What is the best portal for 2.0?

[Kindred]

Do note that downloads is probably not the most accurate indicator.... Since I downloaded ez, simple, tiny and  mx and installed each to test before going with my choices.

No offense intended, feline, but I found portamx to be overly complicated for my needs. It was a great portal, but had a high learning curve, imo.

[andershz]

It seems the SimplePortal people have forgotten to update the description, it works just fine with SMF 2.0 final.

[feline]

Do note that downloads is probably not the most accurate indicator.... Since I downloaded ez, simple, tiny and  mx and installed each to test before going with my choices.

If you download all, ALL have 1 count more  So I think, this IS a small indicator ...

No offense intended, feline, but I found portamx to be overly complicated for my needs. It was a great portal, but had a high learning curve, imo.

Well .. you have the choice between portals the have many restrictives in the settings and portals like PortaMx they have less restrictions. This (of course) results in more various settings. But we added many short helps for all the settings, so any one they can read find his best choice. And a Administrator they is not willing to learn all the SMF / PortaMx options is not the best Admin... (my 2 cent)

[billy2]

Simple Portal 2.3.3 works great with SMF2.0
Cheers
Billy

[Kindred]

hey Feline...  I said "no offense intended"...

And actually, I agree... a good administrator needs to know how the system works. However, that does not change the fact that PortaMX has a higher learning curve and requires an administrator (even one as experienced as I am) to read a lot of the "help" and is not necessarily the most intuitive interface.   Now, mind you, this does not make it bad...   just complicated. (and, as I said, overly complicated for my needs - which is a subjective statement specific to three instances that I was looking for a portal to implement on my sites.)

Since I've started a more in depth review of my portal experience, I will continue with the opinions/experience with the others...

TinyPortal (the oldest one) is good, but is also somewhat complicated... and is still being tweaked by IchBin after he took over from Bloc. There are some issues, but they are quickly addressed, when pointed out to IchBin. It's good and has a lot of built in features, but does not have as in depth a "help/tips" setup as PortaMX.

EZPortal was probably the easiest to figure out and use, but has the fewest "built in features". It requires additional mods to be applied to bring it to the same level as PortaMX or TinyPortal (e.g. Articles are a separate mod). On the other hand, that also means that it is "lighter" and that I only have to add the features that I want.

I was not all that impressed with SimplePortal - it falls somewhere between the complicatedness of the two big ones and the simplicity of EZPortal and so has problems that apply to both while lacking the full strength of the more powerful ones and the simplicity of the other.

DreamPortal...   no offense to the DP team, but - based on what I have read about it and some of the issues - I wouldn't touch it.

ADKportal...  I have not tried this one. It seems to have a good base, but I am not sure it's a full competitor with the "big boys" yet.

[feline]

Kindred .. I don't see you post as offense ...
It's the best choice, if anyone check all the portals to find one with the features he need.
And your post can help to this "find out" process because it's a neutral compare (I think) 

[honeywick]

Nice all this over portals.. I am a regular user of smf not trying to push anything like feline loool sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )

I have tried all the portals
I like ez portal the best as ease of use but went with simple portal for more options and was easy to change the forum over
tiny portal I found to be attractive but more complicated
portamx was real nice but id like to have my blocks and home page up and running fast and you really need to read up on that one

To the original poster

alot of time is put into portals I would make sure you try a test forum or two before going live with one

[feline]

sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )

You know a other Portal system that have the same features as we have?
Article/Category system, access management, SEF engine, dynamic caching and much more?

[bloc]

sorry feline you sound like a drug pusher on the corner saying my stuff is better  ( no offense )

You know a other Portal system that have the same features as we have?
Article/Category system, access management, SEF engine, dynamic caching and much more?

Sometimes its not about how much you can have, but what you actually need. My site do just fine without any portal mods, just small(ish) coded extra pages(frontpage, gallery, blog, articles) - but I did write a relatively complex portal too, abovementioned Tinyportal. Everything has it place.

