Simple Machines Community Forum

Archived Boards and Threads... => Archived Boards => SMF Feedback and Discussion => Topic started by: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM

Title: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM
To be brief, this is the BEST forum software i've EVER used. I've never been able to install a forum myself, that is, untill i tried SMF. I've used quite a few forums in my time, and this one definetly tops them all.

Now, in to more detail. I'm fairly new to the world of installable forums (i used to think that if you wanted a forum, you had to code it yourself, good times :P ).When compared to my previous long-time favorite, Invision Power Board, the invision board seems as bad as that crummy phpBB board that php-nuke installed for me. When used on the same host (dhost.info is my fav), my old Invision Power Board 2.0 PF3 took an average of 0.3-1.6 seconds to create the page. With SMF, my average time is 0.02-0.3 seconds. Quite a nice difference. As far as SQL goes, i was getting SQL errors on my second day with IPB, i'm on day 4 with SMF and i havent had a single problem yet (and i havent optimized yet either).
Installation was also quite easy, and it would have been even easier is my damn FTP program would work right for a change. Asides from having php-nuke's phpbb module install some phpbb forums for me, i've never installed a forum myself before. With SMF though, even me, a complete idiot, was able to get a fully functional forum running in less than 15 minutes.
Let's have a look at things from an admins point of veiw now. The admin CP is easy to use, dosent take forever to load *shakes fist at Invision*, and i can do so much customization that i'm getting lightheaded.
Now, from a client's point of veiw. It may take a while to find the "Post new topic" button, but other than that, theres plenty of toy's for clients to play with in their profile controls, post options, and so on. SMF is fun to use as both an admin and a client, who could be displeased with that? :)
Now, for features, did you guys ever consider holding back on that? I mean, come on, this is a free forum, and it has more toy's than any pay-for forum that i've ever seen, it's just not fair (for them) :P

To wrap things up, SMF is fun, easy to use, powerfull, free, and everything in-between. Who could ask more? You guys did a great job on this forum system, i honestly didn't think there was anything better than IPB :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 07:09:17 PM
Quote from: Golden_Helmet
Now, for features, did you guys ever consider holding back on that? I mean, come on, this is a free forum, and it has more toy's than any pay-for forum that I've ever seen, it's just not fair (for them) :P

Have you heard of the saying, >> The best things in life are FREE...

First and foremost, one thing that SMF is trying to do here is to give the product an equivalent argument against vBulletin and IPB, so you can imagine that it's a serious shot here, they are going against the big guys. And I have a filling that if SMF is used by a few VERY big forum, the waves of SMF downloads will start, but for now I see only small forums from SMF, sad, but hey! SMF is young and the future seems bright enough. ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 07:19:57 PM
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 07:09:17 PM
Quote from: Golden_Helmet
Now, for features, did you guys ever consider holding back on that? I mean, come on, this is a free forum, and it has more toy's than any pay-for forum that I've ever seen, it's just not fair (for them) :P

Have you heard of the saying, >> The best things in life are FREE...

First and foremost, one thing that SMF is trying to do here is to give the product an equivalent argument against vBulletin and IPB, so you can imagine that it's a serious shot here, they are going against the big guys. And I have a filling that if SMF is used by a few VERY big forum, the waves of SMF downloads will start, but for now I see only small forums from SMF, sad, but hey! SMF is young and the future seems bright enough. ;)


What constitutes a small/large forum? Hits? Posts per day? Total posts?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 07:21:55 PM
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 07:09:17 PM
Quote from: Golden_Helmet
Now, for features, did you guys ever consider holding back on that? I mean, come on, this is a free forum, and it has more toy's than any pay-for forum that I've ever seen, it's just not fair (for them) :P

Have you heard of the saying, >> The best things in life are FREE...

First and foremost, one thing that SMF is trying to do here is to give the product an equivalent argument against vBulletin and IPB, so you can imagine that it's a serious shot here, they are going against the big guys. And I have a filling that if SMF is used by a few VERY big forum, the waves of SMF downloads will start, but for now I see only small forums from SMF, sad, but hey! SMF is young and the future seems bright enough. ;)

lol, i was being sarcastic :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 08:38:53 PM
Quote from: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 07:19:57 PM
What constitutes a small/large forum? Hits? Posts per day? Total posts?
All of the above, I'm talking about a big forum in the terms "renowned"

I know that in this next link, not all the worlds forums are displayed, but it gives you an idea where SMF stands at this moment, if you want to skip the search, look at the 106 position (thought the position changes)

http://www.big-boards.com/index.php?type=others

Who cares where they are, it's up to us SMF users to make it big, just like users made phpbb big.

Us we know that SMF is good, we are in it, but people when making choices, they need examples.
To give you an example, I found out about SMF when I went on the Coppermine photo gallery forum, I liked the look, and clicked on the bottom SMF link, the rest is history...
Imagine if Coppermine didn't have SMF, imagine that big chunk of people that didn't come to SMF?

So my point here is... Elijah I don't know why you asked me that question?
But my answer is yes, it's important for a board system to be seen with very big "renowned" forums.   :)


EDIT>>>

Quote from: Golden_Helmetlol, i was being sarcastic :P

It was too superficial...LOL, it's a joke,  welcome to SMF by the way!

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on September 21, 2004, 09:22:45 PM
Hmm... eldaronline.  Haven't talked to Purple Raine in forever.  We really need to get that upgraded!

Actually, once SMF hits 1.0 I'd like to have a user campaign (if anyone's interested) to get people to upgrade their YaBB SE forums.  This means writing any mods they're attached to for SMF, etc.... but there are YaBB SE forums out there that are decent size, and should be SMF by all rights ;).

Big forums help a lot though, yes.  There are other things that help a lot too, and we're working on them... shhh.

Quote from: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM
To wrap things up, SMF is fun, easy to use, powerfull, free, and everything in-between. Who could ask more? You guys did a great job on this forum system, i honestly didn't think there was anything better than IPB :)

Thanks.  We do try.  And you're right - one of the biggest problems is discoverability... many people don't know about SMF, and some know about it but don't want to use it because it's still in the release candidate phase.  We're getting awfully close, though.

In regards to the message you sent me, I did read it but I'd like to wait to see a little more before I respond to it.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 09:53:01 PM
yea, most forums i've seen are running stuff like vbulletin, phpBB (god i hate this forum), IPB, and so on. asides from this forum and my own forum, i've hardly seen any sites running this software. i've seen a few YaBBSE boards, but no SMF. in fact, if someone hadnt have mentioned this system to me, i wouldent be here right now. i'll have to tell my freinds about this system, then have them spread the word. SMF WILL ONE DAY RULE THE WORLD!! MWAHAHAHAHA.... err.... i mean, one day SMF will be the world standard, yea, thats what i meant... *clears throat nervously, then leaves the room in a hurry*
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 11:20:39 PM
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 08:38:53 PM
Quote from: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 07:19:57 PM
What constitutes a small/large forum? Hits? Posts per day? Total posts?
All of the above, I'm talking about a big forum in the terms "renowned"

I know that in this next link, not all the worlds forums are displayed, but it gives you an idea where SMF stands at this moment, if you want to skip the search, look at the 106 position (thought the position changes)

http://www.big-boards.com/index.php?type=others

Who cares where they are, it's up to us SMF users to make it big, just like users made phpbb big.

Us we know that SMF is good, we are in it, but people when making choices, they need examples.
To give you an example, I found out about SMF when I went on the Coppermine photo gallery forum, I liked the look, and clicked on the bottom SMF link, the rest is history...
Imagine if Coppermine didn't have SMF, imagine that big chunk of people that didn't come to SMF?

So my point here is... Elijah I don't know why you asked me that question?
But my answer is yes, it's important for a board system to be seen with very big "renowned" forums.   :)


EDIT>>>

Quote from: Golden_Helmetlol, i was being sarcastic :P

It was too superficial...LOL, it's a joke,  welcome to SMF by the way!



Well I asked because I had no idea what a "big" forum was and where my forum stacked up. In a few days I'll have over 500,000 posts, and next month my forum will be 1 year old. I'll sign up to Big Boards.com, even though I will be last in the rankings, but if that little helps get this forum on the map then great.

Hats off to the developers of SMF for putting stability and speed over everything else.

I have quite a few fast and furious posters (meaning they post like crazy) in my forum, I get kudos from many praising me about how my forum is always up and how it never crashes, that's when I refer them here to SMF. I personally know 2 people who took my advice and junked their other forums for SMF.

I see SMF becoming the top forum software in the near future. I know what I am about to say won't sit well with many here, but I do believe eventually SMF should charge everyone for downloading their forum software.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 12:09:11 AM
Not a chance:

http://www.google.com/search?q="I, Unknown W. Brackets, would rue the day SMF was not free" (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I%2C+Unknown+W.+Brackets%2C+would+rue+the+day+SMF+was+not+free%22)

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Amacythe on September 22, 2004, 12:25:49 AM
LOL

I had to wait to see just how you would reply to that... I already knew the answer would be no... just how you would say it really had me curious ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 22, 2004, 03:20:55 AM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 12:09:11 AM
Not a chance:

http://www.google.com/search?q="I, Unknown W. Brackets, would rue the day SMF was not free" (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I%2C+Unknown+W.+Brackets%2C+would+rue+the+day+SMF+was+not+free%22)

-[Unknown]

lol. A developer with principle. It's hard to find anyone who stands for anything these days, but hey, I am looking out for the developers, I am of the firm belief that people should be compensated for a job very well done. Now if the current system is treating you guys well, then more power to you and keep up the good work!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GiNi3D on September 22, 2004, 09:48:23 AM
Quote from: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 11:20:39 PM
Well I asked because I had no idea what a "big" forum was and where my forum stacked up. In a few days I'll have over 500,000 posts...
Well with 500,000 posts, you definitely have the status of a big forum, and you should put your board in that big-board list (if free).

Quote from: Elijah BlissNext month my forum will be 1 year old.
Congratulations in advance! And continue the great job.


