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Does software make or break a forum?
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Topic Started: Nov 21 2017, 09:00 PM (488 Views)
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Smokey
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Nov 21 2017, 09:00 PM
Post #1
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Do you think the software used to power a forum makes or breaks the forum?
What I mean is, do you think a forum running some paid software like IP.Board or Xenforo will naturally do better than a forum powered by ZetaBoards or even ProBoards? What are your thoughts?
Can the software used make or break a forum? Is the software important in a forum's success?
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Administrator
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Nov 21 2017, 10:00 PM
Post #2
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- Smokey
- Nov 21 2017, 09:00 PM
Do you think the software used to power a forum makes or breaks the forum?
What I mean is, do you think a forum running some paid software like IP.Board or Xenforo will naturally do better than a forum powered by ZetaBoards or even ProBoards? What are your thoughts?
Can the software used make or break a forum? Is the software important in a forum's success? The forum itself in terms of how big it might get comes down to the content and how much people want to be there - for the most part. Forum software is vitally important when it comes to being an administrator and only partly important when you're a user. As an administrator a proper forum software gives you the opportunity to offer your users a much better experience, and also offer you, the administrator, a much easier job as administrator.
Other forum systems have built in features that I have spent a long time trying to build, or offers a much easier way to do it. ZB on the other hand still has issues which are basic and simple to fix from a development point of view, but instead are left unfinished. I don't blame Brandon for getting bored of the software and not wanting to develop it further and so I understand completely why he sold it to Tapatalk. Thing is, in a few years the same thing that is happening to IF will happen to ZB. It will disappear too, simply because while other forum softwares update and fix their issues, nothing is happening to ZB. Look at proboards and MyBB and others, they're all free and they do it much better than ZB. The downside is hosting. ZB is easy to use because there's nothing to pay.
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Smokey
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Dec 6 2017, 10:51 PM
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I agree with you there. I really hope ZB doesn't disappear to be honest, because I wouldn't know where to move my forums to if I had to. My financial situation makes it difficult to get hosting and a stable platform to run (i have bad luck with MyBB and ProBoards just isn't for me) I guess there is always IcyBoards (free hosted MyBB....would make life easier I suppose?)
but I think under Tapatalk now, there might actually be some development going on with ZB. According to an announcement Brandon made a few months back there seems to be some long awaited features in the works and coming down the pipeline. We can only hope, anyway.
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Administrator
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Dec 7 2017, 08:57 PM
Post #4
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- Smokey
- Dec 6 2017, 10:51 PM
I agree with you there. I really hope ZB doesn't disappear to be honest, because I wouldn't know where to move my forums to if I had to. My financial situation makes it difficult to get hosting and a stable platform to run (i have bad luck with MyBB and ProBoards just isn't for me) I guess there is always IcyBoards (free hosted MyBB....would make life easier I suppose?)
but I think under Tapatalk now, there might actually be some development going on with ZB. According to an announcement Brandon made a few months back there seems to be some long awaited features in the works and coming down the pipeline. We can only hope, anyway. Jcink. I haven't used IPB1.3 in a while but it has many additions to it and a lot of RP forums for example still use it.
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Connor
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Dec 9 2017, 10:12 AM
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I personally prefer using and participating in IPB and vBulletin forums. I always have. Phpbb3 is ugly, mybb is clunky, and I've never liked that ZB is remotely hosted. I think typically if someone invests money in software, they'll likely invest more time into the forum. It takes 30 seconds to create a remotely hosted forum, while it takes some time and money to get a vBulletin forum set up with hosting/etc.
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Connor
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Dec 9 2017, 10:13 AM
Post #6
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- Smokey
- Dec 6 2017, 10:51 PM
I agree with you there. I really hope ZB doesn't disappear to be honest, because I wouldn't know where to move my forums to if I had to. My financial situation makes it difficult to get hosting and a stable platform to run (i have bad luck with MyBB and ProBoards just isn't for me) I guess there is always IcyBoards (free hosted MyBB....would make life easier I suppose?)
but I think under Tapatalk now, there might actually be some development going on with ZB. According to an announcement Brandon made a few months back there seems to be some long awaited features in the works and coming down the pipeline. We can only hope, anyway. I have an IPB license you can buy for $50, and I can help you find affordable hosting. If you really want premium software, it's 1/4th the retail price. I have no use for it.
