Bitcoin Forum

Thanks for reading this post.  I am trying to determine the best forum software in existence today.  In order to answer the question of "best" I need to put this in perspective.  I am seeking the best forum software solution upon which to build a sort-of bitcointalk2.0 as described here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=244678.0

At the time of this writing the community proposed:

     -Discourse    
       http://try.discourse.org/latest/more

     -vBulletin
       http://www.vbulletin.com/vb5-trial/

     -Xenforo      
       http://xenforo.com/demo

     -MyBB          
       http://www.forum-software.org/demo/mybb

     -SMF
       http://www.simplemachines.org  

     -IP Board
       http://www.invisionpower.com/apps/board


Why does one make more sense than another given the problem we are trying to solve above?


I also added a poll to determine the browser people use to surf this forum here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=246961.0


edit:  

unresolved
can software integrate with two factor authentication like google authenticator?

xpost idea requested by op from other thread:

It would be cool if when you sign up, you also register a Bitcoin address. To modify any  profile settings you must sign a message with that address to have it saved. This address could also be used if password is lost or forgotten or to prove someone else has your account.

I think that discourse has a very good design that looks extremely modern and different. I'm not sure how easy it is to code for but it definitely looks good to the end user.

I just looked at discourse and I cringed because I did not like the interface at all.  Of the group SMF appears cleanest and most professional on first view (in my humble opinion).

What system do you normally use to interface with the forums?  I typically use a desktop machine.  That is mainly because I prefer a full keyboard.  (I like to write alot  ::)).  

I added a poll to determine what browsers people use here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=246961.0

In that case, I would definitely go with IP Board.Fyi, I use a laptop with chrome most of the time but when i'm on the go I use my windows phone.

What I proposed in the other thread

Be strict about '+1's
Make a popularity count (using votes from very-established users only)
Display posts count+registration date next to avatar
Posting limits: no more than 1 post per hour (or 2, or 0.5, or whatever you think would fit) during the first week after registration. Then 2p/h during the second, etc.
IMO mobile phone support is not a top priority
Be clear about the acceptance of altcoins: Full no/Yes to all/Yes to some(which ones?)
NO social media support!
NO tracking like Google Analytics or shit like this at all
Mods paid by users through public donation addresses
No ads in signatures allowed. Or if people find this too anti-freedom.of.speech, no colours/glow/big font.

I agree with Jackjack - there should be priorities as there's never enough time in the day to implement all the wants.

Things like mobile could be left till later.

Any well written modern software should include smartphone support as a native option.  If it does not it soon will or it will go the way of the dodo bird.

No social media support?  Why not?  I think plugging into the 1 billion members in Facebook could be beneficial.

No tracking like Google Analytics or shit like this at all  Why not?  Why should the forum not generate ad dollars or have the option to?


> there should be priorities

Certainly but until we exhaust the discussion of what the problems are we cannot even consider trying to prioritize the solution.

Ad money can be generated exactly like here: ads under the first post.
I'm very uncomfortable with my privacy being raped once again, moreover on a bitcoin forum. And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

If people want to share through FB/Twitter/G+ they can still post the URL.

I was thinking advertising should be much better integrated.  Having the OP auction off all available ad space once per week to crooks and con men is part of the issue here. (for example - BFL's ads in this forum may be criminal if BFL is a scam) 

How does adding google analytic's invade your privacy?  And isn't the question one of creating a stronger privacy policy rather than avoiding modern analytical tools?

bump

I'm curious as to concerns pertaining to the analytic/privacy aspect.

How about firing up a mock IP board and let's take it for a five day free test drive?

http://www.invisionpower.com/demo

We can do so with the understanding that the content may be lost once the test period is over, but during the interim we should be able to gain a myriad of knowledge.

You should change title from "best open forum software" to "best forum software" as many forums softwares  (Xenforo/IPB/VB etc) are paid one.

done.

I think this theme would make a nice default theme for Bitcointalk.

http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=1788

Just add a Gold or yellow bitcoin logo to the top and it will be all set.

How did vBulletin not make this list?

results prior to reset

Discourse    2 (14.3%)
IP Board    3 (21.4%)
MyBB    1 (7.1%)
SMF    4 (28.6%)
Xenforo    2 (14.3%)
(propose other)    2 (14.3%)
Total Voters: 14


added vBulletin

The latest vBulletin has way to many problems to be functional.

and VB5 is SQLi vulnerable.

Well VB is just crap, then.  Speaking of crap, is there a good example of discourse somewhere?  The default user interface is not inviting.  Though I like the strategy.

the founder @Discourse doesn't want us:




It's going to be tough to convert a large community, particularly if...

- many of them are traditionalists
- there's not a widespread sense of anger and outrage over the status quo
- the forum is BIG
- the forum is long established
- there is an expectation that old data will be imported (we recommend old content go read-only and new content only on the new site)

Discourse still doesn't have a subcategory implementation, either. It's still early in the lifecycle.

Unless this is done...

- via top-down fiat
- with the assistance of a SIGNIFICANT number of community members who actively hate the current status quo

It's very unlikely to work at this time, in my opinion.

I certainly do appreciate the vote of confidence, and it's good to continue discussing this amongst your community.

Jeff

A forum should just be a forum... Allow VIP or Donator status, allow Premium or Paid membership.. Then you don't need ads unless the payments and donations are not enough. But you'll always have 90% of the forum composed of non-paying free members.

