THE NEW SMF FORUM

[Tom]

Hopefully, members reading this post were able to make a smooth transition and your previous registration on the phpBB board is functioning on this SMF board as well.  If you're having any problems that are preventing you from posting, please write to me at tom@queststudios.com so that I can look into the problem.

As far as I can tell, everything has transfered properly from the old phpBB forum.  I'll keep the old phpBB board intact for a while, though...just in case.  I'm new to the SMF system, so please allow me (Ari and Luke, too) some time to learn the ropes of administering some of the new and/or different features of this board.

I'm hoping that when the new phpBB v3 is finally ready, a lot of the issues I've had problems with will have been addressed ... and I'll  probably return to the phpBB system.  But for now...here we are!

[Ari]

Well, the emoticons don't seem to be working yet. Other than that, no problems I've noticed.

[Tom]

       <-- You mean, these?

Fixed them.

[MusicallyInspired]

Wow! Quite a different look! Looks more modern. I like.

[Cybercow]

Yes, the new forum is really cool 

Is this my imagination or is the new forum actually responding faster than the old one ?

[Mike 01Hawk]

Hmpgh.... will there be an "Old Skin" added back?

<-- Hates change

[BlueMax]

Whoa....  so far,  so good!  And just a little speedier, too!

Not bad at all....

[Tom]

Hmpgh.... will there be an "Old Skin" added back?

When I have more time, I'll experiment with bringing the look inline with the old phpBB setup.  But for the most part, I'm pleased that all of the forums and categories are setup exactly the same way, in the same order, so it should make it relatively easy to locate topic areas where you're used to looking for them.

[the_doctor]

I love the fact that the "Show Unread posts since last visit" is still there.  I either am an idiot or its missing from the SMC boards, and was afraid it was lost from here too until I saw it.

Overall, nice conversion, like how you set up the look-and-feel for it, and doesnt bother me if you dont go back.   This color scheme looks brighter and crisp, I like.

[Alistair]

Nope, only '10 most recent posts'. Since there's about 1 post a day at SMC, I figured it wasn't that important

Eventually, if I take SMC seriously, I'll port it over to SMF as well. But currently it's kinda pointless, like one of those fans that makes a website and makes a 'brand spankin' new' forum but has no website content or visitors.


Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything said so far. I think the look is really, really ugly, compared to the previous QuestStudios-y look, and the way pages were loading today was annoying (mgiht've been a once off, so don't want to write it off just yet), but other than that i like the features and so forth.

Hey Tom, why'd you do it? I'm curious to hear your reasons for doing it. (I presume it was more than, "Hey, I'm bored." )

- Alistair

[Ari]

Emm.. Alistair, when you're signed in, you can see your avatar at the top of the page. Just to the right of it, there's an option to see all unread posts since last visit and new replies to your posts.

Also, I find it kinda a funny to see you say you agree with everything that's been said, and right after that say that you think the board is ugly, when most people actually said it looks nice... 

[Alistair]

Emm.. Alistair, when you're signed in, you can see your avatar at the top of the page. Just to the right of it, there's an option to see all unread posts since last visit and new replies to your posts.

Hey Ari,

I was replying to the doctor, who was talking about the SMC forums. Even if you didn't realise that then, you should've realised I was talking about it, given I said SMC a few times.. Anyway, I wasn't talking about these forums.

Also, I find it kinda a funny to see you say you agree with everything that's been said, and right after that say that you think the board is ugly, when most people actually said it looks nice... 

Well, 2 people said it looks nice, one said they didn't like it, so I guess technically you're right in saying 'most people'

Besides, surely I'm allowed to agree with most things but not with others? I *did* say:

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything said so far.

NOT:

Yeah, I agree with everything said so far.

So, don't try and start trouble, not interested today. Jeez, you sound like me and vice versa.

- Alistair

[Ari]

Someone got up on the wrong side of bed today... 
First, I didn't realise you were talking about your forum. With SMF and SMC just 3 chars different from one another, you can see how one would confuse the two...

As for the last part, no one here claimed it was ugly except you. Mike just commented on the fact that he hates change. Well, so do I, but I don't think the current board is ugly, just different. What I was commenting about was the almost total agreement with everybody, and then taking a totally different side. It just made me laugh.

[Tom]

Hey Tom, why'd you do it? I'm curious to hear your reasons for doing it. (I presume it was more than, "Hey, I'm bored.")

As I posted on the old phpBB board, the reasons I switched to this board are:

I've been considering moving from the phpBB Forum system, to the SIMPLE MACHINE FORUM. I have successfully transferred all member data, past and current posts, forum structure, etc. to SMF with the use of a conversion utility. I've decided that I WILL be making this move sometime within the next week.

