WAP lol... seriously? You want us to use a feature designed for phones that do text only and through a protocol that was dead before it was even born? Come on. Forum Runner and Tapatalk should be supported at a bare minimum.
Huh? I've improved the moderator tools a lot. And this doesn't impact you much, since you're not a moderator.
Yes, it does affect me because the moderators can't do their job properly.
Watchlist.
Is not a subscription. The watchlist function is barely adequate and is basically a hack on top of a hack to make a feature that should be in the base forum software. It is, in a word, craptacular. I have to go to two separate places to find threads I want to pay attention to. Then, once I post in that thread I can't @#%#@$ remove it from my list of watched threads if I lose interest in it, without deleting ALL MY POSTS in that thread. Pure, utter stupidity.
I probably wouldn't introduce one of those fancy WYSIWYG editors even if I could do so for free. I hate using them on other sites because they interfere with the features my browser gives me for textboxes, and they would encourage people to use more annoying markup. I do not want to see people making all of their posts in some unusual color and font in order to stand out or be unique. That's just annoying.
I'm not sure what sites you are using or what browser you are using, but you're using the wrong ones in either case. Try some on modern forum software on a modern browser. They work fine and don't interfere at all.
It isn't too bad. I use it pretty frequently, though Google is better for some searches.
Again, much like the watchlist, it's barely adequate. If you want to strive for mediocrity, then it's a win.
There won't be a global reputation system. This forum is for discussion, which global reputation systems interfere with.
A web of trust reputation system would be good.
Sorry, but normal people don't use junk like that. Look at the current WoT. It's barely used compared to the community here. It's a failure because it's too difficult to use. It needs to be built in to the forum and simple, otherwise people won't use it, no matter how superior it is.
These would be nice, but they're not priorities. I worry about supporting discussion first and trading second.
Great! Switching to modern forum software will accomplish this goal perfectly. Sticking with the bug ridden, feature bare, security holed SMF is not furthering that goal. It's putting a forum on life support and hoping for the best.
Have you ever even seen automated spam outside of the newbies section?
Yes... and when I tried to report the multiple threads, I got the stupid "You must wait 20 seconds between posts" so I didn't bother reporting the three other threads that were posted after the first one.
What's wrong with posting links? Then you can handle the links however you want in your browser. Use a browser-based image gallery userscript if you want.
Because it's a pain in the ass. Again, you don't seem to understand that people want convenience, not a complicated ritual to post a !@#%#@$ image. It's called making your forum rich in content, not making it user hostile. With an image gallery/attachment manager, you can have the best of both worlds - people can still post links if they want, or they can use the built in tools that allow them to
communicate instead of trying to decipher how to post an image.
That'd be a good feature, but it's not a priority.
Then what is a priority? You don't seem to be advancing anything as a priority. Everything that makes a good forum is "not a priority" so far.
Advanced in what way?
I'm not saying that we're staying with SMF forever. There are many improvements to make, and I'm uneasy about SMF's security. But SMF works pretty well.
Take a look at the profiles of a modern forums software package for an idea. Yes, SMF works
pretty well for something from 1999. It works like a piece of crap for something from 2010... and here it is almost 2013.
This thread will be a year old in another few days and there has been exactly
zero advancement of this forum as far as security and features go. It's the same forum from a year ago. You are never going to get custom software written in a reasonable timeframe. Just pick one of the modern forum packages and go with it. I suggest vBulletin, but I honestly don't care what package you go with, so long as it has modern features and abilities.
