Poll

What should I look at next?

XenForo
5 (27.8%)
FluxBB
1 (5.6%)
vB 4
0 (0%)
vB 5
2 (11.1%)
phpBB
2 (11.1%)
Vanilla
1 (5.6%)
Woltlab Burning Board 4 beta 1
4 (22.2%)
other (please state)
1 (5.6%)
SMF 2.1 (alpha)
2 (11.1%)
Total Members Voted: 18

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Next System Visitation
« on May 29th, 2013, 11:34 PM »Last edited on May 31st, 2013, 02:47 AM
So as you guys know, I've done 'System Visitations' where I glance around each of the different forum systems that I have licenses for (or are open source) for commentary purposes, seeing what they do, whether they have features we don't, that kind of thing.

I asked this on the thoughts and got a few mixed responses. So I thought I'd make it a poll. We don't have enough polls on this site. NEED MOAR POLLS.


Previously on System Visitations:
MyBB 1.6.10
vBulletin 3.8.7
IPB 3.4.5 (plus the rest of the suite)
When we unite against a common enemy that attacks our ethos, it nurtures group solidarity. Trolls are sensational, yes, but we keep everyone honest. | Game Memorial

Norodo

  • Oh you Baidu, so randumb. (60 sites being indexed at once? Jeez)
  • Posts: 469
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #1, on May 30th, 2013, 12:48 AM »
I'd like to see you try Vanilla. Not because I'm a fan, but because I could never fully understand how it's supposed to work or be intuitive. Maybe you can think of a use case for it, but I surely can't.

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #2, on May 30th, 2013, 12:55 AM »
The problem with Vanilla is that I already think it's unintuitive. The use case is primarily around having a single board and only a single board (niche forums, yo) and having meta-data to indicate the context of the topics, e.g. what amount to tags and topic prefixes. You end up with tags that categorise topics, and tags to classify topics, subtle but different. It's much like how you can put a blog article in multiple categories in WP but give each article its own set of tags as well.

In SMF/Wedge terms, their overall categorisation would be to our boards, with tags per topic as well, and then just show everything as if it were in one board sort of making the whole thing pointless. Though you can get per-board listings too.

Designwise, the key word is minimalism. The categorisation is primarily about giving some taxonomy to topics while everything else is just about shoving the content at you with as little fluff as possible. This, depending on your perspective, may be a bad thing.

Wanchope

  • Posts: 234
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #3, on May 30th, 2013, 05:03 AM »
Voted Vanilla. I will like the system visitation, opted to use it in this forum http://campusng.com as I think it suites the forum better than smf. I will also like unbiased review,it may not be now,maybe later.

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278

MultiformeIngegno

  • Posts: 1,337

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #6, on May 30th, 2013, 07:40 PM »
OK, so IPB seems to be the runaway winner thus far... but I'll give it a little longer in case anyone else wants to vote for WBB...

Oracle

  • Posts: 78
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #7, on May 30th, 2013, 08:39 PM »Last edited on May 30th, 2013, 09:00 PM
I'm with Multi on this....IPB >

Have a go @ what they say about them here... http://www.forum-software.org/

Arantor: Should do a promo matrix similar to above to coincide with the release of wedge?

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #8, on May 30th, 2013, 08:40 PM »
(psst, if you don't vote in the poll, it doesn't count... and yes, I can tell since admins can see who voted what)

Nao

  • Dadman with a boy
  • Posts: 16,082
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #9, on May 30th, 2013, 08:51 PM »
An entry for fluxbb would be nice, too. It's fast and has very little features (last time I checked, avatars were a plugin), but I've always had a soft spot for it. I think you already looked into it, back in 2010. ;)

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #10, on May 30th, 2013, 08:53 PM »
Other than glancing at it briefly in 2010, and coming from PunBB back in 2006 (to SMF), I don't really know it, but I think it's going to be lower down the list.

This time around is pretty clearly IPB, but I will put it on the list next time :)

Oracle

  • Posts: 78
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #11, on May 30th, 2013, 09:01 PM »
Quote from Arantor on May 30th, 2013, 08:40 PM
(psst, if you don't vote in the poll, it doesn't count... and yes, I can tell since admins can see who voted what)
I voted????/@ least I thought I did??/ Ha >  Might help to press submit next time...Folks r dumb where I come from!

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278

Oracle

  • Posts: 78
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #13, on May 30th, 2013, 09:19 PM »
My fault I know, but perhaps the "submit vote button" should be more pronounced in its colouring? Just a thought.

Arantor

  • As powerful as possible, as complex as necessary.
  • Posts: 14,278
Re: Next System Visitation
« Reply #14, on May 30th, 2013, 09:20 PM »
Yeah, polls are something that need some UI love and that's partly why I proposed some other stuff which would encourage a more thorough look at the UI anyway.