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Administrator
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Dec 9 2017, 11:03 PM
Post #7
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- Connor
- Dec 9 2017, 10:12 AM
I personally prefer using and participating in IPB and vBulletin forums. I always have. Phpbb3 is ugly, mybb is clunky, and I've never liked that ZB is remotely hosted. I think typically if someone invests money in software, they'll likely invest more time into the forum. It takes 30 seconds to create a remotely hosted forum, while it takes some time and money to get a vBulletin forum set up with hosting/etc. Installing remotely is super easy, I agree. I think users should be able to download a backup and revert to backups. The problem in a place like ZB is that downloading and reverting to a backup would be a strain either on the database depending on how they have them separated, or on the server. It's not something that is difficult to do though. You have to keep in mind not everyone has the money to pay for a license and hosting per month. For some it can be quite a bit of money for an investment that may not pan out, as not all forums do, so it's much more convenient for them to have a place like ZB. What could be added to ZB would be like a paid plan for $10 or month or so which includes features and ad removal. And for example you could have it on a sliding scale where ads would be removed for $10 for 100 members, $15 for 200, and so on.
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Smokey
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Dec 12 2017, 09:10 PM
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I already have an IPB license, I also have 2 xenforo licenses, I'm looking to sell the IPB and at least 1 Xenforo license if I can. It makes more financial sense for me to use ZB, especially as Junkbot stated, the forums may not pan out and the money invested into the forum can be used elsewhere.
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Administrator
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Dec 13 2017, 02:31 AM
Post #9
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Never put all your eggs in one basket. I could no problem buy some hosting right now and be making cool PHP and Database powered codes for ZB but I'll never get that investment back. It's evident from how well my fprum is going here. Cost, effort and reward. What you put in and what you get out. If ZB had a system whereby you could download your database and leave or come to their system from other places, they would be so much more successful. Not everyone can afford the $200 dollar upfront fee of IPB or others. And some can't afford the $5 a month or more for hosting.
You mentioned someone making a forum system. I could make something like ZB no problem, but it's not like I can advertise it and get people to come and join it. It's unfortunate and not possible. I'd put in a lot of effort and no one from ZB will join. Easy as that.
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Senile Chelonian
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May 5 2018, 12:01 AM
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I have found that for some users software functionality is everything. One member of my forum when I used to be on Proboards hasn't got a clue how to navigate Zetaboards. They used to use Recent Threads/Posts to navigate but now as ZB does not have that function (not to the extent PB had it) that member can no longer use the our new boards. I also have another member that moans like hell about the lack of a proper Recent Threads/Posts page. I also find a lot of codes for the board are very random on whether they work or not. Plus I think the admin panel isn't very user friendly with regards to groups and permissions.
I honestly find Zetaboards to be doing a lot of things in really silly ways that could be done in more sensible ways and less anti-user friendly.
But as I had no choice to leave PB I chose ZB as I had had experience of it long ago; but it's changed a lot since I last used it and some of it not for the better.
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Administrator
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May 5 2018, 12:20 AM
Post #11
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- Senile Chelonian
- May 5 2018, 12:01 AM
I have found that for some users software functionality is everything. One member of my forum when I used to be on Proboards hasn't got a clue how to navigate Zetaboards. They used to use Recent Threads/Posts to navigate but now as ZB does not have that function (not to the extent PB had it) that member can no longer use the our new boards. I also have another member that moans like hell about the lack of a proper Recent Threads/Posts page. I also find a lot of codes for the board are very random on whether they work or not. Plus I think the admin panel isn't very user friendly with regards to groups and permissions.
I honestly find Zetaboards to be doing a lot of things in really silly ways that could be done in more sensible ways and less anti-user friendly.
But as I had no choice to leave PB I chose ZB as I had had experience of it long ago; but it's changed a lot since I last used it and some of it not for the better. It is true ZB does things differently than other forums, but from a developer point of view like Brandon is, it makes perfect sense. I can see why he set up things the way he did. You are right about recent threads/posts. Things have gone that way with many forum systems because of Facebook. I personally don't see it as a good thing, but many prefer it that way. Unfortunately there is no way to really do something like that here on ZB. The closes thing you can get to is having the portal being your main page, but this would make it so for everyone. To elaborate on why the portal latest posts can't be obtained - it's because the portal is intensive on the database, especially on large forums. It is so because it has to make multiple requests from the database, once for users online, once for latest posts, once for the posts you want as news, and then more for everything else. Imagine loading a page like that every time in the background besides everything else on the index page. It would be very hard on the server. The only reason I would see active topics not being good enough is if you were a user who doesn't go on every 24 hours and then would miss posts from 48 hours ago, but unfortunately that data should not be obtained. I personally know how to after having learned it, but ethically it would not be correct for me to use the method, and could get both my own forum and code removed as well as yours. It's just too much for ZB right now.