[honeywick]

ok loool
we all know you guys can code for smf but put aside your coding skills for a second.. the original poster asked a simple question

To me there are three blocks that are important a bbcode html and a php block

List in your opinion starting from an admin point of view (NOT A CODER or OWNER OF A SYSTEM)
Which is easier starting from a novice moderate or advanced admin

Novice admin _________ Portal System

Moderate admin _________ Portal System

Advanced admin __________ Portal System

Please fill in the blanks
and put this thread to rest

[Suki]

this topic end up the very same way all the "whats the best portal"  topics ends...   the OP didint even come back to make a reply...

The best portal is the one who will feed all your needs/expectations   why don't you install both in local and decide after you had checked both?

AFAIK there is no benchmarks on any SMF portal system, of course this will depend on your server configurations among other things.

[Kindred]

Please see my analysis post, above...


All of the portals listed allow an html or php block...    Why would you ever use a bbcode block?

[bloc]

This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.

But I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

'nuff said. 

[honeywick]

Please see my analysis post, above...


All of the portals listed allow an html or php block...    Why would you ever use a bbcode block?

why
I take the post on the forum where is jazzzed up with glitter text or some other things
cut copy and paste that into a bbcode block and makes for a nice home page addition
The first four center blocks are bbcode blocks

www.toonunion.net

[feline]

This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.

*lol* I never say that .. should be the envy? 

But I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

Same as I have say ...

[IchBin™]

This whole topic would be innocent enough if it wasn't for the constant "my portal is better than yours" attitude from Feline.

But I guess it can't be said enough times(and i also said something already but hey, people can't read so..) : TEST THEM OUT AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND.

'nuff said. 

Truer words have never been spoken. Even the part about Feline. Test em out if you wonder which is better people! Better is a very subjective word. And each person has specific wants and needs. No portal will fit every persons needs and wants.

[agridoc]

There are even more choices, if you count bridging with a CMS software. The same applies with choosing a gallery, imagine a topic like "What is the best gallery for SMF 2.0?".

I am with TinyPortal since 2005, in my site since beginning of 2006, still running SMF 1.1x and TP 0.9.7 (not even 0.9.8 ). Even the creator of another portal has a site that runs SMF 1.1x and TP 0.9.7. Why? Because, at the moment, it does the job quite well.

Although I have my participation in SMF and TP, I am not a coder, I just want to make my site better. My site is not for computer interested people so I must make it as easy as possible.

A person without experience is difficult to evaluate a portal. He/she can however try and see how they work in a test site but time must be given to examine the features of each one and consider future plans of the site where it will be used. A very simple and easy portal in the beginning can be found restrictive in the future. Examine well the features that are needed, all portals have their bugs.

Try to look around for big sites that use the portal. Of course one can see an excellent work with inferior software and not so good with a better one but it's a live evaluation.  "If it's good for this site is more than adequate for mine"  can't be very wrong. 

All portals can be good for a beginning, as an administrator gains experience and learns more will be more able to evaluate. No one is perfect all have their bugs. Beyond these it is also a taste and look matter, how someone feels using it and what suits someone and the site team best.

And remember that site content and organization, as well as good administration and moderation are the main goals.

[WillyP]

There are lots of choices, but the OP had already limited the topic to ADK and Tiny Portal. For whatever reason, there was no mention of Porta-Whatever or CMS bridging, so presumably he ruled those out already, probably set up test sites and installed dozens of different options and didn't like any, except for ADK and Tiny Portal.

So lets compare ADK and Tiny Portal, ok? Years ago I chose Tiny Portal over ADK, I don't recall why. If there were a good bridge with Nucleus CMS, I probably would have gone with that. But the OP probably never even heard of Nucleus. I am considering switching to Flux because there is a bridge to Nucleus, even though it is not a great bridge, at least it is a start.

[Kindred]

you could not have chosen TP over ADK years ago, since ADKportal was just released this year....

[feline]

I think it is legal to highlight the advantages of its own product without having to speak negatively about other products. But it can not be meaningful in this discussion, to assess other people so negative.
Everyone should review existing products and form his own opinion.