

by themaen on 03/09/2007 05:05

Yes please, with photos and all the other shit other forums have.

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#2: ..

by Passa on 03/09/2007 05:34

The Cube forums are custom made by SleepwalkR, who designed them with simplicity in mind.

Other forums have lots of 'bloat' such as avatars and signatures, plus embedded pictures makes it a pain to browse forums as well. These forums are simple and effective.

Do a search next time too though (you'll find over 50 threads about getting a new forum.

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#3: this forum rox

by werd_i_love_creating_another_cookie_every_post on 03/09/2007 07:52

this forum rox! don't change anything

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#4: Re: this forum rox

by shadow,516 on 03/09/2007 08:10, refers to #3

haha, I love sarcasm...

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#5: ..

by Drakas on 03/09/2007 08:38

other forums are a total bloat. It is like a paradise for trolls - avatars, signatures etc...

It is pretty hard to use those out-of-box low quality poorly coded forums like phpBB:
1. register
2. validate your email
3. search for where you want to post
4. post it, add 500 smileys with some massive pictures
5. wait for others to reply

Do you even realise what a forum is for?
It is for communication, for sending text online; it is not for some 13 year old MySpace users who cannot find normal looking sites attractive...

Simplicity pwns!!

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#6: ..

by KoiKitsune2006 on 03/09/2007 10:29

Yeah, now I can work on my math when I post too.

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#7: Fave .sig

by Morosoph on 03/09/2007 11:27

"I only read slashdot for the pictures"

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#8: ..

by _Tentus_ on 03/09/2007 15:12

The only thing I would change about the forum would be to put a little 24x24 image next to the Seach link, probably a little microscope in the same style as the links to the left. For some reason it doesn't get noticed by 90% of the new users, and I think that at least some would notice if it had an image next to it.

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#9: Re: ..

by shadow,516 on 03/09/2007 18:50, refers to #8

Hmm... Good idea.

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#10: ..

by Caffeine on 03/09/2007 21:49

My main point is that this forum software is lacking two important features that are very common on other forums. If no one else around here considers those features to be important, then that's that, I guess. No point to further discussion.

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#11: ..

by Gilt on 03/10/2007 03:52

you know, I've been thinking that we don't really need a forum. I can't help but feel that effort here would be better spent on the wiki, or a blog with comments, or something of that sort.

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#12: Re: little changes

by mayhem on 03/10/2007 08:37, refers to #8

I would just like to chime in about the forum links. I agree the search feature should be more prominent with an image but i would like to see another link directly to the docs. I believe the search feature would benefit by this as well as those who take the time to field the questions.
A big thank-you to everyone who helps others here, even those who are readme challenged. Some of the posted questions lately have been ridiculous, and by people who have been using the forum long enough to know better. I know this has been suggested before...a few times...This forum is exactly as it should be....simple, clean, informative. Perhaps it could be moreso if search and readme were added to the link-list. That's my humble opinion anyway.

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#13: Re: little changes

by _Tentus_ on 03/10/2007 18:02, refers to #12

You know, having the Docs up as a permanent thread (locked from comments of course) seems like a really good idea. Or you could even have a separate set of permanent threads that consist of the main docs.

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#14: Re: little changes

by Drakas on 03/10/2007 22:04, refers to #13

Even a better idea - make a bold red 40px message that says "READ THE DOCUMENTATION FIRST", as most people will ignore even that...

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#15: Re: little changes

by Quin on 03/10/2007 23:45, refers to #14

The readme and base website are supposed to be portals to this forum. Both of which have links to the documentation in full.

Unfortunately, 90% of the questions comes because those people are just too lazy to help themselves by reading the docs, although I hope I've made strides to making it more accessible to people without bloating them in for the next release.

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#16: ..

by SanHolo on 03/11/2007 00:18

I love the simplicity of this forum. I woudn't bother "real" registration, though, but spam is not too much of a problem here I guess.

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#17: Re: little changes

by Drakas on 03/11/2007 09:35, refers to #15

Quin: where I answered "RTFM", why are you still heelping them to find all the content? They should find it themselves, that's why I write "RTFM". They should learn, but when they get a real answer, from someone else they will not learn anything.

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#18: ..

by Minion...Seriously on 03/11/2007 16:14

Aside from the fact that I can't get my original cookie for my name back, I love the utilization of cookies for the login.

My only real objection was the choice to make gigantical permanent threads like the 'map editing' one which I'm sure probably has useful information in it, unfortunately it is near unbrowseable because its 2700 replies long with no search feature.

Still I find the board to be cleverly designed and although I was a little put off with it at first, I've grown to like it :o

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#19: Re: ..

by MeatROme on 03/11/2007 16:32, refers to #18

Try clicking the "search"-link.
Available on the thread-overview ... right next to "Show all threads".

The wiki is there to condense information passing through this forum ... but in the end most questions here can usually be answered fully by "RTFM" - although this isn't actually helpful to the individual in question, but the problem of them not reading available documentation is.

Until we all get paid I guess you won't find a lot of "let me take you by the hand"-responses - you seldom do on the interwebs - unless the question was either put in a way that indicates the individual _/did/_ put some energy of his/her own into trying to solve their issue on their own ;)

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#20: ..

by noerrorsfound[other-computer] on 03/11/2007 18:55

Not all forum software is bloated. Phorum (http://phorum.org) is very lightweight and has no avatars, smilies, or images in signatures by default.

You can login here with the username "admin" and a password of "demo" to see this non-bloated forum software.
http://demo.opensourcecms.com/phorum/

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