Bitcoin Forum

Since it's a separate entity now can we please, please, please move away from this horrible SMF application and get  real forum software?  I'd vote for vBulletin, but I'd be fine with moving to anything that has modern features and conveniences (which means no PHPBB either, but PHPBB would at least be a step up from this software).

SMF is great for a hobbiest site with little traffic and few posts, but it's horrible for a heavy traffic / high post count site.  The lack of management features alone should necessitate the move, but there is so much more available in terms of features out there that sticking with this software is a diservice to everyone.  Not only is it lacking in features, but it looks like something you'd put up on a free webhost for your family pictures.  I'd volunteer to help with the conversion and setup of the new software if that is a problem/concern.

I will kick in a BTC or two for licensing costs if need be and I'm sure others will as well.

nothing wrong with the current forum software.

Do you mean other than it's antiquated, lacking in features, looks shabby and is slow?  Or something else?

Seriously though, I am glad you are happy with a threadbare forum system that is state of the art 2005, but why do you want to make everyone else suffer through the lack of flexibility compared to modern forum software?  You can still NOT use the advanced features of other forum software if you so choose, but those of us who like to live in the present would like the advanced features of modern software.  We can't do that currently... so having updated, modern software will cater to both parties - your desire to have antiquated tech and our desire to have advanced features.  Your way just caters to the Luddite crowd, why do you want to be so selfish?

Not to mention the administration, plugin and moderation features on modern software would make this forum so much more.  The For Sale section wouldn't be a mess like it is now.  The reputation system would actually function and be useful just to mention two things out of the hundreds.

SMF's developers pretty much choked the life out of their own project. I'm shocked that they actually managed to make a 2.0 "release" and I would not be surprised if it was just their latest "release candidate" and they'll go back and fix the bugs at the same utterly ridiculously slow pace.

I'd love to switch to vBulletin. If this were my forum and I had the license, I would have already done it.

I actually don't mind any of those except the slowness, it's killing me ! I waited 3 minutes for one refresh today ! Most of the time it's 10-30 seconds, that's horrible !

do you guys have any idea how much trouble it would be to transfer? the site would be down for days. and who cares about features, what else do you need besides text and images and such. although it being faster would always be nice.

Yes, I know exactly how much trouble it would be to transfer, since I've done it more than thirty times over the years.  About 15 clicks of the mouse and zero down time.  Do YOU know how much trouble it would be to transfer?  Impex - > Drop down Select DB -> Input DB credentials -> Click next about 10 times and you are done.

Tell me about it...

Did you guys know that we have no moderation queue? Every time you click the Report to moderator (Don't stop! Too few people use it already!), an email is blast out to every moderator and it's impossible for us to know if another moderator has already dealt with the post in question, unless the action that was taken was to delete or move the post.

I would probably have to kill myself if I had to moderate this forum with this software :)  I used to hack in features I needed to early versions of vBulletin and UBB... at least there is ready made stuff now.

I like this layout. I very much dislike the web 2.0 nonsense that all "modern" forum software uses by default. If it has any rounded corners, then I don't want it. ;)

There certainly are many problems:
- I need to create a membergroup that can moderate only certain other membergroups
- I need forum rank to be determined by both time and post count
- Certain membergroups should be exempt from certain bans
- SMF uses MySQL, which sucks
- I need to be able to clone posts
- There should be a report queue, and mods should only be emailed when something gets 2-3 reports
- All limits must be per membergroup
- There needs to be a blacklist of phrases. When you post one of these phrases, you are banned or prevented from posting or allowed to post depending on which membergroup you are in.
- It should be possible to apply certain ban "templates" automatically (IP, user-based, subnet-based, etc.) with a single click
- Users should be sent a PM automatically when they are banned or have a post deleted
- The board should update its list of Tor exit nodes automatically from the Tor directory servers
- There should be a ban appeal system
- Passwords use double-SHA-1, I believe, which is unacceptable
- Animated signatures/avatars and cookie stuffing should be prevented
- It should be possible to ignore users (SMF has a mod for this, but it breaks the forum and I haven't had time to fix it)
- A true web of trust would be nice
- Threading would be nice
- It would be nice to allow access to the forum over NNTP and mailing lists
- I find the code very difficult to deal with, so I can't fix any of these things

Probably no software solves all of these problems, though. If I'm going to have to do a lot of modifications, I'd rather write my own forum software and not deal with a transition. Then I don't have to worry about security, either.

