New Forum software

Since the new website was launched/crashed/relaunched, it's become obvious that the Drupal forum platform isn't going to be able to support what we need it to do. As a result, Nik aka New Cakes is looking at using different software to run the forum. There are three options for this, which are:

• Vanilla - http://vanillaforums.com/
• phpBB - http://www.phpbb.com/
• vBulletin - https://www.vbulletin.com/

Since we, the forums users, are going to be the ones actually using the forums, Nik thought it would be best for us to think about what features we want to the forum to be able to do, and which software platform would be the best for us.

For me, here's a quick list of what specific features that were on the old forums that I would be very good to have on the new one, besides the basic features that all forum packages have:

• An Active Topics page, which display the topics which have been posted in since a certain time. Ideally this would be sorted by forum, so the Phoenix posts are all at the top and the Off Topics at the bottom, so we don't have a mish-mash of topics like we do on the current site. (This was the most useful part of the old forum)
• A PM system, to be able to send a private message to other forum users.
• Animated gif images as Avatars (just for you to have fun with Nik! )

And a few new things that would be nice but not essential:

• Ability to '+1' or 'like' other member's posts, without having to quote the original post and simply add the text '+1'
• A WYSIWYG editor for posts

I think the Vanilla forum looks pretty awesome, but haven't been able to see if all these features are available in it. vBulletin does the Active Topics

So, Forum Hardcores, this is your chance to have a say in what the forum becomes. Take a look at the forum software above and see which one does the stuff you want, or just post features you would like here and myself and Nik will take a look and choose the one that fits what you want the best.

SMF compatible with Drupal?

I think the three options posted are the ones that Nik is comfortable with, and knows he can implement properly without too much hassle.

- Stickied topics

- Member titles

- Spell checker

Isn't there already a 'contact' section in each user's page Patrick?

Fun fact: vBulletin is classed as a nuclear weapon.

Many of the other forums I participate in use vbulletin... It seems to be a very robust solution that works very well.

For moderaton purposes, a 'hide post' function inadition to a 'delete post'

Yeah, but I think it has to be manually activated by the user, and I think it sends an email rather than being based on the forum itself. I, and probably others, would prefer not to have to give out my personal email address if I want to PM someone.

*I'm not sure how the current PM system actually works because I can't seem to be able to PM anyone...

It is quite successful, couple other forums I goto use it as well. (don't worry my heart and pockets belongs to the fever) 

definitely a front runner for me, can't say I've used vanilla though. Imo, Patrick would be the guy who knows the stuff.

Though it looks like it'll cost a bit for a license..?

The other thing I like about vBulletin is definitely the mobile accessibility of it.

Actually, Vanilla was Nik's first choice option. vBulletin does look very good as well, they were about even for me so I went Vanilla due to Nik. Apparently there's a free version of it, so the cost doesn't matter.

Ideally we would avoid phpBB, since it was a very popular forum platform for a long time, there has been lots of software written to attack the platform (i.e. spam, malware etc) and therefore it's not as secure as we would want.

Same stuff as before (only betterer).

Probably not too helpful, but the old site seemed OK in terms of features.

Also I need to PM Ahmad to see if he is still interested in some "product" that I will try and get hold of in a few weeks' time.

I totally agree with you there J82. I tried to list the things the old forum had that probably aren't standard features in all forum software, but probably missed a few.

Does the site auto-censor rude words?

bum

jobby

Burns

Arsenal

... I guess not.

Sigmund

Lei Lei Gao

Perennial strugglers Liverpool

Costa Barbarouses

fuck

A "help" section would be good too.  

I've never been able to work out the auto defrost/reheat function based on weight for the microwave (yeah - I weigh the food all the time with these handy kitchen scales I have next to the microwave).

vbully if you can get it to work.

I have not looked at these other options but I think I remember people a while ago wanting a 'block user' function or similar to filter out posts from undesirables... Is this possible?

One of those buttons that create automatic quote tags (instead of the block quote we have now)

Seems like vBulletin is the preferred option, and it does nearly all the features posted here.

VBulletin also.

Last chance for feature requests. Request away!

What exactly doesn't the Drupal forums support that you're wanting?

Performance mainly, from what I understood from Nik. It's not really designed to be used on a large scale forum like this, and it uses the server CPU to do a lot of little things in really bad ways, such as they way it handles images for our Avatars etc. 

Also it doesn't have a lot of little things that the old one did, such as the moderation and admin tools 2B posted about above.

So, it's looking like vBulletin?

Most likely. Not certain though.

Hey everyone.

So.  It's actually not looking like vBully it's looking like Vanilla.

Because:

1. Vanilla is free.

2. Vanilla offers the easiest port from Drupal

3. Vanilla offers shared sign on with Drupal out of the box.

But...

If anyone can give us a slam dunk reason NOT to go with Vanilla we're all ears.

Well, uh, it's not free, for a start:

http://vanillaforums.com/plans

Thats if you want to host the forums with vanilla, we just want forum software which is free from what I've read.

Sorry if I broke any forum rules: