This software has grown on me. I actually am at the point where I like it better than the platform the AO was on. Not to say there couldnāt be better options out there, but this works well for me.
Iām learning the second on this forum . . . and it has a lot to say for it. There is a hierarchy for āmembersā that allows Forum Leaders to have some abilities to help āself-regulateā discussions without being moderators.
Thereās also the dynamic of being able to ābustā down a user w/o resorting to temp-bans as the initial āconsequenceā.
Anything would be better than this format IMO.
Big Q would be if current content is transferable.
Thread probably better served in the āSite Feedbackā section.
Trying out some moderator-powers. I moved the posts from the prior thread to this one. So if a ātime stampā for a post seems off . . . that is why.
Iāve heard a lot of good things about XenForo, but never used it myself.
This software is okay once you get the hang of it, maybe even excellent once you get the hang of it, but I feel like it has a steep learning curve. I walked away from two fora because they used it and it turned me off. It wasnāt until I had a really strong motive to learn this that I buckled down and did so. Thatās an argument against it, imo, even if it has great features once you master it ā the primary determinant of the value of an on-line forum is the people posting there, and too few posters = irrelevance.
Weāve never learned that, not going to in the future, either.
The only improvement is the continual notification of new posts on the main site (old site had to be manually refreshed or clicked into a subforum).
The layout still needs work.
Iām unconvinced that a change of software would be beneficial. Iāll elaborate.
I think the biggest cause of concern isnāt the forum software so much as itās different than what most people were used to. If we change software, we still have the same problem.
I looked at a variety of software platforms. The more common ones are all reasonably similiar. I made a judgement call that this one was slightly better than the popular alternatives. The other popular alternatives are only arguably better or worse. (theyāre all pretty similiar).
Itās a requirement that we go with current and popular software platforms. We need stuff thatās tested, supported, and in continued development. That narrows the available platforms down to maybe 2 (maybe 3 if you stretch it). Itās the same reason we went with Vbulletin back in the day.
IMO, a typical post here has no real learning curve. Register, click on a category, click the new topic button, start typing. The more advanced stuff, yeah, thereās a learning curve - but again, only becuase itās different. Weāll experience the same learning curve no matter what we pick if itās not vbulletin.
IMO newer/younger participants wonāt have as much of a learning curve if theyāre not 20 years trained on vbulletin.
Iām not likely going to be convinced to try paid software like Xenforo. Opensource is a pretty basic requirement for me. Freedom to hack code is vital. Cost isnāt the issue, elbow room to do whatās necessary is an issue. The few times Iāve worked online with paid software Iāve mostly been unhappy in the long term.
Two other points:
I think criticism of the layout of the forum is valid, and I agree. Iām all thumbs when it comes to that stuff. At some point weāll have a pro make something nice and intuitive for the layout, but thatās going to be midterm. near term weāre spending money on other stuff (exam related stuff) and also some time prioriities.
Iām also aware that itās bad business to ignore your ācustomersā. I donāt think that this is the case here, I think weāve got a pretty strong argument for staying with discourse and no clear strong arguements that would validate a full scale move. So Iām listeningā¦not saying no, just saying right now, I think weāve still made the right decision.
Actually, Iām not overly concerned about that. Map fields as best we can from one database to another, my dev writes a script, we test, and away we go.
FWIW - I sort of recall having a decent learning curve on the AO too. That was 15 years ago, though, so I have been way up on the curve for a long time - which made it comfortable.
Lucy has a Discourse channel set up (there are probably others as well). It gets a fair amount of traffic. Itās a chat platform though, not a forum. They are different animals. A forum is better for things like exams - itās pretty difficult to go search out the answer someone gave you last week on Discourse, for example.
Oh yeah. I didnāt realize that Xenforo is paid software. In addition to everything you say, open source software never suddenly dies. It might fade away (like vBulletin) but no one ever pulls the plug.
I didnāt realize either. I have never run a forum site myself, and so I offer my OP as a starting point for discussion only, not as a wedge issue in any way - especially as I hadnāt even been on the DWS Outpost more than a couple of times in the last several years (not since the last Battle of the Bands, more or less). Iām happy to be schooled by Space Lobster or any other administrator on what is or isnāt appropriate for one forum or another.
I appreciate the Lobsterās detailed explanation very much, and understand better what the hurdles are. I am inclined to agree with him that itās not so much the functionality at this point, but the layout and format. The White-On-White, quasi-Twitter, quasi-Reddit aesthetic is something that I - a non Tweeter and non-Redditor - find a bit off-putting, but if that can be dealt with eventually, or if simply getting used to it is something that happens over time, then so be it.
Interesting. The āwhite-on-whiteā is called āshades of blueā despite featuring very little blue. I switched to dark - maybe thatāll be better. Thanks.