Quote from: [Unknown] on September 21, 2004, 09:22:45 PM
Hmm... eldaronline.  Haven't talked to Purple Raine in forever.  We really need to get that upgraded!...
Eldaronline definitely needs an upgrade, but at the same time, it's funny to see him use the Beta4 and doesn't complain about it, proof that SMF as a solid base.  ;)


Quote from: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 09:53:01 PM
yea, most forums i've seen are running stuff like vbulletin, phpBB (god i hate this forum) , IPB, and so on.
Yap! phpBB is loosing it, that board was cool back then, but time kills, and they are very, very late with the new 2.2.
But at this stage my choice is done, when time comes for my sites grand opening as we say, SMF will be the deployed board.  8)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Oldiesmann on September 22, 2004, 10:36:28 AM
Whoever runs that SMF board (currently at position 105) needs to update its profile ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Louis (CSpotkill) on September 22, 2004, 12:51:50 PM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 21, 2004, 09:22:45 PM
Actually, once SMF hits 1.0 I'd like to have a user campaign (if anyone's interested) to get people to upgrade their YaBB SE forums.  This means writing any mods they're attached to for SMF, etc.... but there are YaBB SE forums out there that are decent size, and should be SMF by all rights ;).

Laughs.

Who's starting www.spreadSMF.com (http://www.spreadfirefox.com/) then? :p
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 22, 2004, 02:16:42 PM
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 22, 2004, 09:48:23 AM
Quote from: Elijah Bliss on September 21, 2004, 11:20:39 PM
Well I asked because I had no idea what a "big" forum was and where my forum stacked up. In a few days I'll have over 500,000 posts...
Well with 500,000 posts, you definitely have the status of a big forum, and you should put your board in that big-board list (if free).

Quote from: Elijah BlissNext month my forum will be 1 year old.
Congratulations in advance! And continue the great job.

Thanks! I wouldn't consider my forum a "big" forum compared to those forums on Big Board, those forums are HUGE.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on September 22, 2004, 06:20:12 PM
(Off-Topic)
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 08:38:53 PM
http://www.big-boards.com/index.php?type=others

Hmm... Dutch people seem to be forum addicts... 4th and 10th spot taken up by Dutch forums :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: roboter88 on September 22, 2004, 06:57:46 PM
Well i used em all :-P

And like when something gets commercial or becomes the monopol things start to get very very boring ...mostly.

eg.
phpNuke i started with 4.x when i installed 5.x i noticed 90% of the sits on www. use CMS oriantating on phpNuke and all the clones and things got boring cause it wasnt special anymore.

Or bbs who want hard cash for their work...i hear always people saying hej come on vB is so coool...bla bla...no its not!

I as the user the hall community make s what its is. So to exist companys must find a way for making their product good and recive money from people who can afford eg charter members.

I would never pay for a bbs which i just installed! Even if its a stable version which features who other dont have.

People must understand that everything what charges is out of time and this way they support this!
I dont want support commercial based projects where i as the user help testing em by installing em routines.
People must understand that the oldschool capitalism mechanism not compatibel with the www. not even with the real world!
No its on us to make the change and stop the capitalism in www.
Also even if they can balance it its a big step back cause u slower your growth rate. This effect the hall project expotential even effect the hall www cause other would start also charging or thej dont use it.

With commercial i mean charging for installing your software. Commercial i mean no offering doante and such a like.

IF SOME1 IS SATISFIED WITH YOUR WORKY AND CAN AFFORD HE WILL DO.

This is why evry 2nd project site has a donation button cause wise people understand this mechanism i mentioned above and it is liek a religion.

Of course you could make everything chargable but then the www becomes only a place for people who could afford and it would be very very boring cause good ideas need no money! (refer to latest blockbuster cinematics). Also the poor would crash this commercial networking cause it would be like ms vs linux like :-)

People must realize the internet is like a timemachine...its always ahead cause its free...all services who charge oriantating on systems made 100 hundreds years ago.

The www is like a libery where all mankind can contribute as more contribute as more human race gets ahead.

Now i choosed SMF cause its free logical nice community and shows us all how you can do such a project without charging for just participating in this evolutionary process of creating a platform for communication inside a virtual world.

It got spirit it has future!

cheers



Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 22, 2004, 07:42:53 PM
Quote from: roboter88 on September 22, 2004, 06:57:46 PM
Well i used em all :-P

And like when something gets commercial or becomes the monopol things start to get very very boring ...mostly.

eg.
phpNuke i started with 4.x when i installed 5.x i noticed 90% of the sits on www. use CMS oriantating on phpNuke and all the clones and things got boring cause it wasnt special anymore.

Or bbs who want hard cash for their work...i hear always people saying hej come on vB is so coool...bla bla...no its not!

I as the user the hall community make s what its is. So to exist companys must find a way for making their product good and recive money from people who can afford eg charter members.

I would never pay for a bbs which i just installed! Even if its a stable version which features who other dont have.

People must understand that everything what charges is out of time and this way they support this!
I dont want support commercial based projects where i as the user help testing em by installing em routines.
People must understand that the oldschool capitalism mechanism not compatibel with the www. not even with the real world!
No its on us to make the change and stop the capitalism in www.
Also even if they can balance it its a big step back cause u slower your growth rate. This effect the hall project expotential even effect the hall www cause other would start also charging or thej dont use it.

With commercial i mean charging for installing your software. Commercial i mean no offering doante and such a like.

IF SOME1 IS SATISFIED WITH YOUR WORKY AND CAN AFFORD HE WILL DO.

This is why evry 2nd project site has a donation button cause wise people understand this mechanism i mentioned above and it is liek a religion.

Of course you could make everything chargable but then the www becomes only a place for people who could afford and it would be very very boring cause good ideas need no money! (refer to latest blockbuster cinematics). Also the poor would crash this commercial networking cause it would be like ms vs linux like :-)

People must realize the internet is like a timemachine...its always ahead cause its free...all services who charge oriantating on systems made 100 hundreds years ago.

The www is like a libery where all mankind can contribute as more contribute as more human race gets ahead.

Now i choosed SMF cause its free logical nice community and shows us all how you can do such a project without charging for just participating in this evolutionary process of creating a platform for communication inside a virtual world.

It got spirit it has future!

cheers





^ This goes way beyond the scope of what I was talking about.

Whether the internet stays free from "old school" capitalism or not, at the end of the day we all have to eat and bills have to get paid.

Pardon me for suggesting something as preposterous and archaic as "paying" developers for their time and hard work.

What was I thinking.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: roboter88 on September 22, 2004, 07:56:08 PM
as i mentioned the conclusion therfor is getting paid by donation or with charter members model which extra support and on...

And with capitalism i mean that everybody has to pay which is not the case and of course i would agree also commercial projects should pay a fair price but all should be very low calculated. In the end you get more cause mor epeople can afford then just a few.

Oh and this is my opinion and has nothing todo with your post


cheers
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 08:40:53 PM
The idea of open source is simple and sweet; it is not an idea of communism or socialism like its critics sometimes say.

You see, throughout commerce and money-making, there are a few important things people have found make them money:
   1. The customer being treated well, such that they will come back and recommend the product and/or services to their friends.
   2. More people knowing about the product (advertising) and being able to get use out of it.

Further, it has been concluded that the following contribute to those goals:
   1. Being able to modify the code such that you can change anything you don't like about the product, given motivation.
   2. Having the opportunity to receive the product and/or service for free or at the least possible cost.

Why are these two things important?  Because if the software is free, anyone can download it.  If anyone can download it, then anyone who could possibly get use out of the product has a chance to use it, however much money they may have.  These people then contribute by referring other people (who can also get it for free) and by:
   1. Creating and developing solutions to other peoples problems, such as modifications, which are also open source.
   2. Developing advocacy for the software because it is well written and well maintained.

So, in other words, by not charging for the software, and by even letting anyone download it... we increase the yield.  Marketting strategy.  We also develop advocacy much better and stronger (there are people who like paid products too, just not as strongly in most cases) than otherwise.  We're adding significant fuel to the fire that is the project.

Most small business that don't fail in their first few years operate on a net loss, as is commonly known.  If you want to make money, it's going to be in the long run not the short.  Open source is just a widening of this; if we have a million users (0.5% of which paid), and you have only 100 ones (who all paid, and more) we still got more money than you did.  100 * 100 < 5000 * 50.

There's also the point of support.  As we do here, most open source projects charge for advanced support.  While this isn't for everyone, this is how they make money.  The idea is to grow the client base from which the few paid ones come; again my numbers above.

Another very important and often ignored point is education.  How hard is it to enter the programming market?  Not that easy in some cases.  Sure, you can go on google and learn some things... but you're still a yellow novice.  No one would hire you like that!  Open source is a way people who aren't quite experts yet can grow and expand their knowledge such that they can become attractive employees.  Yes, they're offering their software to you for free.... but you're offering to use and test it, and give them legitimacy for free too!  They're giving you products, and you're increasing their resume.

It's barter, and it's done everywhere on this planet.  Just because open source does it so well that it's starting to threaten "paid" companies like Microsoft only proves how good a strategy it is.  If it weren't, if it weren't a gain to people... it wouldn't happen.

We're not crazy hippies, us open source people... we're programmers and I at least am a big fan of the free market.

-[Unknown]

EDIT:  The above statement was made by one of the original developers.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Elijah Bliss on September 22, 2004, 08:50:43 PM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 08:40:53 PM
The idea of open source is simple and sweet; it is not an idea of communism or socialism like its critics sometimes say.

You see, throughout commerce and money-making, there are a few important things people have found make them money:
   1. The customer being treated well, such that they will come back and recommend the product and/or services to their friends.
   2. More people knowing about the product (advertising) and being able to get use out of it.

Further, it has been concluded that the following contribute to those goals:
   1. Being able to modify the code such that you can change anbything you don't like about the product, given modivation.
   2. Having the opportunity to receive the product and/or service for free or at the least possible cost.

Why are these two things important?  Because if the software is free, anyone can download it.  If anyone can download it, then anyone who could possibly get use out of the product has a chance to use it, however much money they may have.  These people then contribute by referring other people (who can also get it for free) and by:
   1. Creating and developing solutions to other peoples problems, such as modifications, which are also open source.
   2. Developing advocacy for the software because it is well written and well maintained.

So, in other words, by not charging for the software, and by even letting anyone download it... we increase the yield.  Marketting strategy.  We also develop advocacy much better and stronger (there are people who like paid products too, just not as strongly in most cases) than otherwise.  We're adding significant fuel to the fire that is the project.