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Senile Chelonian
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May 5 2018, 12:57 AM
Post #12
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- Administrator
- May 5 2018, 12:20 AM
- Senile Chelonian
- May 5 2018, 12:01 AM
I have found that for some users software functionality is everything. One member of my forum when I used to be on Proboards hasn't got a clue how to navigate Zetaboards. They used to use Recent Threads/Posts to navigate but now as ZB does not have that function (not to the extent PB had it) that member can no longer use the our new boards. I also have another member that moans like hell about the lack of a proper Recent Threads/Posts page. I also find a lot of codes for the board are very random on whether they work or not. Plus I think the admin panel isn't very user friendly with regards to groups and permissions.
I honestly find Zetaboards to be doing a lot of things in really silly ways that could be done in more sensible ways and less anti-user friendly.
But as I had no choice to leave PB I chose ZB as I had had experience of it long ago; but it's changed a lot since I last used it and some of it not for the better.
It is true ZB does things differently than other forums, but from a developer point of view like Brandon is, it makes perfect sense. I can see why he set up things the way he did. You are right about recent threads/posts. Things have gone that way with many forum systems because of Facebook. I personally don't see it as a good thing, but many prefer it that way. Unfortunately there is no way to really do something like that here on ZB. The closes thing you can get to is having the portal being your main page, but this would make it so for everyone. To elaborate on why the portal latest posts can't be obtained - it's because the portal is intensive on the database, especially on large forums. It is so because it has to make multiple requests from the database, once for users online, once for latest posts, once for the posts you want as news, and then more for everything else. Imagine loading a page like that every time in the background besides everything else on the index page. It would be very hard on the server. The only reason I would see active topics not being good enough is if you were a user who doesn't go on every 24 hours and then would miss posts from 48 hours ago, but unfortunately that data should not be obtained. I personally know how to after having learned it, but ethically it would not be correct for me to use the method, and could get both my own forum and code removed as well as yours. It's just too much for ZB right now. The thing is, if other board providers can do it without the AJAX thing being a problem, how come it can't be done on ZB? I think it should ultimately be changed on the back end so that it's longer than 24 hours. Like this:
http://purelyvegan.proboards.com/threads/recent
Surely he could do it in a way similar to how other forum providers coded it?
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Administrator
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May 5 2018, 01:10 AM
Post #13
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- Senile Chelonian
- May 5 2018, 12:57 AM
- Administrator
- May 5 2018, 12:20 AM
- Senile Chelonian
- May 5 2018, 12:01 AM
I have found that for some users software functionality is everything. One member of my forum when I used to be on Proboards hasn't got a clue how to navigate Zetaboards. They used to use Recent Threads/Posts to navigate but now as ZB does not have that function (not to the extent PB had it) that member can no longer use the our new boards. I also have another member that moans like hell about the lack of a proper Recent Threads/Posts page. I also find a lot of codes for the board are very random on whether they work or not. Plus I think the admin panel isn't very user friendly with regards to groups and permissions.
I honestly find Zetaboards to be doing a lot of things in really silly ways that could be done in more sensible ways and less anti-user friendly.
But as I had no choice to leave PB I chose ZB as I had had experience of it long ago; but it's changed a lot since I last used it and some of it not for the better.
It is true ZB does things differently than other forums, but from a developer point of view like Brandon is, it makes perfect sense. I can see why he set up things the way he did. You are right about recent threads/posts. Things have gone that way with many forum systems because of Facebook. I personally don't see it as a good thing, but many prefer it that way. Unfortunately there is no way to really do something like that here on ZB. The closes thing you can get to is having the portal being your main page, but this would make it so for everyone. To elaborate on why the portal latest posts can't be obtained - it's because the portal is intensive on the database, especially on large forums. It is so because it has to make multiple requests from the database, once for users online, once for latest posts, once for the posts you want as news, and then more for everything else. Imagine loading a page like that every time in the background besides everything else on the index page. It would be very hard on the server. The only reason I would see active topics not being good enough is if you were a user who doesn't go on every 24 hours and then would miss posts from 48 hours ago, but unfortunately that data should not be obtained. I personally know how to after having learned it, but ethically it would not be correct for me to use the method, and could get both my own forum and code removed as well as yours. It's just too much for ZB right now.
The thing is, if other board providers can do it without the AJAX thing being a problem, how come it can't be done on ZB? I think it should ultimately be changed on the back end so that it's longer than 24 hours. Like this: http://purelyvegan.proboards.com/threads/recentSurely he could do it in a way similar to how other forum providers coded it? It should be, it may be. Right now there are a lot of things that still need work. This shouldn't be a feature that is too difficult to add though.
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