Skip to main content
↑
↓
Spherical forums
Community for the
Sphere game engine
New?
Contact Us
to register an account!
1 Hour
1 Day
1 Week
1 Month
Forever
Community
Help
Search
Recent Posts
Log in
Contact Us
News
Spherical
Facebook
-
Twitter
-
Discord chat
New?
Contact us
to register an account!
General Discussion
Site Comments
Idea: forum migration?
1
2
next
Print
Topic: Idea: forum migration?
(Read 10035 times)
previous topic
-
next topic
0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Idea: forum migration?
June 22, 2017, 03:31:54 pm
So SMF is apparently
ancient
and doesn't seem to be updated much anymore. Even now, it does not officially support PHP 7 and it is by sheer luck that it runs at all. Not to mention it's had many issues with spambots and the like, as well as just problems and shortcomings in general.
So I was thinking... Maybe we could migrate the forums to a more modern forum system? Not right away -- eventually!
I have stumbled across a
much
better option, one that will allow us to extend the forum system in a way that could grow the community as a whole a little.
I experimented with
MyBB
and it seems to work great and come with a TON of features on both the user and admin sides, as well as mods and themes. It seems like a much better option for the future. It seems to even cover migration from other forums (see attached screenshot), so that's pretty awesome.
But naturally, I wouldn't
just
make such a big change without receiving some thoughts on this.
Last Edit
: July 01, 2017, 05:44:34 am by DaVince
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
Fat Cerberus
Big Chungus
Posts: 2,774
*MUNCH*
Logged
Global Moderator
Sphere Developer
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #1
–
June 22, 2017, 10:47:47 pm
Yeah, it's easy to tell that SMF is showing it's age - using it feels like something out of the mid-2000s. It was clearly designed before the social media era.
That said, it has served us well for what it is, and other than a few hiccups on mobile I haven't really been able to complain about anything specific.
The whole site also seems a lot more snappy since the upgrade too. Well, other than the wiki, but you already knew that.
As for myBB: Based on that screenshot I do like it, it kind of has that "retro" feel to it where it reminds me of the old forums while still looking modern at the same time. I'd be behind such a migration 100%.
neoSphere 5.9.2
-
neoSphere
engine -
Cell
compiler -
SSj
debugger
forum thread
|
on GitHub
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #2
–
June 23, 2017, 03:47:47 am
The nice thing is that it has theme support, so it can be made to look a lot better. I like this Bootstrap-based one I found, for example.
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
Rhuan
High Poster
Posts: 384
Logged
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #3
–
June 23, 2017, 03:21:19 pm
What is myBB like speedwise?
I've seen several newer forum solutions that for reasons unknown run a lot slower than SMF and other older options.
Sure SMF isn't the snazziest but it certainly runs smoothly (or at least appears to)
Flying Jester
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,161
Logged
TurboSphere Developer
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #4
–
June 23, 2017, 04:53:17 pm
Assuming that the performance is reasonable, I think that being better maintained is a big enough plus given how important anti-spam and security (which also is a plus for newer PHP) is for forum software.
Learn some history?
The Flying Jester's Blog of Sorts
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #5
–
June 23, 2017, 11:12:43 pm
I have as of yet only tested it locally alongside SMF, but it's snappy and I couldn't sense any difference, even with the rather large post database imported into it. I think we'll be fine on that front.
So can I take this as a 'yes' from the community? I'll be putting up a little test version soonish, then!
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
mezzoEmrys
Low Poster
Posts: 79
Logged
Adventurer++
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #6
–
June 24, 2017, 02:02:55 am
Does MyBB have better support for code embedding/syntax highlighting?? That'd be the only thing that might be questionable that I can think of, but at worst I would expect you could just add it into the CSS manually.
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #7
–
June 24, 2017, 04:19:14 am
Looks like there are two different mods that would allow syntax highlighting. Only thing is, they rely on different bbcode ([code-sh=javascript] or [geshi=javascript]). I'll experiment with them and see if I can modify them to just use the code tag instead.
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
Rhuan
High Poster
Posts: 384
Logged
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #8
–
June 24, 2017, 06:57:15 am
A test version sounds like a good idea to me, so we can all have a fiddle before deciding for sure if that's feasible.
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: eventually migrating the forum?
Reply #9
–
July 01, 2017, 05:26:20 am
As spambots are starting to find their way in and the SMF admin panel proves to be very limited, I find myself contemplating this more. Will set up a test version today.
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: forum migration?
Reply #10
–
July 01, 2017, 05:43:48 am
Actually, I figured I should look around a little more and it seems like a forum system like
Flarum
might be more inviting and conducive to discussion. Subforums work more like filters so that no matter what, the latest activity is shown at the top of the main forum really quickly and easily. Any thoughts on that?
Edit: I just discovered
Elkarte
, which is originally based on SMF and can directly use the SMF database, but it's apparently vastly improved. I'm going to have to experiment with these systems locally first and then come back on the best course of action.
Last Edit
: July 01, 2017, 06:39:25 am by DaVince
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: forum migration?
Reply #11
–
July 01, 2017, 06:40:17 am
ElkArte looks pretty good in the end because it's basically an updated, maintained kind of SMF with more options, plugins and spam protection. Gonna put something online soon.
Edit: not looking too shabby.
Last Edit
: July 01, 2017, 06:53:55 am by DaVince
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: forum migration?
Reply #12
–
July 01, 2017, 11:38:13 am
A test forum is now available at
http://www.spheredev.org/ElkArte/
You can log in with the same credentials you use here.
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
Rhuan
High Poster
Posts: 384
Logged
Re: Idea: forum migration?
Reply #13
–
July 01, 2017, 11:48:45 am
Seems pretty decent at a first try, I';ll try it on my phone in a little bit.
DaVince
Legendary Poster
Posts: 1,001
Logged
Administrator
Used Sphere for, like, half my life
Re: Idea: forum migration?
Reply #14
–
July 01, 2017, 12:00:19 pm
Good to know! It should be great on your phone, I noticed it's fully responsive.
Spherical Downloads Repo
||
My (really old) Sphere stuff
1
2
next
Print
General Discussion
Site Comments
Idea: forum migration?