Most small business that don't fail in their first few years operate on a net loss, as is commonly known.  If you want to make money, it's going to be in the long run not the short.  Open source is just a widening of this; if we have a million users (0.5% of which paid), and you have only 100 ones (who all paid, and more) we still got more money than you did.  100 * 100 < 5000 * 50.

There's also the point of support.  As we do here, most open source projects charge for advanced support.  While this isn't for everyone, this is how they make money.  The idea is to grow the client base from which the few paid ones come; again my numbers above.

Another very important and often ignored point is education.  How hard is it to enter the programming market?  Not that easy in some cases.  Sure, you can go on google and learn some things... but you're still a yellow novice.  No one would hire you like that!  Open source is a way people who aren't quite experts yet can grow and expand their knowledge such that they can become attractive employees.  Yes, they're offering their software to you for free.... but you're offering to use and test it, and give them legitamacy for free too!  They're giving you products, and you're increasing their resume.

It's barter, and it's done everywhere on this planet.  Just because open source does it so well that it's starting to threaten "paid" companies like Microsoft only proves how good a strategy it is.  If it weren't, if it weren't a gain to people... it wouldn't happen.

We're not crazy hippies, us open source people... we're programmers and I at least am a big fan of the free market.

-[Unknown]

ahhh, so that's how you guys get paid. I'm used to running the traditional "brick and mortar" way of business, but I always wondered how you guys made your money giving out freebies.

I'm not a programmer nor have any plans on becoming one, but I already see how I can apply this "open source" business model to a couple of projects I am working on.

Great Info!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Chris G. on October 24, 2004, 10:49:21 AM
vBulletin > Despise.
phpBB > Dislike.
IPB > Like.
SMF > Love.

My favorite part of SMF, hands down, is that it's fully customizable--from CSS right down to the core HTML.  Keep up the good work! :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: brlmedia on October 25, 2004, 11:07:51 PM
very well written replies, I myself have used the big 3, IPB, Phpbb, and yab, which after seeing the old yab site redirect to here,I tried it and fell in love.  after 4 installs on various clients(very easy, btw), they love it, and i hope to plan a campaign myself for my company to promote., a big kudo to the developers, and it's only time before the word gets out.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Spug on October 26, 2004, 03:16:14 AM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 12:09:11 AM
Not a chance:

http://www.google.com/search?q="I, Unknown W. Brackets, would rue the day SMF was not free" (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I%2C+Unknown+W.+Brackets%2C+would+rue+the+day+SMF+was+not+free%22)

-[Unknown]

Wow (http://open.38.com/index.php/topic,20.0.html).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Oldiesmann on October 26, 2004, 08:17:02 AM
Interesting... Even with Firefox's support for many international character sets, I mostly see ?'s all over the place.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Spug on October 26, 2004, 04:18:49 PM
Haha. I don't, and I use Opera. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, though, but still ;) Look at the signature of the first poster there, if you missed it.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Meriadoc on October 26, 2004, 05:27:06 PM
Quote from: Spug on October 26, 2004, 03:16:14 AM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 12:09:11 AM
Not a chance:

http://www.google.com/search?q="I, Unknown W. Brackets, would rue the day SMF was not free" (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22I%2C+Unknown+W.+Brackets%2C+would+rue+the+day+SMF+was+not+free%22)

-[Unknown]

Wow (http://open.38.com/index.php/topic,20.0.html).

saw that a few days ago, thought it was pretty awesome! :D
That user is an admin judging by his 5 red stars...
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?action=profile;u=2491
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on October 26, 2004, 05:28:45 PM
You have to have support for eastern languages enabled in Windows XP for that to show, and you also have to have Chinese, I believe.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: † ÐëepÇuT¹ † on November 10, 2004, 05:23:35 PM
Of all the boards I've seen used and have used, SMF is the one I always liked. Vbulletin may have its nice templates, but its somewhat "outdated" (feels outdated to me, or maybe thats just me since I'm use to the greatness of SMF), VB also has slow and laggy speeds.. which SMF forums defiantly don't have... see thats the reason why I truly love SMF, its got speed and "power".. and well millions of others.

See, a good example would be, in my SMF forum, I reached about almost 4 thousand members and alot of posts, yet the backup .sql file size was only like 2MB! and compared to my friends VBulletin, when his forum reached 100 members, and I tried to download the backup sql file (I'm an admin there) it was already 5MB! I was quite disgusted... Same thing with phpBB.

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: packman on November 10, 2004, 05:39:57 PM
Quote from: † ÐëepÇuT¹ † on November 10, 2004, 05:23:35 PM
See, a good example would be, in my SMF forum, I reached about almost 4 thousand members and alot of posts, yet the backup .sql file size was only like 2MB! and compared to my friends VBulletin, when his forum reached 100 members, and I tried to download the backup sql file (I'm an admin there) it was already 5MB! I was quite disgusted... Same thing with phpBB.

You must have incredibly small posts! My 1000 user SMF forum with 28000 posts generates around a 20MB SQL backup file.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Oldiesmann on November 10, 2004, 05:52:53 PM
Keep in mind that database size isn't just dependent on posts. The database size can vary greatly depending on how many members have signatures (and how long they are), how many PMs there are, the size of the error log, how many attachments there are, etc.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Tony Reid on November 10, 2004, 05:57:00 PM
Yep - I have...

Members: 5556
Posts: 200959
Topics: 15457

My database is about 190mb (compressed to 60mb Tar for download)

And SMF still cuts through it like a hot knife through butter![/i]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: packman on November 10, 2004, 06:03:28 PM
I mentioned posts because smf_messages was by far the biggest table in my database.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: † ÐëepÇuT¹ † on November 10, 2004, 09:24:48 PM
Quote from: packman on November 10, 2004, 05:39:57 PM
Quote from: † ÐëepÇuT¹ † on November 10, 2004, 05:23:35 PM
See, a good example would be, in my SMF forum, I reached about almost 4 thousand members and alot of posts, yet the backup .sql file size was only like 2MB! and compared to my friends VBulletin, when his forum reached 100 members, and I tried to download the backup sql file (I'm an admin there) it was already 5MB! I was quite disgusted... Same thing with phpBB.

You must have incredibly small posts! My 1000 user SMF forum with 28000 posts generates around a 20MB SQL backup file.


o.0  I got more posts than that yet my file is smaller! lol.. hmm are you using mods or something?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on November 11, 2004, 02:16:46 AM
Deepcut, have you checked to see how large your database is with phpMyAdmin?
After all, size = size... I don't really think that SMF has discovered the secret to putting the posts of 4k of users in a tiny little file...
It's a bit more likely that something has gone wrong with your backup, like the server timing out or something of the sort...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Grudge on November 11, 2004, 04:58:03 AM
What Burpee said. It's always worth opening up the backup sql file or checking in phpMyAdmin every now and again just to make sure that your backup is complete - would be nothing worst than needing to restore a backup only to find it's only backed up all the tables up to the log section :o

Quote from: Burpee on November 11, 2004, 02:16:46 AM
Deepcut, have you checked to see how large your database is with phpMyAdmin?
After all, size = size... I don't really think that SMF has discovered the secret to putting the posts of 4k of users in a tiny little file...
It's a bit more likely that something has gone wrong with your backup, like the server timing out or something of the sort...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: BMW-Guy on November 11, 2004, 06:26:26 AM
you can also make the database a little smaller, I believe, by optimizing the tables once in a while. :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ben_S on November 11, 2004, 07:33:02 AM
Quote from: BMW-Guy on November 11, 2004, 06:26:26 AM
you can also make the database a little smaller, I believe, by optimizing the tables once in a while. :)

That will only get rid of fragmentation, it wont affect a dump.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: diva on November 14, 2004, 01:12:58 AM
Ive recommended SMF to other people because it is light years ahead of other boards which seem to reach their potential and then come to a screeching halt.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: yexusbeliever on November 15, 2004, 04:19:26 AM
Quote from: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM
To be brief, this is the BEST forum software i've EVER used. I've never been able to install a forum myself, that is, untill i tried SMF. I've used quite a few forums in my time, and this one definetly tops them all.

Now, in to more detail. I'm fairly new to the world of installable forums (i used to think that if you wanted a forum, you had to code it yourself, good times :P ).When compared to my previous long-time favorite, Invision Power Board, the invision board seems as bad as that crummy phpBB board that php-nuke installed for me. When used on the same host (dhost.info is my fav), my old Invision Power Board 2.0 PF3 took an average of 0.3-1.6 seconds to create the page. With SMF, my average time is 0.02-0.3 seconds. Quite a nice difference. As far as SQL goes, i was getting SQL errors on my second day with IPB, i'm on day 4 with SMF and i havent had a single problem yet (and i havent optimized yet either).

So far, I still do think that phpBB is the best forum board system for free.  IPB and VB are both required payments.  One of the biggest thing that I see phpBB having a great advantage over SMF is that phpBB has more helping hands.  SMF is still new and is not known all over to get lots of people with great experience backing SMF up.  However, I believe that phpBB is going to drop the rate that they are going.  SMF have a great chance to defeat phpBB.  (Both are free. So automatically VB and IPB will loose.  Hardly anyone wants to pay for a forum board.  It is not cheap to buy one.) 

SMF do have a great chance of beating phpBB.  I downloaded SMF core files.  Excellent php scripting!  I can tell it is more advance than phpBB.  What I mean is that phpBB is more complicated in php scripting.  SMF is easier.  And I believe therefore it will be alot easier to modified than phpBB.  That means sooner or later more people will come to find SMF to be systematically better than phpBB.

But anyways, let us see what happens in the future.  PhpBB, IPB, and VB are always coming out with new ideas. 

