Move to a new forum system ?

axisus

I'm OK with the forum right now, warts and all. The one fix that I would really like though is the ability to uncouple yourself from getting notifications on a thread that you started. I assume that you still can't do that? I'm careful to not start a thread that will solicit a vast amount of replies, I got stung once with a Trump vs Clinton thread and it was painful for weeks and weeks!

Switch625

I have no problem with the site other than the search function is terrible. If that's just a plugin as stated above, isn't there a better one available?

JohnS37

If it ain’t bust then don’t fix it.
I frequent several special-interest forums, and this is one of the best, my favourite in fact.  There’s a huge diversity of content, plenty of wisdom, and a great sense of humour, so please don’t go changing that!
On the other hand, if the platform is holding you back . . 
Anyway, please keep us informed, and good luck.

JohnS37

Forgot to mention that one thing that is great about the current platform is that it loads very quickly, far faster than most.  It also (usually) updates pages without being asked, which is also helpful.  Seems like a good platform from my end.

digitalscream

JohnS37 said:

Forgot to mention that one thing that is great about the current platform is that it loads very quickly, far faster than most.  It also (usually) updates pages without being asked, which is also helpful.  Seems like a good platform from my end.

I'm gonna go ahead and take the credit for that one - by default, Vanilla is terrible for optimisation, especially at the traffic levels we have here; it's tremendously wasteful in terms of data storage and processing. Back when we first launched, even with just a few hundred users it was grinding to a halt and taking 5-10 seconds to load the page!

That's where most of our customisations lie, really. Even then, I have to do a fair bit of work on a weekly basis keeping it ship-shape.

mudslide73

I like it and it works. Strangely, I recommended Vanilla to one of my football forum modmins as an alternative to MyBB and I think they're going for it. I'm a sysadmin myself and I get hacked off with all the moaners - maybe they could start up their own forum with the bulletin board framework of their choice.. and see where that gets them.

octatonic

Emp_Fab said:

I think we've outgrown Vanilla - it's got too many bugs and ill-functioning features to continue with on a forum of this calibre.
I believe @digitalscream was planning on writing a new bespoke forum himself but I don't know any more on that front.

Lee...  what other options are out there that could replace Vanilla ?  Are they expensive ?

You won't be able to block Drew more effectively on another platform.

poopot

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Emp_Fab said:

I think there are a number of gripes I have with it;

• The editor - just poor - getting trapped in quotes, not responding, timeouts etc
• The search function is pretty bad
• ....and my biggest bugbear of all - The ignore function doesn't work as other forums' do.  This alone is the biggest source of aggro on the forum IMO.  It's like having an argument in a room - you put your stupid sister-in-law on ignore and instead of her now becoming invisible and silent to you, she now has a flashing light bulb above her head every time she speaks instead.
• Edit:  Oh.... and it still shows you the opening post of new threads started by people you're ignoring !!

You don't have to click the post to open it man. You really don't. Just like you don't have to read this message. You don't have to try to paint people you dislike as trolls because you feel offended that you're sharing a space with people who think differently to you. You don't have to get angry when you read something that hits one of your triggers. You don't have to deliberately and obtusely twist the joke into something that it isn't. You are in control. You can decide how you respond to the external stimuli before you.

As for the editor and search... there are perfectly reasonable workarounds for the limitations.

@Emp_Fab has you on ignore drew... he won’t see it unless he’s tagged... like now!...

Sassafras

If you don't like it you can go to TGP.

Wazmeister

digitalscream said:

monquixote said:

This has been extensively discussed before.

Vanilla was the best of a bad lot at the time.

Discourse is a newer option but has been ruled out after being evaluated.

Writing a bespoke platform would be months of work and unless there is some opportunity to monetize the site it's hard to justify.

The search is sphinx rather than vanilla so that could be independently improved.

This, really.

I've started writing an alternative, but the problem is time - I have none. Basically, at the time I was in my last job, and then I got involved with this startup, which sucked up all my spare time and then some. On top of that, there has been something of an explosion in traffic (we have roughly 60% more traffic now than we did when I decided to start the rewrite), which has kept me busy keeping this place optimised.

The search function is an odd one. If you use the advanced search, it's actually pretty powerful. However, I don't like it because even the delta indexing job slows the whole site down for 30s or so every half hour (and I can't relax that schedule, otherwise it's all out of date).

As for trying for an alternative, there aren't really any good ones that can be hosted in a practical manner. Discourse is probably the best of the bunch, but it's expensive and inefficient to host, and its Vanilla migration script actually crashes because it (the script) can't handle the volume of data we have.

Lee, I really like the Format here mate...

My fave forum and layout, and much easier to read and use, compared to the other forums I frequent...

JayGee

They all suck, just in different ways and for different reasons. The editor occasionally reduces me to incandescent rage when I use it on my iPad (although that happens much less often than it used to) and linking pictures seems to fail in slightly different ways and for slightly different reasons every time I try to do it (although that probably has as much to do with third party image hosting  as anything else, and I totally, totally, totally get why the people who are on hook for the bills don’t want to go down the road of holding images locally) but those things pale into insignificance compared with the disruption a change in platforms would undoubtedly bring with it... 

MikeS

I use the advanced search a lot, and that list down the left of special search tips and operator tools, If they're meant to work, then I've never been able to get them to work, but it's maybe just me. I'd love to know how to use them properly.

The ignore function is a bit iffy. I was so annoyed when I added someone to ignore and realised it deletes all the dodgy messages from them, which was the whole point in ignoring them. And now (because I have a life and/or I'm getting old) I can't remember what it was all about in the first place because I've no messages to remind me. A function to make notes next to a user would be handy.

It's also a bit upsetting to see certain people following other folks around LOLing each of their posts, it's sad, and basically bullying.

Apart from that the forums brilliant. Really simple to use. Love it. Oh, and I hate change.

Handsome_Chris

octatonic said:

Emp_Fab said:

I think we've outgrown Vanilla - it's got too many bugs and ill-functioning features to continue with on a forum of this calibre.
I believe @digitalscream was planning on writing a new bespoke forum himself but I don't know any more on that front.

Lee...  what other options are out there that could replace Vanilla ?  Are they expensive ?

You won't be able to block Drew more effectively on another platform.

Of course, you're not actually anyone on tFB until you've been ignored by @Emp_Trump.

ennspek

I'm not sure we need extra functionality for click bait threads. You seem to do ok @Emp_Fab ;

Emp_Fab

It was a perfectly reasonable question given the many bugs in Vanilla.   I actually like the layout and the look of it, but the editor bugs are annoying.  Nice try at baiting though.

axisus

The things I don't like:

The search function is absolutely terrible!
The inability to 'uncouple' from a thread that you started that just won't die!
I can't LOL myself*

Mostly I think that things are OK though.




*only joking

Emp_Fab

There ya go. x

viz

This is by far the best, simplest, cleanest, most attractive forum out there, and I’m not just talking about the users

TTony

ennspek said:

I'm not sure we need extra functionality for click bait threads. You seem to do ok @Emp_Fab ;

Seems like an odd thread to bump back from the near-dead.

Is someone bored?  Or has Emp got a stalker ...

digitalkettle

viz said:

This is by far the best, simplest, cleanest, most attractive forum out there, and I’m not just talking about the users

Fixed!