Poll; should we change forum software

[Projector]

One other thing I forgot on the php, is the authentication question.  We were having a problem with spambots trying to sell us Viagra and farm hoes, until the admin changed the new account procedures to include questions that aren't part of the board, and aren't easily answered unless you understand the subject matter.  Until they made that change the admins were deleting 40-50 spam accounts a day at times.

[hvirtane]

recommend php

Where could it be seen in use?

- Hannu

[Clifford]

There are a number of BB formats.

I really don't see a big advantage of one version to another.  The one thing I'd watch is making sure that the archives remain easily accessible.

The one note.

The "Search" function has "Issues".

I.E.

Scroll down to the bottom and put in a "search Criteria" & click on search.

It pops up with "search for stories containing stories".

Then

You have to choose whether to search "Stories" or "Comments", or whatever else.  I don't think there is a choice to just search the whole board.

Google will suck down some of the search...  for example, feed into google:

     gasification site:www.fieldlines.com

But, they don't really deal with order very well.

[jacquesm]

Second the 'drupal' motion. I've been playing around with it for a few weeks now and I'm more and more impressed with what the drupal people are building.

Scoop seems to be a dead-end, it always was a total pain to maintain and it has not gotten much easier. Also the long awaited but very much overdue scoop upgrade seems to be vapourware, I personally don't think it is going to happen, and if it does it probably won't be in time. And that does not surprise me one bit, I've looked at some of the guts of scoop and I'd be less than happy if it was my job to maintain it.

Drupal is a modular system that allows you to install / configure only those parts that you want in your websites. It has all the basic goodies and literally 100's of modules that you could install on top of the 'core'. They have a dedicated security team and they seem to have a good set of procedures in place.

As for the 'don't fix it if it ain't broke', in the last couple of months scoop has been slowly going from bad to worse, and I think it definitely qualifies as 'broke' at this stage. Lots of diary entries have been lost and the site is down quite frequently.

Last week I spent some time on trying to fix at least the downtime issue and I think we have booked some progress on that, which at least buys us some time before tough decisions will have to be made.

This is not a problem that is going to go away with some band-aids, unfortunately.

[valterra]

There IS a lot of good information here.  The problem with not caring about spelling (and there really isn't  a good excuse for it, except for typos and the like) is that SEARCH ENGINES absolutely fail us.

I have posts in my hotlist about converting "xrcize" bikes or "bycycles" that I just happened to stumble across.  I've gotten a ton of good information from people who are TERRIBLE spellers, but only because I happened upon it.  Google wasn't my friend in that case.

The poster who mentioned that we'd eventually communicate has a point.  I work in a business that uses lots of written communication.  I get tired of reading about what "could of happened" for example.

We don't need to be TOO high brow.  This is a good place to share information.  But improper spelling pretty much ensures that nobody will find it!

[Simple serf]

I have spend a good amount of time on both IPB and VBulletin boards, and I have to say that They make sense to me. Part of the reason why I don't spend much time here is because the forum software seems to be just plain difficult for me to understand. I actually found the old forum easier to understand than this setup. Sites that Use vB include Smokstak and The Ranger Station. TRS also used to use IPB, which made the most sense to me, but vB is simialar.

Just my opinion though.

[scottsAI]

Hello jonas302,

I wonder when/if you read this reply months old? Today is 11Mar08.

I do not find the recent activity helpful. Business travel gone for days, does not work.

Recent Comments:

too brief, cant tell if interested in reading link.

New Replies to Your Comments:

First post listed from 2005 next post 2006, next 2007 , what order? Not useful at all.

Recent Stories: is too short, so use front page.

Over all the software is good.

Very bad is how posts die after couple days. I see no point in replying to post weeks old let along months old. No easy way to keep it going, If new replies popped up on the list. As already mentioned.

This post is an example of what I talking about. Will anybody read it?

Have fun,

Scott.