As for me, I am so tired and sick of modifying phpBB.  I like to find something much simple.  That is SMF!  But I do miss the fun mods that phpBB has.  SMF is still like a baby that not many mods are being created for it.  But truly it will grow and look even better.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Grudge on November 15, 2004, 04:47:57 AM
Personally, I have no great determination to "beat" phpBB. I think more than one forum software can exist, and infact one solution rarely fits everyone. I'm all up for supporting all software which is developed for people for free - of course I would like to see SMF take some of the phpBB users mind you :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Anguz on November 15, 2004, 04:49:46 AM
Everyone is invited to contribute with mods for SMF! Try your hand at it. Soon you'll be able to have in your SMF whatever you're missing from phpBB. Mods will grow in number as time passes, and the speed at which that happens will drastically increase after the public release of version 1.0.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: yexusbeliever on November 18, 2004, 03:34:59 AM
Quote from: Anguz on November 15, 2004, 04:49:46 AM
Everyone is invited to contribute with mods for SMF! Try your hand at it. Soon you'll be able to have in your SMF whatever you're missing from phpBB. Mods will grow in number as time passes, and the speed at which that happens will drastically increase after the public release of version 1.0.

SMF team is a great people of kindness! 

I like to make mods if I understand php script enough.  I do not know the basics to take it on yet.  I am currently worrying about learning two languages, better not add a computer language with that yet.  Wait until I am competent in those two languages, I will like to help make mods.  There are so many mods I want smf to have.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: codenaught on November 18, 2004, 05:24:22 PM
I can't really see how the phpBB community helps more then the SMF community here. I have gotten much help here where people are willing to spend there own time just to enhance my board. Plus I used to be a big part of the phpBB community (around version 2.03) where I had around 900 posts, I remember coming back there awhile later and trying to help people and getting yelled at by a moderator for no good reason. Also many mods for phpBB are standard features in SMF and SMF has a decent selection of mods.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: destalk on November 21, 2004, 07:09:09 AM
I looked at Invision Board and found it to be kind of old and cranky. vBulletin seems to be the top dog in terms of features and even ease of use (from a customisable point of view), but I haven't looked at it enough to be fair.

The others are all much of a muchness. I think the best of the best is Web X based forums. The technology is horrible and extremely complicated to use, but it's functionality and user interface is wonderful. It's also very very expensive.

I'm very very impressed with SMF, though, and I think as it grows and more themes and mods are developed, it will do well.  I just wish I could customise it more without having to get my hands dirty with PHP. I'm just an incurable WYSIWYG designer I'm afraid.  ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: johnm on December 08, 2004, 09:39:34 PM
i looked at phpbb,invision board,e-blah,vbulletin and loads of other forums and as i have only just started to run my own forums, i have decided to learn php wich is all going pretty wel at the moment.

considering i didnt really have a clue on how to install any thing like this on a web server (knew how to use ftp and the very basics) this was the easiest and quickest one to install, pleanty of mods and good ones i might add. and most of all pleanty of help from the smf comunity.
I'd just like to add that SMF was the only forum that actually worked first time with out any chmoding or messing about with the files manually.

i have allready got to the stage where some times if im applying a mod and i get a  "failed" on one line ill open the files up see what needs adding/replacing and then just do that bit manualy!
of course back the original files up, then modify. SMF's forums are just so much easier to modify if you mess things up post it here and before you know it some one is helping you sort it out.

SMF is simlpy the best.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Midgard on January 05, 2005, 06:22:19 AM
Whitney Houston: i will always love SMF

8)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kirby on January 05, 2005, 06:32:26 PM
SMF is the best forum software ever IMO, and its themes system (especially action wrapping! thats genius!) and ease of modification make it even better!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Nidoking on January 05, 2005, 07:07:59 PM
Quote from: Kirby on January 05, 2005, 06:32:26 PM
SMF is the best forum software ever IMO, and its themes system (especially action wrapping! thats genius!) and ease of modification make it even better!
I concur.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Midgard on January 06, 2005, 01:37:46 PM
I will not work for SMF, my jobs now on YabbSE
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Peter Duggan on January 06, 2005, 02:25:04 PM
Quote from: Midgard on January 06, 2005, 01:37:46 PM
I will not work for SMF, my jobs now on YabbSE

Huh? ???
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: _complex on January 06, 2005, 03:11:28 PM
Quote from: Peter Duggan on January 06, 2005, 02:25:04 PM
Quote from: Midgard on January 06, 2005, 01:37:46 PM
I will not work for SMF, my jobs now on YabbSE

Huh? ???

I think hes mad....
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Jerry on January 06, 2005, 03:12:51 PM
Quote from: Peter Duggan on January 06, 2005, 02:25:04 PM
Quote from: Midgard on January 06, 2005, 01:37:46 PM
I will not work for SMF, my jobs now on YabbSE

Huh? ???
Quote from: nviceversa on January 06, 2005, 03:11:28 PM
Quote from: Peter Duggan on January 06, 2005, 02:25:04 PM
Quote from: Midgard on January 06, 2005, 01:37:46 PM
I will not work for SMF, my jobs now on YabbSE

Huh? ???

I think hes mad....
He had some icons of andrea's in his latest theme and got in a little trouble with andrea for it, and decided to stop doing things here. . . he removed his mods, and theme.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MrFlicks on January 08, 2005, 11:36:25 AM
I love SMF as like some of those above I am still very new to all things on the web and could not get any of the other forums active and operable as easily. SMF is super cool  8)  I set up www.tvworlds.com with a few clicks of the mouse in Fantastico in my cpanel hosting interface.

I stumbled upon SMF by chance and as I have many domains will be setting up various forums over the coming months.

It will be nice to help get the word out about this and I for one will be doing so.  I am also about to set up www.l-earner.com which will be a site for Teaching people ways to make money online and I will be putting an SMF forum at www.l-earner.com/forum real soon.  I will have a Category reffering to SMF from the start!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Trekkie101 on January 08, 2005, 01:44:34 PM
I like Midgard hes kinda cool, weird i grant you but cool none the less.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Jerry on January 08, 2005, 02:43:03 PM
Quote from: Trekkie101 on January 08, 2005, 01:44:34 PM
I like Midgard hes kinda cool, weird i grant you but cool none the less.
random but yes he is a good person :)
Quote from: MrFlicks on January 08, 2005, 11:36:25 AM
I love SMF as like some of those above I am still very new to all things on the web and could not get any of the other forums active and operable as easily. SMF is super cool 8) I set up www.tvworlds.com with a few clicks of the mouse in Fantastico in my cpanel hosting interface.

I stumbled upon SMF by chance and as I have many domains will be setting up various forums over the coming months.

It will be nice to help get the word out about this and I for one will be doing so. I am also about to set up www.l-earner.com which will be a site for Teaching people ways to make money online and I will be putting an SMF forum at www.l-earner.com/forum real soon. I will have a Category reffering to SMF from the start!
Good luck with your forums!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MrFlicks on January 09, 2005, 09:03:12 AM
TY  I will go and see about upgrading the L-Earner.com/foum I set up yesterday in a bit!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Laurens on January 23, 2005, 11:21:03 AM
Just installled SMF, mainly because I needed something to put on my site.

I was actually amazed how easy using SMF is. I also use IPB and those who use or have used ipb know it can be a pain in the ass to figure everything out. Even installing a skin, especially with both my servers using safe mode, proves to be a problem at times. Something that isn't an issue with SMF. I also like how easy it is for people unfamiliar with a forum to use the controlpanel.

Really really good. Now all you need is an image gallery  ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Trekkie101 on January 23, 2005, 11:23:27 AM
Its possible to bridge with Coppermine which is an image gallery.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Laurens on January 23, 2005, 11:33:38 AM
Had that once, i chucked it away because i hated the complicated cp.  8)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: twinklewitch on February 01, 2005, 07:01:14 AM
I would just like to say that i'm extremely glad I came across SMF one day. I started with Yabb gold, but kicked that one off right away. I then used Phpbb for a short while, but hated it the first day I worked with it. I finally came across YaBBSE and used it for a while until I realised SMF was out there as well. I've upgrated two forums now. And I really enjoy it. SMF is by far my most favorite of all. So...keep up the good work! And thank you :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on February 01, 2005, 11:44:01 PM
Thanks for the kind comments ;).

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: johnm on February 05, 2005, 07:38:45 PM
How did i find smf?

we had set up local server in work using an xp machine and we decided to install megabbs,
when that picked up we decided that we would get an external server (more reliable! than the machine we were using)

after searching for a few days i started to use e-blah wasn't bad but just didn't like it
next was phpbb installed it kept having trouble with logins and then some how i stumbled upon smf
which at the time was in RC1, and here i am today
when ever any one asks me, what forums i would recommend. i will always say go for smf just for some basic reasons.

1. Its the only one that i know i can recommend with out feeling guilty! i know it works and if by chance there is some kind of problem i know there is always people here that are more than willing to help any one out.
2. its the only thing i can install with just literally a few clicks and its working straight away.

I've been using smf since november, thinking about it thats not long at all, i had forgotten about the time when i had just installed smf and then a few days later i buggerd it up!
seems quite funny now, but my main site is doing pretty well running smf and mkportal,
considering i didnt even know what the hell php was!

I think this is a relationship that will go on for many many many years! :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: zelkstarre on February 28, 2005, 11:58:14 PM
This is open-source?  (please say yes, please say yes,)

What is GPL?  And if so, are you guys GPL?

Sorry if I sound kind of stupid.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on March 01, 2005, 12:07:38 AM
Quote from: zelkstarre on February 28, 2005, 11:58:14 PM
This is open-source?  (please say yes, please say yes,)

I'm afraid this depends on opinion.  Some consider it to be, others do not.  The limitation in the way is that, without express permission, we do not allow redistribution.

QuoteWhat is GPL?  And if so, are you guys GPL?

The GNU General Public License (GPL) is hefted as "the" open source license.  There are many other licenses that qualify as open source, but the GPL is the most popular of them.  SMF is not licensed under the GPL, for a number of reasons, but rather its own license, which you can find here:

http://www.simplemachines.org/about/license.php

One of the main reasons we don't use the GPL is simple: too many people don't understand it, and think that it means "public domain".  SMF is not public domain, nor is most open source software - it is, as phpBB is, copyrighted software.  However, people often fail to accept this, which is why we don't use the GPL, and also part of why we don't allow redistribution.

QuoteSorry if I sound kind of stupid.

Not at all.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Xakira on March 24, 2005, 03:38:44 PM
I though phpBB was great! But that's only because it's the first forum software I came across.  After the novelty wore off I stopped using it and didn't implement it anymore in my site.  It was a bit basic in some respects.  No file attachments for one thing.

