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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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Also there would be a massive effort in migrating the existing content to the new software
• Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Goldeneraguitars
Only minor gripe I have is that the "quotes within quotes" on long threads can reduce the text down to a narrow vertical strip in the centre of the screen, especially when viewed on phone. Not sure this is a system problem though, or just peoples habits.
The one major problem for me is the search function, it's hopeless. Fix that and I'd be happy.
site:thefretboard.co.uk line 6 repair
It works pretty good I think
Offset "(Emp) - a little heavy on the hyperbole."
I would like to be able to see repairs & servicing providers by geographic location just to spend things up, but its not the end of the world.
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job slows the whole site down for 30s or so every half hour (and I can't relax that schedule, otherwise it's all out of date).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.
The editor and the search are both plugins and not part of Vanilla.
In terms of the functioning of the forum my guess is that the biggest frustration/ learning curve for new members is photo hosting.
Personally I think it'd be madness to change from this, even if it's not perfect - because people get used to an interface, and are creatures of habit. The way a site looks becomes a key part of its identity, and we know that everyone who uses this place does so because of or in spite of the forum software as it stands. If that changes, even if it's objectively not worse, a sizable percentage of users will complain vocally and for a long time, while others just stop their habit of visiting because they can't be bothered to internalise the new design.
Internet communities are fragile things!
Bandcamp
Spotify, Apple et al
As for the editor and search... there are perfectly reasonable workarounds for the limitations.