Yet another monthly summary

[live627]

So now it's summertime, and time for another monthly update.

We've added some features:
Gravatars
Members can specify an email address to use. As admin, you can choose the allowed rating (G, PG, R, X) and a default image to show when an email address has no matching Gravatar.

User-selectable timezones
No more mucking around with hourly offsets.

General theme improvements
Curve2 looks much, much better now, thanks to the resident Evil Black Cat.

SSL and image proxy
Native support for SSL, with an image proxy so you don't get warnings about unsecured images linked by your forum  members.

You can also opt to only allow SSL for authentication (login and sign up).

Other things worth mentioning:
- Alerts system now almost done (it's a complex beast)
- Register got renamed to sign up
- Quick Reply shares the same interface as the full posting screen
- SQLite has been removed
- Tons of fixes

You can see our progress on GitHub, as always. Thanks for reading.

[Mikasa]

Nice job! Are there gonna be any changes to database structure, specifically members database or it will stay as it is right now?

[margarett]

Nice job everyone

Nice job! Are there gonna be any changes to database structure, specifically members database or it will stay as it is right now?

I'd say that's anyone's guess at this point

[NekoJonez]

Here is another request for the next version~

Favicon support?

[Illori]

what about favicon support? almost all browsers support picking it up if it exists, so what do you want smf to do?

[mashby]

Here is another request for the next version~

Favicon support?

Yes.

[Irisado]

Thanks for posting another update and for the changes.  Great work .

[marcusslavorum]

Can we have a option for different forum layout as well in some possible future?

instead of

[profile][post]

to

[profile]
[post]

It eases up a lot in order to have sidebars and such things.


Also on topic great job! Really hyped out that you guys are working that hard on future of SMF!

[Kindred]

That is a theme thing and you can pick any theme you want...

The default theme will be as the current dev build is working... And we are removing options in many cases where they just complicate issues, so, no... Sidebars will not be an option in the default.

[Robert.]

Great work guys.

[marcusslavorum]

That is a theme thing and you can pick any theme you want...

The default theme will be as the current dev build is working... And we are removing options in many cases where they just complicate issues, so, no... Sidebars will not be an option in the default.

Indeed i know it's about the theme. Thought as i am aware, you're developing curve and responsive theme in general so i thought if you include such thing in default all others that will build premium themes will follow the concept on which the default themes are made. Anyway with or without i'm happy for smf. Just even thought smf is a forum software that is great you have to battle wordpress+vanilla popularity which are more and more taking the % of users.
So i would suggest at one point developing some official portal open source addon for blogging/news purpose in order to encourage premium theme makers to work on that as well. I mean i really want smf to succeed, and i think we (i count myself as smf fan and part of community) should go in a direction that general mainstream population of webmasters are looking for, i think that's common logic.

Also is there any at least possible official date of release?

[Kindred]

Also is there any at least possible official date of release?

as always - when it is ready

[NekoJonez]

what about favicon support? almost all browsers support picking it up if it exists, so what do you want smf to do?

I mean that you can change it yourself.

[margarett]

Just add a favicon.ico to your forum root

[stmaxx]

Did A fresh install on a test site and all is looking good so far, the emulation options, seems to be working great, ( checking some Portals out) looks like, they only have minor errors during install, but do not recommend (security issues with the portals) anyone to install them until they get  fixed and the SMF beta is out. however things are look very nice.

On the theme congrats on that also looks nice.. (I'll start testing custom themes again there )!

I say thanks and good going!

regards,
Maxx

[shadow82x]

Did A fresh install on a test site and all is looking good so far, the emulation options, seems to be working great, ( checking some Portals out) looks like, they only have minor errors during install, but do not recommend (security issues with the portals) anyone to install them until they get  fixed and the SMF beta is out. however things are look very nice.

On the theme congrats on that also looks nice.. (I'll start testing custom themes again there )!

I say thanks and good going!

regards,
Maxx

Pretty sure every mod will need to be reworked to properly install and function on SMF2.1. It's no surprise you're running into issues with that.

[Illori]

Pretty sure every mod will need to be reworked to properly install and function on SMF2.1. It's no surprise you're running into issues with that.

depending on the mod and its coding they may work without issue on 2.1.