Somehow, tonight I was lucky enough to find SMF ... it wasn't easy to find ... and now it's 3am because I just had to try it out.  Installed it on my development server and that was sooooooo easy to do.  I really needed to check out the file attachment part of the program, to see how it worked and have been really surprised that it's what I hoped for.  Uploading and storing files to the MySQL db ... exactly what I wanted.

Can't wait to test out the other features tomorrow and unleash it to my co-workers soon.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: cjohn on March 24, 2005, 05:01:08 PM
I'm curious to find out that between phpbb, SMF, etc., which one has stronger security that will prevent malicious users to intrude and hack the SQL database by any chance?. In the past, I was using phpbb with a phpnuke CMS, and just when my board got bigger with a few thousand posts, it was hacked and completely destroyed. Such a pain!. So before I rebuild my website, I'm very careful about choosing the right board with higher security ... and I'm still searching, but I will probably use SMF since I've found out many users here having big communities with few hundred thousand posts without a problem on their forum ... Please give me your recommendation. Thanks.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on March 24, 2005, 05:34:09 PM
Quote from: Xakira on March 24, 2005, 03:38:44 PM
Somehow, tonight I was lucky enough to find SMF ... it wasn't easy to find ... and now it's 3am because I just had to try it out.  Installed it on my development server and that was sooooooo easy to do.  I really needed to check out the file attachment part of the program, to see how it worked and have been really surprised that it's what I hoped for.  Uploading and storing files to the MySQL db ... exactly what I wanted.

I'm glad to hear you like it - and thanks for the kind words.  I will warn you that the data for attachments is not, actually, for scalability reasons, stored within the database but rather in flat files.  You should, normally, put the attachments directory outside of public_html (or similar) for security reasons.

If you really want the files in the database, I can show you how to modify it to do that.

Quote from: cjohn on March 24, 2005, 05:01:08 PM
In the past, I was using phpbb with a phpnuke CMS, and just when my board got bigger with a few thousand posts, it was hacked and completely destroyed. Such a pain!. So before I rebuild my website, I'm very careful about choosing the right board with higher security ... and I'm still searching, but I will probably use SMF since I've found out many users here having big communities with few hundred thousand posts without a problem on their forum ... Please give me your recommendation. Thanks.

Comparisons in security are hard.  I mean, phpBB has been around for a long time; they've worked hard, but they also have a lot of people using their software.  Some say that the programmers don't know their stuff in security, but I disagree... thinking you're perfect is the worst way to do security, and you have to know people will make mistakes.

SMF uses preventative measures more than some others, though.  On the end user side, we have the news and detailed version information in the administration center.  If there's ever a critical security update, you'll know pretty soon...

Updates are also easier.  If you've added modifications to your forum, updating is still easy - just a few clicks through the package manager, for most people.  Even if that doesn't work for you, reapplying your mods is less trouble and many of the most common mods come standard.

As for the code, there's a lot put into making all user input baseline protected, no matter what your server's configuration.  All of SMF's code was done with this in mind.

But, that's not a comparison, really... that's just information about SMF.  Comparisons in security are hard to make.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Wizard2005 on March 24, 2005, 05:58:04 PM
For many reasons... which would fill a forum, so I will shorten my opinion to one sentence

SMF is the dogs danglies...

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: rmb on March 25, 2005, 05:01:06 AM
My english is reather poor, I hope that you'll understand me.

I found SMS a few days ago and decide to move form IPB 1.3 to SMF. SMF is fast enough, it's easy to change layout, so I'm very glad to find this script and this site.

I wanna ask you why is this script not rated on PHP resource index (http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Bulletin_Board_Message_Systems/) or on
Hot Scripts (http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/index.html). It's really dificult to find this script! I suggest that we change this.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Xakira on March 25, 2005, 09:08:29 AM
QuoteI'm glad to hear you like it - and thanks for the kind words.  I will warn you that the data for attachments is not, actually, for scalability reasons, stored within the database but rather in flat files.  You should, normally, put the attachments directory outside of public_html (or similar) for security reasons.

If you really want the files in the database, I can show you how to modify it to do that.

Sorry, just checked it with phpmyadmin and I can see clearly now after getting some sleep    :D

I don't "reeeeeally" need to have attachments in the db, the main thing is that SMF does attachments out of the box so to speak.  Just liked the thought of all the data to do with the forum to be in the db incase I move things around later.  I was just about to try add the attachment mod to phpBB, but it was about 10 file changes and about 20 script edits so decided to try one more time to find another free forum package.

.....  Luckily  :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MrFlicks on March 28, 2005, 03:28:48 PM
Ive lost TVWorlds.com SMF sort of but I still want my host to upgrade their cpanel to include SMF
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MaxD on March 29, 2005, 10:19:46 PM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 08:40:53 PM
The idea of open source is simple and sweet; it is not an idea of communism or socialism like its critics sometimes say.

You see, throughout commerce and money-making, there are a few important things people have found make them money:
   1. The customer being treated well, such that they will come back and recommend the product and/or services to their friends.
   2. More people knowing about the product (advertising) and being able to get use out of it.

Further, it has been concluded that the following contribute to those goals:
   1. Being able to modify the code such that you can change anything you don't like about the product, given motivation.
   2. Having the opportunity to receive the product and/or service for free or at the least possible cost.

Why are these two things important?  Because if the software is free, anyone can download it.  If anyone can download it, then anyone who could possibly get use out of the product has a chance to use it, however much money they may have.  These people then contribute by referring other people (who can also get it for free) and by:
   1. Creating and developing solutions to other peoples problems, such as modifications, which are also open source.
   2. Developing advocacy for the software because it is well written and well maintained.

So, in other words, by not charging for the software, and by even letting anyone download it... we increase the yield.  Marketting strategy.  We also develop advocacy much better and stronger (there are people who like paid products too, just not as strongly in most cases) than otherwise.  We're adding significant fuel to the fire that is the project.

Most small business that don't fail in their first few years operate on a net loss, as is commonly known.  If you want to make money, it's going to be in the long run not the short.  Open source is just a widening of this; if we have a million users (0.5% of which paid), and you have only 100 ones (who all paid, and more) we still got more money than you did.  100 * 100 < 5000 * 50.

There's also the point of support.  As we do here, most open source projects charge for advanced support.  While this isn't for everyone, this is how they make money.  The idea is to grow the client base from which the few paid ones come; again my numbers above.

Another very important and often ignored point is education.  How hard is it to enter the programming market?  Not that easy in some cases.  Sure, you can go on google and learn some things... but you're still a yellow novice.  No one would hire you like that!  Open source is a way people who aren't quite experts yet can grow and expand their knowledge such that they can become attractive employees.  Yes, they're offering their software to you for free.... but you're offering to use and test it, and give them legitimacy for free too!  They're giving you products, and you're increasing their resume.

It's barter, and it's done everywhere on this planet.  Just because open source does it so well that it's starting to threaten "paid" companies like Microsoft only proves how good a strategy it is.  If it weren't, if it weren't a gain to people... it wouldn't happen.

We're not crazy hippies, us open source people... we're programmers and I at least am a big fan of the free market.

-[Unknown]
Hooray for free stuff! :D

Personally, there is no way that i would be using SMF today if it wasnt free, just thought i would put in my figurative 2 cents

And one day, I hope to give back to SMF by becoming a charter member. Thats not in the near future, but if SMF is around in two years, then there is a good chance. :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: b0b on March 30, 2005, 12:25:53 AM
A friend recommended phpbb installed saw the admin cp and threw it out then I replaced it with smf. As the saying goes "Once your with SMF you'll never Go back". High praise for this wonderful piece of forum software. The only thing it lacks is the wide variety of themes that you can get phpbb.   
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: bloc on March 30, 2005, 03:56:08 AM
Quote from: b0b on March 30, 2005, 12:25:53 AM
A friend recommended phpbb installed saw the admin cp and threw it out then I replaced it with smf. As the saying goes "Once your with SMF you'll never Go back". High praise for this wonderful piece of forum software. The only thing it lacks is the wide variety of themes that you can get phpbb.   

Agreed totally on "never go back". As for themes its beginning to be quite a few. Some sorting could be done perhaps, to really see the diversity among them... ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ben_S on March 30, 2005, 08:04:38 AM
As for the themes issue, they are fairly easy to create so have a go at creating on yourself, it's always nice to have your own custom theme thats only on your forum.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: OvermindDL1 on March 31, 2005, 03:23:07 AM
What this place needs is a central repository for all themes, would be interesting if they could be downloaded and installed through the package manager as well...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: b0b on March 31, 2005, 03:48:36 AM
Quote from: Ben_S on March 30, 2005, 08:04:38 AM
As for the themes issue, they are fairly easy to create so have a go at creating on yourself, it's always nice to have your own custom theme thats only on your forum.

I'll look into that when I get my own website.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: X-Ception on April 03, 2005, 05:26:11 PM
I like most have used most forums systems out there as well as the CMS systems which come with forums such as phpnuke, xoops etc

Although i no longer use phpBB i was/am a big fan of there project and do totally agree with someones post earlier saying that there is room for more than one forum system out there, the recent security issues haven't helped it much but thats where i think the likes of SMF will overcome ( in user terms ) projects like phpBB with the charter members doing the testing etc, also the license of SMF really Ive seen some posts about it on here and really did think about it for a while until i read [Unknown]'s post here

i like the idea of knowing my package I'm downloading is not going to modified in some way to "own" my or my site so thats another idea i like and also i love the package manager - phpBB easymod has come along way .. but still the SMF package manager make it look bad I'm afraid

Another thing i have seen while browsing the forums is there is little to no egotistical or pointless moderation for the simplest error by a user, Which sadly does happen with some projects. Its also good to see the developers reply to the "underlings" such as myself on such simple things which i guess could quite easy be answered if i had read the help file  :-X

As a whole although I'm new to the SMF community I'm very much impressed and feeling quite welcome already and I'm also glad to see such an "alive" development too

Another thing i like is that some of the other free forums out there don't have many features as the paid ones ( from a vanilla install ) such as:
( i believe SMF calls them child forums/boards (?) )
This is priceless :P
makes like so so so much easier - and makes me look that little smarter  :P
i like this but i do prefer the HP/MP/EXP system  :P[/li]
[/list]

and a lot lot lot lot etc etc ..

