Bitcoin Forum

I was looking at other forums in comparison to this. This one seems more user friendly and better at representing data. Is it just me or does anyone else think this?

It's just a SMF forum..

With a bit(too much) of customization, yes.

Same here. The simplicity and organized data makes it more user friendly than the other forums. Some other forums shows more features but failed to make it more user friendly unlike this forum. I hope they will not overdo the ongoing construction of the new forum. :)

I also like the simplicity of this forum, it runs flawlessly because it's not bloated with useless javascript and flash, I can have a ton of tabs opened at the same time, if I try to do this with more modern and "cooler" looking forums my browser starts lagging.

That's another thing. The SMF programs are more server based and more happens on the server than the clients.

Clients - users' computer
Server - centre of network
(incase people don't know)

I know forums like reddit tend to load more than you would ever want!

This collection of SMF programs seems to be more HTML heavy than Javascript and CSS, which allows the forum to flow more efficiently and offers a greater compatability of browsers and can be opened in almost any browser.

I can use this forum with no script activated and the forum won't break, like most of the sites, that alone makes this forum special in my opinion

Which forums did you compare? Do you have a blog post with the comparison results? I would be interested in seeing that. What did you find to be strong points of those other forums that might be improved on this one?

I could give you some information now:
 •  Lots of forums now are over coded.
 •  This forum is open source, meaning it has lots of input from other programmers (not just the original developer).
 •  Due to overcoding, the forums can take a long time to load and can look different in many browsers.
 •  In most browsers, this forum functions well and looks the same.

This is in comparison with software programmed for XenForo and software for Reddit.
The only forum that I can find with a slightly better look and style than this one is: StackOverflow. However, StackOverflow has a base of many developers that use it as it is mainly a programmig forum.

Well, I have to say bitcointalk is a lot cleaner than some of the other forums I frequent and it's definitely fast. 

One thing also that doesn't have to do with design or layout but is certainly important is that I see waaaay less spam/useless posting here than I do on other forums.  I lurk on a few forums and I swear on each of them most of the posts I see are "+1" or one of the emoticons.  And it's always after quoting a gigantic post, so you actually have to scroll through something you've already read just to get to the smiley face or whatever.  That's annoying and I don't see a lot of that here.

Simple, Cleaner, Faster. Actually I used to hate forums (because of their ads and signatures with eye-blinding images that takes up more space than the post) till I found this one.

Thank you, theymos, for maintaining this forum so well. :)

As i always said, sometimes the simple is the best, i'm using smf forums on my own little "business" since long time ago, for me, this is without any doubt, the best free forum software available, clean + professional is everything needed, the admin did a good choice long time ago, i hate all those forums with lot of useless features "just for fun"...

You guys are all being sarcastic, right? I'll join the party, even though I don't have a signature campaign so I get no remuneration for it!

I love this forum because it's not overcoded. It feels so clean. It is very fast. There is no issue with low quality posts just made to get paid for signature advertising.

Also this very thread is one of the most valuable on this forum. It was not started just to boost post count and there's not a single spammy post in here.

This forum is definitely better than most. I have also noticed this.

Yep. The organized details and with not much of a  decoration this is by far the bet forum that I am currently in. I prefer the simplicity and quality over the other features that other forum has which only makes it more unfriendly specially for a mobile browser like me.

I have never felt anything like that ,it is a bit old school and very less attractive and probably that is being covered in the new forum.All forums are user friendly only when you get used to them and not in the beginning as a newbie.

are you comparing this to any other forum or just bitcoin forum? because there plenty of other good forum, like overclock.net, which is very well done, plenty of info there for pc and related stuff

Technically and aesthetically there may be better forums,but in terms of freedom,this forum is one of a kind.Where else you get a chance to appeal against your ban,you can even criticize staffs for their actions, on other forums this attract immediate ban and sometimes suspension of account.I feel more liberated here than on even Twitter and Facebook

If in regards to BTC, then yes, this one is the best one...
Also, regarding to altcoins and development of the same, no other forum can beat this...
But each forum has its own genre, rules, specifications, and obviously, ranks... ;)

Well if your talking about forums related to currencies, then this is basically the only one that matters, so of course bitcointalk is the best. All the others are almost inactive afaik.

The forum design is one that I am used to as well out of habit although it was this and invisionfree that I recall using most.
Layout wise its nice to use and familiar although sooner or later the forum will migrate and that will be interesting to use as more features and possibly headaches will appear which is a tendancy of alpha releases.