[Colin]

Well done Devs.

[jsx]

Are you close to release SMF 2.1 Beta1? Or it's long way for it?

[Kindred]

it will be released when it is ready -- sorry, but that is all that you get.

[NanoSector]

Pretty sure every mod will need to be reworked to properly install and function on SMF2.1. It's no surprise you're running into issues with that.

depending on the mod and its coding they may work without issue on 2.1.

Internally they may still work, but the front end will need rewriting to take the new theme into effect.

Nice job, devs.

[Antechinus]

Ha. Half the mods available always need front end rewriting anyway. Always have. Modders tend to focus on functionality, and to not be so good at presentation, even with the default theme. Once you bring custom themes into the equation it gets even messier. I tend to regard front end rewrites of mods as par for the course.

[Matthew K.]

Okay, that all sounds great to me except for one thing. Changing "register" to "sign  up". I'm really curious to see the discussion on that, or hear a brief summary of why in the world that change would be a good one...

[Arantor]

Aside from the fact it makes it friendlier to less technical types, there are... other benefits I'd prefer not to talk about in a public setting but let's just say there's a large number of things pre-programmed to think a certain way and while it won't fix anything, every little helps.

[Matthew K.]

I honestly think it makes things way more complicated. Leaving other software and websites out of it, SMF has always had "register", so first of all you aren't making it "friendlier" for SMFers. Can you see the support questions rolling in. How do I register? Where did register go? Then, adding in other software and websites, where recently on big sites have you seen "Sign up"? Which isn't necessarily a reason NOT to do it? To be like other people? *HOWEVER*, the argument is, that's what people are used to seeing. They understand the terminology, and what applies, etc.

I think that changing the linguistics on something so basic and elementary is not smart. But good luck...

[Justyne]

You mean totally unknown websites like say twitter, facebook or pinterest?

It's "sign up" in a lot of places.

[Arantor]

Honestly the whole 'because we've always done it this way' is one of the worst justifications for anything, because it presumes that your current way of doing things is ideal and that any change is automatically for the worse.

I think changing the linguistics for something so basic from a semi-formal to a slightly more approachable form is smart personally.

[mashby]

Wow, such debate over synonyms!
https://www.hightail.com/
Justyne's list is good too. I don't think Support will be flooded at all over an issue like this.

[Illori]

if people have an issue with it, a mod could be created or just edit the language strings, it is not that hard to change back.

[Matthew K.]

Wow, such debate over synonyms!
https://www.hightail.com/
Justyne's list is good too. I don't think Support will be flooded at all over an issue like this.

Sign up feels more for a service...

[Arantor]

And 'register' doesn't?

Also, the team didn't believe me when I told them that arguments got started over the tiniest of details for, frankly, no good reason. Apparently that was all in the past.

Are you listening, Kindred, CoreISP? THIS ISN'T JUST THE PAST ANY MORE.

[kat]

The only good reason that I can see, for keeping it as-is, is that we have things like, for example, "Registration agreement" and the like. "Sign-up agreement" just looks... odd.

Not that that's a particularity good argument for sticking with it, I guess. But...

[Illori]

the wording registration agreement has not changed.... nor has the text registration form

[kat]

Hardly matters what it's called, then, really, ay?

[Matthew K.]

Except now it becomes inconsistent.

[kat]

There is that, I guess.

It's all just a question of semantics, though, really.

I don't think, myself, that it matters, much, either way.

[Arantor]

Except now it becomes inconsistent.

If you're really going to pull that argument, there are many more important - and much more blatant - inconsistencies throughout SMF than that one.

[kat]

[devil's advocate]

If such inconsistencies exist, maybe they shouldn't and we ought not instigate yet more.

[/devil's advocate]

Really, this kinda thing doesn't bother me, at all. I can see both sides of this coin, too, which is a bloody nuisance.

[Arantor]

Or maybe we could fix the inconsistencies instead.

[kat]

That was kinda what I was hinting at, with "maybe they shouldn't".

Doing that might cause phun, in upgrades, though, I guess?

[NanoSector]

Fixing such things in 2.1 doesn't really matter, since at this rate the 2.0 compatibility flag doesn't go up anyway.