Ive lost what i was trying to say now... its late and i need coffee so il just say thank you for a great free product and keep up the excellent work  :)

p.s
To anyone whom did actually read the entirety of this dribble many apologies  ::)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on April 03, 2005, 06:35:14 PM
Quote from: X-Ception on April 03, 2005, 05:26:11 PM
p.s
To anyone whom did actually read the entirety of this dribble many apologies  ::)

You're cool :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Herman's Mixen on April 03, 2005, 08:15:52 PM
i.ve read the whole thing and have to say SMF is awesome for us all
especially some great thanx to our team like the old yabbse team

don't know how to call it in english !!

zef hemel --> founder of yabb.pl and so on
unknown and compuart for developing !!
maybe there will be others if i had forgot you !! excussme !!

if cvs i maybe can help the community ! whil i am developing my own dutch package server for it !!

and unknown !!

bedankt voor alles weet namelijk dat je beetje nederlands spreekt;/schrijft !!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: X-Ception on April 04, 2005, 01:32:31 PM
Well by reading the entire dribble i was referring to my post only - hope i did not cause any confusions there :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MrFlicks on April 05, 2005, 04:35:49 AM
No Confusion there x-ception

The message was still SMF Rocks!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Miraenda on April 08, 2005, 05:16:55 AM
I have known about SMF since over a year ago when I initially installed a copy of Mambo (MOS) and was reading on their site forum to determine what forum to use on that installation.  At the time, I went with phpBB for the MOS site I had, resulting in a bunch of issues with the integration, so I then went with Simple Board instead (a forum just for Mambo).  The MOS forum mentioned SMF as being an offshoot of YaBBSE and I had a relatively low opinion of YaBB and YaBBSE as I thought they were basically the same thing.  As a service representative for a hosting company and then later on a system admin for the company (the position I have now), we have had load-related issues with people running YaBB on the servers and have basically put a moratorium on its usage entirely. 

Not wanting to make assumptions about SMF being as load intensive as YaBB (nor having used YaBBSE either to see if that had similar issues), I did look over the forum here last year and put it on a list of forums to check out later.  After one of my phpBB boards was hacked last year, I began looking more in-depth into various forums to install and test as I was planning a series of sites for my writings I wanted to get online (also, I own about 40 domains, and should use them for something lol).  Initially, I was going to go with punBB, but then after the testing of the various forums for ease of use, available features, administrative capabilities, load on the server, and speed of display, I decided to use SMF.  The biggest part in my decision was also the theme I found here (Simplicity) that I absolutely fell in love with, so kudos to Bloc for that (http://bestgarden.net/smilies/thumb.gif)

I also mentioned in another thread (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=31906.msg242169#msg242169) about creating a feature list to compare several forums.  If anyone at all would like this and would like to provide suggestions on features to compare to be included in the list, please PM me.  I am working on it now, and I am going to compare the out of the box default installation for the most recent versions for those forums.

I guess the gist of my overly long post is that SMF is the best forum I have ever used from a user and admin standpoint.  I've used and tested several in the last 6 months, and I am a long-time phpBB user (over 2.5 years) for comparison to that forum.  SMF beats them all in my opinion. :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: makehimbeg on April 10, 2005, 12:04:42 PM
Wow in my opinion, there is no comparison between any other forum and SMF.

I've used IPB - when it was free
PhpBB
XMB

Truly, there are so many things that make SMF the best.. its unreal. Even though I've had my share of problems while trying to update/upgrade via the package manager... it is NOTHING like the problems I had with previous boards.

I used to run XMB on a fansite and when I went to upgrade the forums, it screwed up the WHOLE database and I had to start clean.. that is when I discovered SMF. Thank GOD.



Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: xd3vilx on April 16, 2005, 10:14:33 PM
Ipb Have Become Greddy And Charge Money For Their Programme...*Sigh* That Why I Change To Smf... I Realise It Is About The Same With Smf But Smf Have Better Function...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Shadow's Pawn on April 17, 2005, 11:03:47 PM
I was a YaBBSE man.  I had spent a good part of almost two years modifying the code to suit my own needs.  Because of this, I was a bit leery about switching to SMF and losing all my modifications... however, I finally took the plunge yesterday and switched over.

SMF is awesome.  There are a lot of features that I had coded into my YaBBSE forum, like child boards for instance, that are standard in SMF.  There are a couple features that it doesn't have, but luckily the code is easy to read.

All my users are very happy with the switch to SMF.  It's similar enough to YaBBSE that they aren't all lost, and packed with enough new features that they all love the change.  So many of the new features have been mentioned by them, but they especially like the spell check, multiple attachments per post and how it warns you if someone posted while you were writing your reply.

Anyway, in summary, I just want to send a big Thank You to the SMF crew.  Great job guys.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: oohdale on April 20, 2005, 03:49:35 AM
Could it be that where you have your forum hosted at is really the secret?

I used to use www.rackshack.net and they were always hounding me about bandwidth. Where do you all host your forums at? 
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Miraenda on April 20, 2005, 08:31:01 AM
Well, I'm not sure how it would even be a secret.  You can go to http://centralops.net/co/ and click on "Domain Dossier" on the left, then check "domain whois record", "DNS records" and "network whois record" and enter any domain here in anyone's post or profile in domain.com format (so for example simplemachines.org you could enter) in the "domain or IP address" field, then click the "go" button.  Scroll down after the page fully loads to the DNS records part and you will see the nameservers listed.  This basically tells you who hosts a domain. 

Mine are hosted at ev1servers.net (although in the DNS you'd actually need to look at the SOA or the PTR to see it for mine).  I have other accounts at the webhost where I work as a server admin (Lunarpages) that I have SMF testing on.  Why would you think where we host our forums is a secret?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on April 20, 2005, 08:45:42 AM
I actually quite like this one:
http://whois.sc/simplemachines.org

Just remove the "www." in front of the domain and replace it by "whois.sc/", and you're there, plus it gives loads of information :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Miraenda on April 20, 2005, 01:18:21 PM
Yeah, that is why I dont like it b/c it is too easy to find info on anyone and their domains...spiders could use it to cull phone numbers because they aren't protected as well as addresses as it is a huge, non private repository of your domain info...I refuse to use it for that reason :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on April 20, 2005, 01:52:57 PM
It's not like it's going to go away if you don't use it... :P

And anyway, all that information is always going to be public and it is public by nature, whether you like it or not.
If you're that paranoid, host them under another company's name, but don't complain about them not protecting your private information because this is one of the sites that actually protects your email address, whereas most others don't, Danielle ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Miraenda on April 20, 2005, 03:18:19 PM
Quote from: Burpee on April 20, 2005, 01:52:57 PM
If you're that paranoid, host them under another company's name, but don't complain about them not protecting your private information because this is one of the sites that actually protects your email address, whereas most others don't, Danielle ;D

Yep, that is my real name, although I go by Dani instead then if you are going to use that (http://bestgarden.net/smilies/bleh.gif)

Also, I think they protect the email address so they will get less complaints by people due to how quickly and easily it loads.   Otherwise, people would really get up in arms about it. :P

Yeah, I know me not using them won't make them go out of business, but it is my own little "protest" against what I see as a bad methodology and ease of information provided that shouldn't be.  There are less common sites that do it, but they are the most highly trafficked one. ;)

Anyway, back to the point in that people aren't hiding their hosts where their forums are located overall and I don't think they would be.  Bandwidth on mine wouldn't even cause me to need the dedicated plan I have, it is instead me wanting greater control to break stuff :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: DRGather on April 20, 2005, 07:05:00 PM
QuoteYep, that is my real name...

Thought I recognized your username on here.  I used to host with Lunarpages.  Glad to see you out and about in the community at large.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Panache Web on April 26, 2005, 09:00:55 PM
My first post and the most appropriate place to put it too.

I have been using yabb on my chruches website. after a few months I noticed topics came back as being unread when I knew they were read.  :(

nothing personal against it really, its quick cut and simple, however its cgi and not php.  IMPO I feel that cgi and pl are old school and are out dated in this day and age online. CGI/Pl lack the capabilities of php and are not as dynamic. Mind u this is my personal opinion.

I started to play with SMF about a month ago on my developmental server, testing a few things out and so forth.. looked at the ease of use, and how simple it is to setup, install and config. super simple!!. I have spent the time to use most every other major forum out there, and have found that their admin centres are just loaded or lite depending on the forum with either too much crap or not enough stuff.

SMF admin center is simple to use. The packages manager is sweet, installing from the web right to the site?? DAMN!! that is just fly really... now many others just dont have that. I looked at that and went whoa that is sweet.. Had to check it out and figured why not.. it worked simple.

Although I have to say though it would be really cool if it were done to the themes section as well.

I can not say enough good things about SMF, as I have used most the other big name ones, and a few low name ones and this is the best...

I am considering bridging this into Mambo on my personal site, now if I could just find the right link here I would be set.

(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/staradmin.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/stargmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/starmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/staradmin.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/stargmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/starmod.gif) I Give SMF six Stars!!

MJ
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: dtm.exe on April 26, 2005, 09:02:19 PM
Quote from: dcd119 on April 26, 2005, 09:00:55 PM
(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/staradmin.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/stargmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/starmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/staradmin.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/stargmod.gif)(http://www.simplemachines.org/community/Themes/default/images/starmod.gif) I Give SMF six Stars!!

As do I :).

-Dan The Man
Title: Re: How i can do my own SMF
Post by: onnela on June 01, 2005, 10:20:44 AM
Sorry. I can't speak good english... How I can do my own SMF?  ???
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on June 01, 2005, 01:20:16 PM
You need your own hosting.  After that, follow the readme included in the download.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on June 04, 2005, 02:27:00 PM
On or about March 23, 2005 I switched from a 6 month long
and hard runs with a Phpbb Forum. Our group was about 27 members strong.
And gathered a few members here and there we were about to close the doors because the idea we had wasnt working. PHPbb was such a pain in the backside members didnt like surfing it, especially those on Dial up Crinched and blamed our server.

Well 1.5 months later after using SMF we are at about 250 strong and members joining everyday. Now some of you may say so what, a measly 250 ppl.  My answer to that is our County is bigger the state of NewYork and we only have a 100,000 ppl living in it. Thats how rural we are. And the county seat is only 19,000 ppl. So do the math In a year we should be around 1400 member strong. in this small of an area.