Why? Two reasons:

1.) The phpBB forum backup function no longer works. I've been backing up the MySQL database, instead -- but because of its size, I'm not sure I'll be able to restore it through phpMyAdmin. In fact, I'm sure I won't be able to. (My hosting service can still restore, though...in case of an emergency.)

2.) But the primary reason is the continual stream of spammers and spam bot registrations. I have tried several phpBB mods that try to block spam bots. They work, to some degree. I've been able to reduce their numbers, but I'm still dealing with at least 5-10 per day!

My ultimate solution for the spam bot problem is to DISABLE NEW REGISTRATIONS in phpBB, and deal with new members, manually. Unfortunately, phpBB does NOT have that option, though it is available through an external mod that I've installed. The mod doesn't work properly. (Screws up legitimate member status.) I've worked with the creator of the mod to try to get it to work correctly, but with no success.

When a spammer or spam bot registers, I receive email notification. Because there's a chance that it could be a legitimate user wishing to register, I have to check it out through the forum's Member Management setup...then, delete the member if it's a spammer. If it's a legitimate user (by my determination...which isn't always very easy to determine), I approve the registration. This is a pain-in-the-butt and is time-consuming.

Since I only receive one or two legitimate registrations a week, it would be much easier for me to just deal with those, manually: have the perspective member contact me via email, and I'll setup their account. This is possible with SMF, but not phpBB. SMF allows disabling registrations, and my ability to create member accounts, myself; two things that require mods in phpBB, and don't always work in phpBB.

So, that's the deal. I WILL BE LEAVING THIS phpBB FORUM INTACT until I'm absolutely sure that all of the data has transfered properly. Though, posting new messages will be disabled on this phpBB system. An automatic URL redirect to the new board will replace the present location of this forum once everything is setup.

I'm very sorry to put you through this. I'm at my wits-end with these spammers. phpBB3 is still in the works, but when it's finally released, perhaps I'll return to the phpBB system. But for now, I've heard any number of pros and cons with the SMF system over the phpBB system; better security is at the top of the list. Administrative control IS definitely far better in SMF than phpBB. How well the board actually functions in comparison to phpBB, only time will tell.

Although the two boards, phpBB and SMF, function very simularly, their "look" didn't really play a part in the decision to move.  And as I mentioned in a previous post, when I learn how to use the administrative functions of this board a bit better, I'll probably try to make it look a little more like the old phpBB board, too.

you can see your avatar at the top of the page. Just to the right of it, there's an option to see all unread posts since last visit and new replies to your posts.

There's also a small up/down arrow at the very left upper side of the page that's used to expand or collapse that little User Info box.  Maybe it's not expanded in Alistair's layout, and he didn't see it...

[Ari]

Watch it, he's in a bad mood. He was talking about his own board.

[Tom]

Opps...right.  I see that now.

[Caliburn]

The new board seems quite good, function-wise.

It'll take me a little while before I can comment on the default aesthetics since I'm still adjusting relative to the old phpBB look.  My initial impressions are that for the most part this seems quite fine to me, but if I could change just one thing, I would change the white color used at the top of the page.  It makes the overall color scheme seem a bit brighter and harsher on the eyes than it otherwise is.  (Of course, that may be a moot point, if you eventually play around with the entire color scheme and bring it more in line with the old phpBB look, as you suggest.)

Incidentally, this board also seems to have the function to allow for multiple color schemes and layouts, to be selected by the individual user.  So we could have two options if that really becomes desirable.

Notice that we've gone from red to purple and now (at least temporarily) to blue highlights, but a soft and cozy grey base color is a perennial Quest Studios favorite?

By the way, Tom, I do have two quick administration considerations, which I'll e-mail to you.

-Luke

[parazythum]

Nice !

Can there be several "skins" selectable ? This way people could choose which one is better for them...

[Marten]

My initial thoughts are:

(1) The SMF board feels more cluttered than the phpBB.  But this is something that can be cleaned up with a better theme.
(2) Can't stand the smileys.  They all look fuzzy to me - the lines are too think and they look over-anti-aliased.
(3) On the positives, the board seems a lot more responsive than the old one.  Quick.  Quick is good.
(4) I'm sure I'll get used to it.
(5) Can we please institute a limit on the size of signatures?  Even at 1280x1024, Boogeyman's signature with the King's Quest characters is about 1/3 of the vertical space on my monitor.

[Laust]

I'm with you on the smilies, they're horrid.

This is one of the boards where seeing avatars and signatures is optional, you can disable them from the control panel.  Disabling signatures was the first thing I did and I wish more boards offered this feature

Other than that, the board seems to have some interesting features, such as the new posting statistics and quick reply (needs to be enabled as well). It is indeed more responsive too.