Just what the world needs, another forum software  :D There are so many forum systems, one of them should be good enough (or at least extensible enough) to do what you want...

You always have to worry about security, also if you write your own code.

SMF OWNS.

Check out my forum and tell me if you like the features :).

tweetforum.com  (http://tweetforum.com)

The last time I had to evaluate forum software, I think phpBB was actually a step down from SMF :D



I can't be sure since it's been like 3 years or so since I last admin a SMF forum, but I vaguely remember it had to do with the choice of using MyISAM as the db engine. Switching to innodb made things a lot faster.


It's because the forum's using the default skin I think.

The forums should be upgraded to vBulletin. I'm sure devs can afford the $195 fee  :-\

I'm sure SMF could have more features but I say we stick with what is working at the current point in time. If the OP is suggesting some features that is a must such as a reputation system with some encrypted authentication method for signing then maybe its time to upgrade if I knew of such open source software. Besides that I think its hard enough for new commers to get use to bitcoin let alone fancy widgets to get when they need help in the forums.

Glad we got right on this, before we were hacked.

Oh wait...

Aaaaand we are still using SMF.  WTG!

See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45372.0

https://www.vbulletin.com/

Yes, a useless self-masturbatory thread about the perfect forum chimera that will never exist.  So we will hover in limbo with shit ass forum software full of bugs, lacking features and riddled with security issues while we wait for a mythical forum beast to appear.

Right...

BitcoinsForums.net ;)

No, I will not excuse him for continually putting all our personal data at risk.

Beyond that, having a life and waiting since at least August is not acceptable.  

Beyond even THAT, asking for forum software with the requirements he is laying out is virtually impossible in any reasonable time frame.  Allowing the forum to continue in it's current unacceptable state until this mythical software is written is also unacceptable.

So no, I will not excuse him for "having a life."  I (and many others) warned him about SMF before we had a data breach, yet he did nothing.  During the data breach, he failed to handle it in any reasonable manner.  After the data breach, he has failed to produce any meaningful changes. On every single count, he's failed to do even the minimum necessary to handle the problems with this forum.  Life or not, he's failed.

If you find more security problems with SMF, tell me and I'll fix it. SMF's security record doesn't seem any worse than other popular software, so I don't believe it's worth the trouble to switch if I can't get at least most of my wishlist implemented.


Few of the "facts" in these videos are accurate.

Here's the problem though... the forum software you want doesn't exist, it will have to be written from scratch or modified extensively from other software.  Great, that's a fine plan, but that plan takes a lot of time.  On top of the time, introducing either new software or so extensively modified software is going to have lots and lots of bugs.  Lots of security issues - it won't have been vetted through millions of users and billions of posts like off the shelf software.

Additionally, if that software ever saw the light of day, which is a dubious proposition at this point, the maintenance on it is going to be horrendous.  Who's going to maintain it when security or bug fixes are required?  Who's going to add new features?  There's a reason vBulletin et al has a whole TEAM of developers working on the software and not just one or two guys in a back room handling problems.

These two issues alone should be enough to send you screaming from the room, but regardless... until this software is created, switching to a more robust, updated software is not unreasonable.  Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but you can find a lot of what you're looking for in vBulletin + plugins.  In fact, I would say vBulletin + custom plugins to add the functionality you want is the way to go. That way you don't have to maintain the core forum software and can strictly maintain the plugins.  You can pay someone to develop these plugins as well.  The plugin system for vBulletin is pretty much in a class by itself in so far as robustness and number of plugins available. 

Switching to stock vBulletin now and then developing the Plugins as time permits is a far, far better solution than waiting for an undetermined amount of time for a whole set of software from scratch or the heavy modifications required from existing software.  It allows stepwise upgrades and refinement, which is invariably a better development cycle than a monolithic change like you are suggesting. 

vbilletin is about the best out there.

you ask anywhere about features, stability and security and vb tops every list.

I think theymos just doesnt want to pay for it.

Why has no one mentioned the best forum software available?

Is it because it is not free?  You get what you pay for...

http://www.invisionpower.com/products/board/features.php