I am one who is glad SMF is free, we run a free interactive network to help our community to supply services and ppl with items and basic needs.  And if we had to pay for this we couldnt afford what its worth.

So My opinion on Simple Machines and SMF, is that your Team may not realize how far your help and Software goes to help others.

So when I say thank you, know that our community is thankful for this as well.

Thank You

Paul





Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Jorijn on June 16, 2005, 10:11:36 AM
SMF is by far the easyest board and with the coolest futures, I checked out the beta as my friend is charter member (only registerd at his forums) and noticed there are everywere small things i like, Like if you put up ur post cound, there appears leet or sumtin like that :P

I am running SMF for 2 months now, Installing is easy, Converting is even more easyer i came from phpBB and i am happy that i stept to SMF, U have a simple yet affactiv ACP. Since my other admins arent that much 'internet freaks'

And i notice that my members also like SMf , Its simple, Easy to use  but yet so full of futures

Keep up the great work SMF devopers! :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: klumy on June 18, 2005, 04:28:25 PM
BTW

SMF brokes the 20.000 member mark

Congratulation ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: dtm.exe on June 18, 2005, 04:31:50 PM
Quote from: klumy on June 18, 2005, 04:28:25 PM
BTW

SMF brokes the 20.000 member mark

Congratulation ;)

Yesssssss :).

-Dan The Man
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sabastina on July 19, 2005, 09:42:34 PM
I hope to see SMF stay the way it is now. 
I personally can't afford to pay anything for my forums right now.  Being a student on SSI (disability) I can barely afford to pay for my internet access and webspace currently.  However, when I receive my financial aid, I plan to become a charter member.

My forums main objectives are 1.  I Major in art and hope that I can design themes that will aid me in getting scholorships for art (a 3.5 gpa isn't enough when it comes to art scholorships!) and 2.  I also major in mental health - planning on using animal and art therapy for those who are low income and otherwise lack decent therapy.  I also work with trauma related disorders and that is the purpose of my site...the people I work with don't usually respond to treatment...but I've found that using the forums and internet DOES seem to help them get someplace with their real life therapy...SO you see...I believe that having a forum in my instance is very important...I would hate to not be able to help people simply because I'm broke!

If and when I do have enough cash, I would definately donate some cash to the Simple Minds team.  Because I appreciate everything that opensource is...and those who support it by chancing a loss in the time to income ratio.

But, I do know from experience that not everyone see's it this way...not everyone appreciates the time, effort and support offered...Developers know this...you'd be surprised at how upset and suspicious some can be....I've been outright told that I was "being watched" because I was "too friendly".  Usually I'm not so nice...but the open source community brings out the appreciation and respect for others who are in  position similar to mine and those who help us out...

I like this community, and I've only tried one other board - phpbb...I like it but it's too hackable and takes forever to mod it to be what is standard with SMF!  I'm sticking around here...

Thanks to all for wanting my opinion and thanks for reading!

Sabastina
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on July 19, 2005, 10:13:20 PM
Quote from: sabastina on July 19, 2005, 09:42:34 PM
I personally can't afford to pay anything for my forums right now.  Being a student on SSI (disability) I can barely afford to pay for my internet access and webspace currently.

Boy, I can imagine.  I've known many people in a similar situation, and can very much understand.

Your forum sounds very cool.  It's great to know people do such things with the software :).

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on July 31, 2005, 11:51:51 AM
 Its been about two months since my last confession,  :'(
I mean post in this topic.

I have been amazed at all the great advice, the learning curve is very
easy  to get.  I have gone from what is Index.html to beginning to write my own themes and modify portals.

The software is amazing, but the Smf staff and support of the members in the group are also amazing.
I came here as a longggg time phpbb user.
Dont get me wrong its  serves it purpose.

The purpose of phpbb is to find security flaws and fix them and release a new release each week. After awhile I wondered if Bill Gates was helping write the phpbb software. It just seemed like Deja-vue all over again, use software, upgrade fix, problem, upgrade, fix problem upgrade.

Thanks again for all you do.


Cozmo


Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:19:24 PM
I have a phpBB site modded with subforums, Prillian Instant Messaging, Birthday, IP tracking and logging, Fully Integrated Shoutbox and more.

We run well over 100 smilies, have 118 member and on and on.

I added an SMF test board because I am always in the market for something better.

To test speeds I brought both boards up together. Obviously speeds vary due to a number of factor. PhpBB loaded in .0193s and the test SMF with only the Shoutbox mod added in .0139s with only 2 test members.

A fellow Admin tested from his machine and noted it was slower.

So, we don't see the claimed big speed differences claimed.

Further, while SMF indeed comes out of the box with more features, some of which, such as Karma, I would never use or add to phpBB, once modded the phpBB comparable features are superior.

The SubForums mod we added has more features than SMF does. And they are shortly going to release an upgrade that adds more features to it that we will use.

Yes. I agree for those who want out of the box SMF comes with more. Not one speck of an argument.

But what do you do when those features do not do all you want? Or there is not the features you do want?

As for the claims SMF has never been hacked or known to have security issues. Well, no issues is a false claim and hackers want to get the biggest bang for the efforts so they are going to go after the most used boards. SMF is not one of them.

You can get premodded phpBB boards. But it is bothersome to see only such as Nuke referenced when such are not liked in the phpBB Community.

A lot of people like the MX board. But I don't because I don't want an attached portal.

What I am saying is the real issues I am seeing are ability, desire and needs. And comparing phpBB, IPB, VB, SMF and others as if they are equal in intended purpose is a non starter.

And no problems? I have tried to access the SMF forum and seen nothing but error messages at times.

Does that mean SMF is bad? Nope.

Does it means I will be switching form phpBB to SMF. No way at this time.

And this stuff phpBB is a really bad board that falls apart all the time. Hmmmm. I have had some error but overall it has been a very dependable board. And the errors mainly came during modding or server upgrades which is not the phpBB scripts fault.

I have never had an error from the script when it has been in place and untouched over time. Only server upgrades and such have been a cause.

For any board if you do not have enough space on the server you can get errors and corupted files. That is usually because one tries to run too much on too little.

To some it is too much but I pay $100 a year for good bandwidth, 10 DBs and so on. And on a Host that specializes in forum board sites.

Not trying to be nasty or impolite. But right is right and fair is fair.

For anyone curious about the ShoutBox differences here is my site. Not trying to promote it but just give a visual for what I am talking about. Sorry, but you have to be logged in to view the editor.

http://www.christiantalkzone.net/forum/


I strongly suggest developing guidelines for mods like phpBB has guidelines. The Ulitimate Shoutbox was a lot harder than it should have been because of that issue.

Enjoy and I will go home now and leave you alone! ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Thunderace on July 31, 2005, 06:26:44 PM
PHPBB doesn't hold a candle to SMF it is simply in a different class .. there are so many reasons it's rediculous.

I just can't be @rsed to argue the obviousness (obvious nature?) of this yet again .. and it's late .. and I'm tired.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on July 31, 2005, 06:28:51 PM
Comparing two softwares with 2 members in them and no usage is like comparing two vacuums on a clean carpet. 

QuoteAnd no problems? I have tried to access the SMF forum and seen nothing but error messages at times.

Which ones?  If they are MySQL error messages, it means your phpBB forum is most likely getting them too.

Anyway, if you look at a horse and expect to see a mule, you won't see a horse nor will you even see a pony.  You'll see a mule.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:33:54 PM
QuotePHPBB doesn't hold a candle to SMF it is simply in a different class .. there are so many reasons it's rediculous.

I just can't be @rsed to argue the obviousness (obvious nature?) of this yet again .. and it's late .. and I'm tired.
This is nothing but pure rhetoric based on vapor.

I agree they are different. And that is exactly why you cannot compare them in the ways I have seen attempted here.

There is nothing obvious as you conclude.

Because more comes prepackaged does not make it superior. Not in the least. That is a foolish argument.

And as for coding. I never said SMF coding was bad. I said it was different.

So I am not knocking SMF but it is pure bias to try to compare them based on what comes out of the Box.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Thunderace on July 31, 2005, 06:36:28 PM
QuoteAnd as for coding. I never said SMF coding was bad. I said it was different.

As for coding that is the prime area phpbb ABSOLUTELY doesn't compare.

Anyway, going to bed
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on July 31, 2005, 06:36:53 PM
This dude is delusional.
Ive been a webmaster for about 10 years.
And at the

TRUE CORE, SMF is superior. They arent even built the same.
That like comparing a Corvette to a VW Bug.
Yes they are both cars but the similarity stops there.
I am not Biased as I have been a heavy user of both and with 500 members I can speak from experiance.

And I Dont think I said PHPBB falls apart I think I clearly said it upgrades are fo security. While SMF generally upgrades to improve
performance.

Case in point  The New Beta we all love, isnt a new security version.
Meanwhile the last 5 upgrades for PHPBB was just that to fix security hacking flaws. " Say What "?
Ok phpbb last year was hacked and they stole our entire members list.
hmmmm then there is a security fix.
I am positive his SMF misgiving were more MYSQL oriented then SMF.


Now I ask PHPBB if it wasnt broke why do you keep fixing it LOL !

Cozmo :D :D :D




Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Grudge on July 31, 2005, 06:39:11 PM
I would think you would compare things out of the box and not post-modification - surely? I mean - you compare the default offering?

Either way, after checking out your site I wasn't convinced of a difference in load times (at least in phpBB direction) - but as [Unknown] said it's impossible to compare on such a small scale.

In reference to the shoutbox - I'm the author of that modification and I don't see what possible guidelines it would need to follow that it doesn't?  The instructions are very clear - install it through the package manager and then add a line to your template.

Also, you're unlikely to find an unbiased opinion here - and the same would obviously be true if you posted the reverse at phpBB. We respect your opinion, and I'm sure you'll have the same respect for the others here.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Grudge on July 31, 2005, 06:40:24 PM
On a side note - we do have security updates and no-one here would deny that (1.0.5 was a necessary update). the one thing SMF has going for it is upgrading is a three click process - all automated :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:40:35 PM
QuoteComparing two softwares with 2 members in them and no usage is like comparing two vacuums on a clean carpet.
I guess you missed the point completely.