Therefore +1 to everything jackjack said, specifically, no social media crap, no ads, no tracking. If you want a facebook account, go make one. I don't have one. (I don't have twitter either, and I deleted my friendster account.)

Of course, it is probably going to be SEO friendly, so there's no need to integrate google's stuff, it will get crawled anyway.

Just my 0.02 BTC

IP Board

It's in the poll, did you vote for it? 

SMF all the way :)

Another vote for Xenforo

why?

Newer version of SMF, but SMF all the way.

Newer vrsions of SMF have no issues with mobile support.

The current version of smf seems buggy.
It tells me I search too often, without having performed
a single search query. This error comes in various flavors.
Sometimes it tells me that I search too quickly, right after
my first query.

That is not a PEBKAC.

Couple of years back phpbb and jforum were cool :)

It's not a bug it's a feature

how could this be a feature???
I hope you mean this as in it is not a bug it's a feature :)
User: I do A
Program: You just did B, i throttle you.

Oh yeah I misread.
The forum handles logins, searches and posting the same way.
So when you are a newbie you can't do 2 of those too quickly. There are several threads about this problem in Meta.

The software being developed for bitcointalk by anyone :-)

I love vbulletin because of its features. But it is not advisable if you don't have good devs to address those vulnerabilities.

That's not what I read in Jeff's answer. He's just telling the truth: Migrating to a new forum will be tough if you don't make a hard cut.

SMF, :)

My picks would be SMF and VanillaForums. I've been using both for some time now.

here to propose the same  Vanilla Forum

The forum-software poll suffers from vote-splitting. As Einstein said, make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. When people make posts simply naming their favorite software, they duplicate the poll (along with its vote-splitting flaw) as well as creating clutter.

What you really want is a comparison matrix of candidates vs. weighted criteria, and for people to *rate* the candidates (say on a scale of 1-10) on each criterion. A simpler method would be just rating the candidates overall 1-10 (Score Voting). The simplest possible would be an approval vote, i.e. rating the candidates 0 or 1. If the SMF poll function doesn't support this, you could hold a vote at:
http://electionbuddy.com
but I would find something that supports Score Voting.

Some info sources on all the platforms:
http://www.cmscritic.com/critics-choice-cms-awards/
http://www.forummatrix.org
http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/cm-simplemachinesforum/all/all

I'm not a big fan of pure forum software, as it does not provide a platform for a complete virtual community (as Drupal, Joomla, or Wordpress would), but this group seems focused on having just a forum. In that case, if I were to allow myself to jump ahead and guess the results of the exercise, SMF 2.x would win because it is both the incumbent and still a clear market leader.

Regarding SMF 2.X , I'm not sure but I think I've heard theymos say that the second version has a lot of security issues, even more than the first one. Actually, the current version of SMF used here is heavily modified to address many flaws, both functional, feature related as well as exploits.

Security should be one of the key comparison criteria, and it should be evaluated as objectively as possible, not by hearsay. Every product, OTF or home grown, is going to have security issues, but I would tend to trust more the one that has the most eyeballs, and SMF gets a lot. This might be useful:
http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Understanding_SMF_Security

Every product, OTF or home grown, is going to have "flaws" (requirements gaps). Theymos addressed those of SMF 1.x--we're talking about 2.x. The existence of the customizations has been mentioned repeatedly throughout his RFC threads:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45372.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50617.0
but has Theymos documented his mods somewhere? It would be nice to see a list, and then see which of them has been addressed by 2.x or an available mod, and estimate the effort required to recreate the others.

Participants in this thread should be asking themselves what is special about the bitcoin community that requires features not used by the other thousands of online communities. It would probably be simpler and cheaper to contribute those additional features back to an open-source project like SMF, or provide them as mods:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/

Sorry, I am allowing myself to be goaded into expressing a product opinion. Analysis first....

Actually you might be onto something. Though only checking if the issues in SMF have been addressed is not enough. I think theymos mentioned there are issues not present in SMF 1.x but present in 2.x. You'd actually need to hire a lot of reputable experts to look through and suggest fixes/fix what's wrong, flawed or can be exploited in any way.

Looks like someone has made a reasonable forum based on SMF 2.x:
https://www.bitcoinforum.com
Dunno the story behind it.

From my experience, I can tell toy that discourse is the best-looking forum software, having both modern UI and ease of use....

What about security? It might look good, but be flawed in the backend.

My first touch with XenForo was at Chevereto.com/community. I like the functionality and appearance.

Sadly discourse is a beta stage which means a lot of exploits out there...
But the future of discourse is very ambitious.

Discourse may be ready, want to try it?

I've used both MyBB and Xenforo. I used to (and still am) a member of the community forums at MyBB. I develop plugins there and relate a lot of my expertise considering I have used the forum on-and-off for over 3 years atleast (probably more like 4). However, I voted for Xenforo because I believe Xenforo (as a premium software) has more and is going to have more of a feature base than MyBB ever will.

If premium is an option, go for Xenforo.
If free is the best choice (which it might be because open source should match with open source), then MyBB would be best.

I wish there was a split choice TBH.

Why Phpbb is not on the list ? :)   (I am fan of Forumotion hosting which is working on PHPBB as far as I know )

Is not this topic belongs to the Meta section of this forum? Also I do not know what is the best - the great thing is that you can choose what you will use. With that variety of software you are not limited to one solution.