NEW FORUMS! - Which one to use?

All,

We have finally decided to build our own server to host the forums here at JGO. This will give us the ability to add some much sought after features like chat, new posts since last visit, better code management and better mail/IM controls. What we want to do, however, is to get your input into which forum software you would like to use here.

So vote! And so people are not swayed by the results, I have decided to hide them until the voting has been closed. No set ending date as of yet

-Chris

P.S. We will also make sure that we migrate the current forum data over to the new forums so nothing will be lost

P.S.S. If you select “Other” please post here which forum software you would use and why. Thanks!

I miss ‘Anything but YaBB’ option… 3 first choices are the same at level of functionality I need for being happy poster, so I really don’t know what to vote for.

Anyway, isn’t there some kind of java-based forum software with similar functionality to one of top 3 forum systems ? I think it is a bit funny that java forum, hosted by java creators, use php for internet application. Eat your own dogfood, etc. Of course, this cannot come at loss of functionality - so no experimental, half-featured software.

I have no experience with those boards - so they can be hideously bugged, but for example
http://www.jforum.net/forums/list.page looks very similar to phpBB. IF it has most of the important features of phpBB, maybe it can be used instead ?

I just need the ‘View posts since last visit’ option, thats all I care about. phpBB has this, and has worked really well for LWJGL’s forum (http://forum.lwjgl.org)

As for the ‘This will give us the ability to add some much sought after features like chat…’ statement, does this mean that the box will run an irc server? or does it simply mean that it will run an IRC applet? (if so, you will have to make a choice about using freenode (code oriented network) or enterthegame (gaming oriented network) #javagaming channels)

I agree with Abies and Matzon.
I’d prefer a Java based forum software, but as long as the one you choose won’t be YaBB and will provide a working e-mail notification on subscribed topics and of course the obligator “View posts since last visit” function, I’ll more than happy.

What we need most are moderators… and censorship for things like “ipod” (and their associated spam URLs) :

Oh and we need a registration clause like: if you use the forum only for advertising or if your first post is advertising you have to pay $50000 ;D

Somewhat more on topic… I dislike vBulletin quite a bit. It’s annoying to navigate for some reason. phpBB is great and I also like YaBB (ye this one) more. So basically I’m just against vBulletin.

vBulletin definitely gets my vote:

• Looks very pretty (nice icons etc.)
• Quick “Search this forum/thread” feature
• Jump to last post button
• New posts/Today’s posts button
• Can change display modes of threads (linear, hybrid, threaded)
• Thread rating
• File attachments

I like phpbb. It can be a real pain to get a custom appearance though. The different themes just don’t do it for me.

I like the threading in vBulletin a lot. Prevents so much unneccesary quoting.

Cas

The feature I miss the most in this forum (YaBB) is an indicator of which POSTs are new since my last visit in a Thread. Both phpBB and vBulletin do this well, so any of then would be fine.

One thing I HATE about YaBB is that sometimes old Threads suddenlly appears as new. It hurts a lot

A Java-based one would be interesting also, so if jForum is working well, why not?

Like everybody say, YaBB sucks… :-X

phpBB is pretty good, I’ve already used it and it works like a charm. The thing I dislike about vBulletin is the forum skin/interface… It’s very tern.

And I think jForum would be a great choice, it has all the wanted features and is java-based, so it would fit nicely with the JavaGaming concept

I vote for jForum or phpBB !

Chman

I agree it will look pretty pathetic if we can’t even manage to have our board up in Java. JForum is pretty nice, I played with it a little a few months ago. The author is very approachable so I’m sure he would help out with any technical difficulties if we asked nicely.

Chris

Seeing this topic made me really happy. I really don’t like the current YaBB board. Judging by the other forums I hang around in both phpBB and vBulletin are good. I prefer vBulletin by a smidge, so it got my vote. If there is an active java forum software then it would be good to use it. If it’s not under active development then I would say don’t use it just because it’s in java.

Also, the sooner a new board replaces this one the better. It would be bad if nothing happened for multiple months…

Another important feature which no one mentioned, is how our code will be displayed. Can we get comments in different font colors and key word highlighting and a more readable font etc.? I’m not sure if this is even directly related to the forum software we choose, but it seems like an important thing to consider.

yeah - what weston said.
I can’t find any “posts since last visit” feature in jforum! - does it lack it, or ?

I like the threading in vBulletin a lot.

I really really hate vBulletin. A lot. I don’t like the threaded view, or the hybrid view and even (my favorite) linear mode sucks.

I somewhat like the old verion (1.1.3 - the buggy pile of steaming eh… software), but the current one is far too flashy for my taste. Actually I prefer gasp YaBB over vBulletin.

code formatting

Usually you have no formatting at all, because it’s quite cpu intensive. However, there is still William’s showsrc, which is pretty nice for complete classes or longer snippets.

You have to be logged in to see it.

As for the code, I have put a test at
http://www.jforum.net/posts/list/344.page#1759

Not very pretty, but it looks like a stupid mistake - somebody has put the data in both

Edit:
Added an issue to their bugtracker
http://www.jforum.net/jira/browse/JF-131

I seem to remember a forum that had color coded java code. Anybody know the name of that ?

One forum I have used before allows me to see the last dozen posts that I have made. This allows me to check to see if replies I have made are helpful, if I have lost track of where I made some replies.

Software that supports this woul dbe nice.

An example can be found at www.gamedev.net

How about Jive?

• it’s done in Java
• already in use for the JavaDesktop.org forums (http://www.javadesktop.org/forums/index.jspa)
• it seems to colour code for you (if you take the time to use {code} blocks)
• appears to run fast, seems to have the needed features… all that stuff

Jive Forums feature list http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/forums/features.jsp