Which software for a small community

[XinYenFon]

Totally understandable and the lack of release date wasn't a criticism, just an observation. I will be trying out all the software before going live, and will go with the most suitable, wether it's in beta or not.

The problem I had with installation of the beta seems to be a mysql issue rather then an SMF issue, I think I may have locked the database down a bit too much, something I have done in the past.

I'll definitely keep looking into it and if it suits it'll be the software I go with.

check the minimum requirements for SMF 2.1. Maybe outdated software?
(I'm not a Server type guy )

I work to defined deadlines so can understand that rl can get in the way especially if it is a voluntary os project.

That's the reason my own timeline is so extended, real-life has to be dealt with first and I have a few deadlines approaching fast.

I like putting deadlines to myself as well, but for example I'm an international trade student, i read papers etc... sometimes interesting study takes more time to read and do some work on it, sometimes professors giving more than expected papers to read...

 

[emanuele]

Mostly forks change the culture of the software, I'm there because I liked that culture. That's the only reason I'm sticking with original software, oh I didn't mean they are being "copy-cat" with sticking to original. I mean I rather use X software (original - source) if its alive not Y software (fork from X).

Well... what other reason is there for a fork is not change the culture behind a project? If the culture is okay for you, you just have to hook-up and follow the trend, sooner or later you'll be "there", but if the culture behind the project is the first and foremost thing you can't cope with, a fork can come up... oh wait that's the story of my life, not a good example.

 

[Danielx64]

Well... what other reason is there for a fork is not change the culture behind a project? If the culture is okay for you, you just have to hook-up and follow the trend, sooner or later you'll be "there", but if the culture behind the project is the first and foremost thing you can't cope with, a fork can come up... oh wait that's the story of my life, not a good example.

That another reason why projects get forked all the time, because of the fact that the culture is changing and people are not liking it. On top of that, there could be some ethical issues going on (conflict of interest - I seen some going on in public) and many other reasons

 

[XinYenFon]

Well... what other reason is there for a fork is not change the culture behind a project? If the culture is okay for you, you just have to hook-up and follow the trend, sooner or later you'll be "there", but if the culture behind the project is the first and foremost thing you can't cope with, a fork can come up... oh wait that's the story of my life, not a good example.

That's actually inconsistent, because either you need to be weird (which you are ), or doesn't understand things going around (which you are not). What I'm saying is, if you can't cope with the culture of that software why you are there in the first place?

Agree "not a good example"

 

[emanuele]

You can't actually know the "culture" of a group until you live it (and in fairly big groups you may enter in contact only with "sub-cultures" delimited by groups of people that tends to "get together" before actually meet the "general culture").
Unless you can read in peoples' minds through the internet.
Also groups may change over time, and new people can bring new types of "culture" that changes the general behaviour of people around in a way that is no more acceptable.
Or, you can simply be a bad observer and not get the culture until you are deep into the group and realize what you thought was a nice place is in fact a nightmare.

I'm sorry, but I'm not inconsistent.

 

[XinYenFon]

Unless you can read in peoples' minds through the internet.

I can't read people's mind but I can see the culture leading the software by reading generic replies from team members in feature request / support / suggestion topics.

Also groups may change over time, and new people can bring new types of "culture" that changes the general behaviour of people around in a way that is no more acceptable.

Agree, new people bring new cultural ideas but you shouldn't be allowing those people the change leading culture inside the software. This may seems wrong, and dictating attitude but that software liked by public with that leading culture and if you let that change, it leads public to move away from software, which I (we) as marketing shouldn't be allowing and advising.

 

[davemacc]

I understand that a fork may come as a result of a disagreement between people who wish to go in different directions with an update or new version, but would you really call that a 'difference in culture'?
I see it more as serving a different group of people with different needs, however, having said that I have no preference in relation to the software at the minute and will go with the one which suits my needs on launch.

So far I've ruled out Nodebb due to it's specialized nature(everywhere seems to charge by the app instance) and MyBB as it is not currently a responsive design.

It looks like it's coming down to SMF 2.1 and Elkarte (and maybe Codoforum but it doesn't seem to have a lot of fuctions at the minute)

 

[Digital Doctor]

Time = Money.
Why is your time not worth $140 for Xenforo ?

 

[Digital Doctor]

What is the small group of people going to do with the forum ?

 

[davemacc]

Time = Money.
Why is your time not worth $140 for Xenforo ?

It's strictly a side project that will sit on a server that I have space on but have no use for. It's not costing me anything to host the site and as for 'time is money', a lot of my work involves 'hurry up and wait'.

What is the small group of people going to do with the forum ?

It's just a group of mates that have scattered to the four winds in the last number of years, somewhere for us to interact that doesn't involve Facebook.

I would have considered Xenoforo if I was expecting it to scale up even remotely big, but the most I'm realistically expecting to be registered are between 50-100.

 

[Digital Doctor]

It's just a group of mates that have scattered to the four winds in the last number of years, somewhere for us to interact that doesn't involve Facebook.

A forum would work here.
Consider Tapatalk integration for the keen members for the alerts that will display on their smartphones.
or another method of getting alerts directly to their smartphone.

I would have considered Xenoforo if I was expecting it to scale up even remotely big, but the most I'm realistically expecting to be registered are between 50-100.

Xenforo would be alot more fun / interactive.
Xenforo for the facebook-style alerts for sure.

Chacun son gout.

 

[emanuele]

I'm sorry davemacc, I didn't want to hijack the topic.

 

[davemacc]

I'm sorry davemacc, I didn't want to hijack the topic.

No problem, interesting to see different opinions on the different software available.

It's by no means the worst hijack I've ever seen

 

[Robust]

MyBB is very nice for a free forum. Discourse is nice for increasing community integration. It can be a bit confusing, it's a great learning curve and not so good on old devices, but it's nice for sure.

 

[Azareal]

MyBB is very nice for a free forum. Discourse is nice for increasing community integration. It can be a bit confusing, it's a great learning curve and not so good on old devices, but it's nice for sure.

Increasing community integration? Can you elaborate on what you mean by this?

 

[Robust]

Increasing community integration? Can you elaborate on what you mean by this?

I phrased that completely wrong. I mean, it's not really ordered by forums, but ordered by discussions. While confusing, threads come to the user, not the user finding the threads. Dunno if that makes sense. I like the idea of it, but Discourse isn't really for me.

 

[Azareal]

I phrased that completely wrong. I mean, it's not really ordered by forums, but ordered by discussions. While confusing, threads come to the user, not the user finding the threads. Dunno if that makes sense. I like the idea of it, but Discourse isn't really for me.

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. There's a search system like every forum software, there's the newest posts and then, there are categories.
I don't see how the topics "come to you".

 

[meetdilip]

I would also recommend Vanilla and phpBB if you are not happy with NodeBB and ElkArte. Personally I appreciate how actively the latter are developed.

 

[Robust]

I don't really understand what you're trying to say. There's a search system like every forum software, there's the newest posts and then, there are categories.
I don't see how the topics "come to you".

I dunno, it's my own opinion though. Searching is finding specific tags. Discourse has a completely different way of ordering threads (otherwise discussions).

 

[Robust]

I would also recommend Vanilla and phpBB if you are not happy with NodeBB and ElkArte. Personally I appreciate how actively the latter are developed.

Ehh... Vanilla maybe. phpBB is really old, it's ancient, it's like vBulletin. NodeBB is nice but not really what I like. Never heard of ElkArte.