New BB Software?

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 2 Jan 2005 4:01 pm

People have suggested that the Forum software is looking pretty antiquated. I admit that it could be improved, and I'm looking at options.

the additional features that we need the most are:

1. much better search capability
2. abilty to view/search the member list
3. ability to upload pictures

There are a lot of different products on the market. I'm asking for help researching them. The solution has to be able to run on our FreeBSD (Unix) server.

If this sort of thing interests you, please go ahead and do some research. Post your findings here. thanks in advance, everyone.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
System Administrator

Lem Smith · Post by **Lem Smith** » 3 Jan 2005 12:46 am

Never mind. [This message was edited by Lem Smith on 04 January 2005 at 06:15 PM.]

Jeff Agnew · Post by **Jeff Agnew** » 3 Jan 2005 8:12 am

b0b,

Sent you a long e-mail with some evaluations we did on this same subject.

Mark Sonnabaum · Post by **Mark Sonnabaum** » 4 Jan 2005 12:44 am

I'm sooo glad to see that you are considering this. Any good board nowadays runs on PHP and MySql so you'll have to see if your freebsd server is running that (I would hope so). The advantages to PHP and MySql over cgi are overwhelming. Its definatly a smart thing to do with this board since there is such a wealth of knowledge to be searched.

As for different boards, phpbb is really good and its free. I've installed many of them and its pretty easy.
vBulletin is probably the best one out there right now but I think you'd have to pay for it. A good example of that board is at www.gearslutz.com. I frequent that board quite a bit being an engineer before a steel player and its so great having a more advanced search function.

Mark

c c johnson · Post by **c c johnson** » 4 Jan 2005 3:03 am

I never knew there was any thing better than the present. My granddauhter looking over my shoulder says "Grampa, you sure are silly". CC

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 4 Jan 2005 6:28 am

Bob, On some other forums I frequent they use the phpbb format. Seems to work quite well, at least there are no complaints from the moderators.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 4 Jan 2005 10:36 am

phpBB seems a bit weak as far as features go. Also, I'm not real fond of relying on "the community" for technical support.

vBulletin looks really good. The price won't break the bank or anything. It's in the same ballpark as ubb.threads. Those are the two top contenders right now.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
System Administrator

Mark Sonnabaum · Post by **Mark Sonnabaum** » 4 Jan 2005 5:33 pm

Yeah, phpbb is a great forum for small stuff like a bands message board but a site like this should really be on vBulliten. Does it have the capability of converting ubb into a MySql database?

Mark

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 4 Jan 2005 7:45 pm

Whatever I get, I figure I'll be lucky if I can convert the member list. Most likely the current Forum will simply become an online archive for posterity.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 7 Jan 2005 8:01 pm

Anyone seen any other programs that look good?

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 7 Jan 2005 8:17 pm

Steinbergs official Nuendo forum was renewed and reopened just a couple of days ago, I like it a lot. Clean, elegant and simple.
Considering the large userbase of the old forum it should be able to handle lots of posts and functions, even if it's a phpbb forum (it couldn't transfer the old posts and memberlist though, so everybody had to reregister and start from scratch, but the old posts are available as a searchable archive).
It's here if you'd like to take a look - http://forum.nuendo.com/phpbb2/

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

[This message was edited by Steinar Gregertsen on 07 January 2005 at 08:19 PM.]

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 8 Jan 2005 12:35 am

What do you folks think of WowBB? I like their design sense.

Wayne Carver · Post by **Wayne Carver** » 8 Jan 2005 7:13 am

I would like the word you are searching for to be highlighted in the text of the messages to make it easier to find.

Don Walters · Post by **Don Walters** » 8 Jan 2005 8:51 am

I just spent about 20 min at the WowBB site. I like what I saw very much. And the mgmt tools appear to be very good.

I have not spent any time looking at any of the others mentioned, so far.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 8 Jan 2005 9:36 pm

WowBB hosts 30-day trial test systems for perspective customers. I created one. Please visit it and give it a try:

http://sgf.mywowbb.com

Let me know what you think of it.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
System Administrator

Colin Goss · Post by **Colin Goss** » 9 Jan 2005 1:21 am

It gets my vote

Don Walters · Post by **Don Walters** » 9 Jan 2005 9:14 am

Spent a little time at the SGF test site ... very nice ... lots of nice features ... I'd be happy with it

John Fabian · Post by **John Fabian** » 9 Jan 2005 2:16 pm

Will you still be able to use HTML on the new board?

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 9 Jan 2005 5:08 pm

I don't think WowBB allows HTML.

Mark Sonnabaum · Post by **Mark Sonnabaum** » 9 Jan 2005 11:29 pm

It looks pretty cool but I'd vote against it just because its not nearly as common as vBullitin. That can really become an issue in the future when you need to upgrade again. A lot of boards have an upgrade feature that will convert the MySql database and save all the old posts. I still think vBullitin is the way to go. Check out these boards to compare,
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/index.php
http://www.gearslutz.com

Mark

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 9 Jan 2005 11:51 pm

Thanks, Mark. That acoustic guitar site is a lot cleaner than most vBulletin sites I've seen. The trick is keeping things simple. That's what I like about WowBB too - it seems simple to operate (to me, anyway), and it has a lot of new features.

I'd say that vBulletin, phpBB and WowBB are the top contenders so far. I like WebBoard best, but it's way out of the price range.

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 10 Jan 2005 10:25 am

One of the things I really like about WowBB is that it's similar, on the surface, to what we have right now. The main page that lists the forums has almost exactly the same layout and functions as the current SGF, but with some very subtle added functionality. Ditto with the topic list. There's very little in the way of "added complexity".

In the topics themselves, the use of the member profile in the left instead of using a signature makes reading much easier, in my opinion. The database is compatible with vBulletin and phpBB, so there is a migration path if it doesn't work out.

One thing that's missing is a calendar, but they say that the next release will have one. Also, I use "next topic" and "previous topic" quite a bit, and they aren't there. I don't think it would be hard to add that feature, though. I've requested it.

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<img align=left src="http://b0b.com/b0bxicon.gif" border="0"> Bobby Lee
-b0b- quasar@b0b.com 
System Administrator[This message was edited by b0b on 10 January 2005 at 10:26 AM.]

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 10 Jan 2005 10:55 am

vBulletin is what Harmony Central is running. It seems to have pretty good features.

I also like Dell's user forum http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums but it may be something Dell developed themselves or is a high $$$ commercial program, and probably takes a lot of "horsepower".

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 10 Jan 2005 4:38 pm

The Dell system is from Lithium Technologies. It looks like one of the "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it" systems.

Bill Crook · Post by **Bill Crook** » 10 Jan 2005 5:13 pm

Personally...........

I would suggest , Leave it alone !!

We (the Steel community) are happy with things the way they are. We can migrate around the system and find most stuff we look for. If you go changeing things, its gonna be a can of worms to get areas into a venue acceptible to the avarage PSG person.

I like it the way it is !!

Bill

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