Argonath RPG - A World of its own
Argonath RPG Community => Forum and site ideas and information => Topic started by: Brian on March 13, 2018, 03:36:09 pm
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Hey guys, I've got a questions for the more experienced around the web side of things.
If you were to have a pick in to changing Argonath's forum software in to something else, and you could pick anything, what software would you pick.
For now this is quite a hypothetical question how ever, if you were to pick a software, and it would be a paid one( For example, Xenforo). Would you also be willing to chip in a small amount to obtain this software.
Of course it does not have to be a paid software, or it could be one and you would not be willing/ able to chip in, that'd totally too, but what would you pick if you had the choice.
If you could also possibly elaborate around some of the features you especially like there, and what makes that pre-fabricated forum your go-to choice, that'd be great.
Thanks a lot to those answering, or just reading this topic.
And, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask, I know quite a lot about all forums around so I'm open to anything, and willing to answer questions.
If you would like a list of possible candidates that you could review and then post about, I'm willing to post a small list.
- Brian
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You might also want to consider Flarum (https://discuss.flarum.org/t/support). It's a new concept but it is surprisingly effective.
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You might also want to consider Flarum (https://discuss.flarum.org/t/support). It's a new concept but it is surprisingly effective.
We'd rather keep the forums in a more 'community' spirit, easier for each other to know, having some personal data, etc.
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add bulletin software,
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First of all, I suggest starting with checking IPB, https://invisioncommunity.com/ (https://invisioncommunity.com/)
It gives nice layout and modern themes also. The system is nice for editing giving permissions, category etc. but it's about pricing.
Second, I think we can make by ourselves, universal and usable with linked accounts on all other forums.
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First of all, I suggest starting with checking IPB, https://invisioncommunity.com/ (https://invisioncommunity.com/)
It gives nice layout and modern themes also. The system is nice for editing giving permissions, category etc. but it's about pricing.
Second, I think we can make by ourselves, universal and usable with linked accounts on all other forums.
This yes, I had experience with IPS (older versions were called IPB), stable and secure, lots of customizations and it pretty much has the best modifications.
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Firstly I would pick Elkarte (https://www.elkarte.net/) which is pretty much SMF continued from its original and old developers which they fixed many bugs and problems included in SMF and its also very easy to transfer over all the data.
If not satisfied and were in need for more features I would pick IPB (https://invisioncommunity.com) after giving Elkarte a shot.
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Are there problems with the SMF software that are enough to change to another forum software even if everyone's already familiar with this one? (e.g. weak security, bugged software, lack of features, etc)
If we really had to though, I'd go with this for continuity / ease of data transfer reasons, IMO, any software would be fine as long as it operates better, allows us to port over all 13 years of post / profile data seamlessly, and can implement a UI familiar to Argo players. The easier to maintain the old SMF data, the better.
Firstly I would pick Elkarte (https://www.elkarte.net/) which is pretty much SMF continued from its original and old developers which they fixed many bugs and problems included in SMF and its also very easy to transfer over all the data.
If not satisfied and were in need for more features I would pick IPB (https://invisioncommunity.com) after giving Elkarte a shot.
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phpBB. Using it for Sforza forums. :D Front end is amazing, back end is a little outdated in terms of Interface.
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Are there problems with the SMF software that are enough to change to another forum software even if everyone's already familiar with this one? (e.g. weak security, bugged software, lack of features, etc)
If we really had to though, I'd go with this for continuity / ease of data transfer reasons, IMO, any software would be fine as long as it operates better, allows us to port over all 13 years of post / profile data seamlessly, and can implement a UI familiar to Argo players. The easier to maintain the old SMF data, the better.
SMF, well it's nice for a small forum, but it's not under active development any longer. Elkarte is based off SMF by its old developers and seems like a positive way forward (active development, addons).
On the other hand, you have IPS/IPB which is paid forum software. It is by far the most feature rich and well maintained forum software backed by a professional company. They also offer conversion functionality which should allow us to move over all users and topics.
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Muut (https://muut.com/)is something modern and cool I like, but very expensive tho.
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Muut (https://muut.com/)is something modern and cool I like, but very expensive tho.
Looks cool, but runs fully in the cloud and it's fucking expensive. Since Argonath has its own servers, a self-hosted forum would be better.
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Elkarte seems a logical first step to try judging by its inherent similarity to SMF.
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Elkarte, phpBB, IPB or vBulletin!
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ElkArte is something very interesting that I have never heard of. I would suggest open source / free forum solutions like that which allow SMF database migration. If you go with paid forums like IPB of vBulletin, addons/mods typically aren't free and most are paid. With something like ElkArte, it has active development and all addons in their repo are free. I'd go with ElkArte if I had to choose.
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Even though I love IPBoard, for a gaming community with multiple gameservers and their own management teams I'd go for PhpBB or another kind of forum software where you're able to set group leaders (unless you dont mind giving management teams admin access to the full group settings etc).
SMF sucks in my opinion, but you guys have to understand that plugins (like the form one) aint possible in a few other forum softwares (unless you find a developer that makes them for you). So make sure you really want to switch before proceeding. Each forum software has positive and negative points. If I were you @Brian I'd just stick with SMF and let a professional designer etc design a new custom forum theme.
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I would definitely go with phpbb, currently being free, and aswell as one of the most updated and stable software out there.
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I would definitely go with phpbb, currently being free, and aswell as one of the most updated and stable software out there.
Yes it has been suggested multiple times but it is not that nice to use when on a multi-gaming community.
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You might also want to consider Flarum (https://discuss.flarum.org/t/support). It's a new concept but it is surprisingly effective.
I've used flarum. Its good for simple "discussion" side of things though for this i would recommend either MyBB or NodeBB.
I've used MyBB in the past its the best for being "modern" and having tons of features.
NodeBB is better to go with if you are looking for a modern discussion type of forum.
I've used xenforo, looks good an all. But man i had a painfull time figuring out stuff.
Also there is vanillaforums, used them, but im not really supportive regarding those since i had tons of problems with it.
I would say best to go for is MyBB it has TONS of features and a lot of ways to modify your forum. Also its open source ^^
All the forums i stated, I used and installed.
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Elkarte, phpBB, IPB or vBulletin!
Same tbh!
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Here are some crucial points to keep in mind.
Features
Does the new software include all of the features that are commonly used in the old software?
Security
Is the software still in active development? If so, bugs can still be fixed.
Has the software been around for a fair amount of time? (A few years) If so, there is more chance that bugs have already been fixed.
Future
Is the software competitive with other software? If so, this implies the software is not dieing out.
Performance
Can the software provide fast page load with a huge amount of data, for different types of data? Such as accounts and posts.
Code Quality
Is the software using modern coding approaches, or messy outdated approaches? Tidy modern code is more secure and easier for both their developers and your developers to build features upon.
Customization
Does the software support customizing the design sufficiently? If so, this prevents rewriting their code.
Does the software support plugins? And is the plugin API good enough? If the plugin API covers a lot, there should be a wide range of plugins available.
Migration
It doesn't really matter if the software doesn't provide tools to migrate from old software to new software, because this can be done as a one off task manually by developers with several SQL statements.