One board running with fewer quiries and less DB load should blow away any board running more of each when the claim is vast differences in speed.

The point is the vast differences in speed does not exist on my site.
QuoteWhich ones?  If they are MySQL error messages, it means your phpBB forum is most likely getting them too.
You are not reading well at all.

Reread and note I stated issues can come from the server and not the script.

This is two points in a row you missed what I was talking about.

Good grief! Even on phpBB they admit their script is not for everyone. Each needs to use what meets their needs!

And that does not make one script superior to the other.

SMFs mod base just isn't up to the feature richness of phpBB. It can be in time but for now it is not.

Just compare the Shoutboxes to see the difference in use levels of each.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on July 31, 2005, 06:43:13 PM
Quote from: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:33:54 PM
I agree they are different. And that is exactly why you cannot compare them in the ways I have seen attempted here.

There is nothing obvious as you conclude.

Because more comes prepackaged does not make it superior. Not in the least. That is a foolish argument.

And as for coding. I never said SMF coding was bad. I said it was different.

So I am not knocking SMF but it is pure bias to try to compare them based on what comes out of the Box.

CoreIssue, I strongly suggest you cut short what you're doing right now.  Imagine if a Muslim went to your Christian talk forum, and started bashing Christianity, calling any arguments against vapor and ascribing anyone's experience to foolishness.

You are doing this - and right or wrong, you are only going to dig yourself a hole and become a troll if you continue.  Your harsh and unkind words are only hurting you, and I really would rather this not get to the point where you are a troll I have to ban.

Just remember: people have their own opinions, and calling them rhetoric, vapor, folly, or anything else... well, that is not very Christian.  Or, at least, not how I was taught.

Quote from: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:40:35 PM
I guess you missed the point completely.

One board running with fewer quiries and less DB load should blow away any board running more of each when the claim is vast differences in speed.

Clearly you have no experience in the area of databases, I'm sorry to say.  That is not at all true, and no expert would ever say such a thing.

QuoteYou are not reading well at all.

Reread and note I stated issues can come from the server and not the script.

I refer to my above comments.  I didn't ever say SMF was for every server or every person, I said that if you are getting errors from time to time, it is likely you get them in both places (which means it has nothing to do with SMF whatsoever, obviously, but maybe that was not clear.)

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Trekkie101 on July 31, 2005, 06:45:15 PM
QuoteTo test speeds I brought both boards up together. Obviously speeds vary due to a number of factor. PhpBB loaded in .0193s and the test SMF with only the Shoutbox mod added in .0139s with only 2 test members.

Were these Identical conditions on a test server?

Quote
A fellow Admin tested from his machine and noted it was slower.
Did he have settings more optimsied for SMF or phpBB

Speaking MySQL wise, youll also note SMf works on PHP5, phpBB doesnt.

QuoteThe SubForums mod we added has more features than SMF does. And they are shortly going to release an upgrade that adds more features to it that we will use.
Intruiging, what extra features does it add?

Quote
And no problems? I have tried to access the SMF forum and seen nothing but error messages at times.
Im sure there was a valid reason

Quote[ Time: 2.9616s ][ Queries: 19 (0.5670s) ][ Debug on ]
Are you sure your tests are accurate?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on July 31, 2005, 06:46:48 PM
Do you surf, the SMF looking for TRUTH, JUSTICE and to DEFEND the Evil doers at SMF?

I oplogies for starting this, I was simply praising my
pleasure in dealing with SMF and the Staff.

I had no Idea saying thank you would start a war.
gees.

I think its best to end it that WE ALL AGREE TO DISAGREE with your points. I mean how many members are you will to take on to prove a point dude. I would find it insane to go to PHPBB and tell them how great they areant LOL/

Too Funny
Last Comment On This From
Cozmo

Again sorry group, next time I will send flowers LOL
or a cake.





Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:48:31 PM
QuoteOn a side note - we do have security updates and no-one here would deny that (1.0.5 was a necessary update). the one thing SMF has going for it is upgrading is a three click process - all automated
Thank you for a polite post. I appreciate it.

With respect I have seen on other forums discussing board the claim SMF has never had a security hole and no one has ever been hacked using it.

I do believe we both agree those are nonsense claims that will never be true to any board.

Even if one approaches perfection one server software update can open up a hole.

As for upgrading I am sorry to tell you that you can do the same thing with phpBB but in a different way. You can use easymod to automatically update.

But it will not auto update if it collides mods that would be over written. Even on SMF that has to be an issue to deal with at times for some.

And that is why I said it would be very good for your community to develop a formula for presenting mods and updates to the community. So when such would conflict with existing mods and such a fall back manual standard would be in place that all could become familiary with.

So both SMF and phpBB have auto installers. But as I saw in the lists not all mods will install with it and some will not install in entirity. Same as with phpBB.

So there is not that much difference on that issue.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:56:59 PM
QuoteCoreIssue, I strongly suggest you cut short what you're doing right now.  Imagine if a Muslim went to your Christian talk forum, and started bashing Christianity, calling any arguments against vapor and ascribing anyone's experience to foolishness.

Why should I have to image what has happened a number of times and from more than just Muslims! ;)

We are a debate board so such conversations are welcome.

So to such me saying stop because it is against what is being said is close minded.

QuoteYou are doing this - and right or wrong, you are only going to dig yourself a hole and become a troll if you continue.  Your harsh and unkind words are only hurting you, and I really would rather this not get to the point where you are a troll I have to ban.
What harsh and unkind words?

Man, what political correctness!!!

You don't have to ban me. I am leaving now and not coming back to a board that has this kind of reaction when someone posts an honest opinion in a topic asking for opinions.

I did not see the requirement it all be positive.

QuoteJust remember: people have their own opinions, and calling them rhetoric, vapor, folly, or anything else... well, that is not very Christian.  Or, at least, not how I was taught.
Then it is impossible to have a conversation here.

Those are not personal attacks but commentary on what was being said. Which was factual.

Bye. This is too political correct for me to contiinue. I am being censored and not allowed to speak without being threatened.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Thunderace on July 31, 2005, 07:00:22 PM
Bye bye  :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: [Unknown] on July 31, 2005, 07:01:04 PM
Quote from: CoreIssue on July 31, 2005, 06:56:59 PM
I did not see the requirement it all be positive.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/agreement.txt

It's not positive, and that's not what I said.  And if you can't stand being kind, you have been posting on your "debate" forum for far too long.

-[Unknown]
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on July 31, 2005, 07:09:36 PM
Sorry Unknown,

Didnt mean to cause a mess.


Guess I picked a bad time to say Thanks  8)


Cozmo
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Anguz on July 31, 2005, 11:46:19 PM
Diamondcomputer, thanks for your comments, they are welcome. What happened was not caused by you :).

CoreIssue, you have the right to not like SMF, thanks for trying it. If phpBB is good enough for you, then great, it's a good forum that's been around for quite a while and will most probably continue that way. I choose SMF for many reasons, and that's my personal preference, as is of many others that've tried it so far.

Next time you write your opinion on someone else's work, or a post of any kind for that matter, I suggest you read it assuming the viewpoint of the people you wrote it for, to see how they will get your communication. It really helps, specially with things that can be touchy ;).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on August 15, 2005, 04:31:54 AM
It's always easier to criticize than to do it yourself...  :-[ :-X
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: ExistenZ on September 25, 2005, 09:45:58 AM
Anyway....back to topic. My board isn't that big...yet. But I have an alarming amount of posts in conjunction to the amount of active memebrs i have.

Am I the only one who seems to notice that most people who joins a forum just....stops being active or is never active in the first place??? It is REALLY irretating. I have like 200 members, 50 of which are actually active... 4 of which post more then is healthy. So, I just want to say to everyone: Don't join a form if you know by and by that you will never actually post there.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Miraenda on September 25, 2005, 10:19:25 AM
Some forums require you to join to be able to search them.  I joined cPanel forum for that reason and have likely posted on cPanel forum around 3 times total in over a year.

Other forums only show all their boards if you join them, so you join to see downloads, games, and so on.

I'm not saying your forum meets either of these criteria, but I think it is just a fact of life people join a forum for some reason and do intend to post, then leave the forum and never come back, forgetting they even joined it.  I have a lot of people who signed up to my writing forum, likely for my Tri-monthly writing contest, and they then never came back to submit any entry.  Really weird, but again they likely just forgot.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: ExistenZ on September 25, 2005, 10:58:34 AM
But don't you just find that super irretating. I just want to purge all those users who never come back, but I can't because some people who are active say they joined because of the number of members I have....strange...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: kazuki on September 26, 2005, 05:39:16 PM
I'm a PhpBB user for more than 2 years, it has very large community and user base. Since that time I've been confronted by problems runnng phpbb such as  a lot security issues. My forum was hacked last December (a script kiddie as I've heard). I lost all of the data.

When our webhost switch to php 5, my forum became useless, I looked for solutions in their support forum, but nothing seem to care about.  :-[

Quoteand that is all why php5 is not supported. whether it works or not depends on too many variables. some server setups will work, some will work for a while and then quit, some will work partly, some won't work at all.

therefore, you are on your own if you use php5.

I now run smf, fixed most of the problems I had along with my members.

I hope that it will be free forever like Phpbb did.



Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Skepticus on October 08, 2005, 12:38:02 PM
Quote from: GiNi3D on September 21, 2004, 08:38:53 PM
I know that in this next link, not all the worlds forums are displayed, but it gives you an idea where SMF stands at this moment, if you want to skip the search, look at the 106 position (thought the position changes)

http://www.big-boards.com/index.php?type=others
Wow !!   :o Now thats... um... um.... Thats the sorta thing you shouldn't give to people who are getting addicted to these discussion forums.  :P 

QuoteWho cares where they are, it's up to us SMF users to make it big, just like users made phpbb big.

Us we know that SMF is good, we are in it, but people when making choices, they need examples.
To give you an example, I found out about SMF when I went on the Coppermine photo gallery forum, I liked the look, and clicked on the bottom SMF link, the rest is history...

Don't worry they'll find out where it's all happening or dwindle to a halt. I found this place actually on an invision board forum,  :D because there was an intensely animated thread discussing what features that forum software should have.  I was apart of that discussion and part of it diverged into concerns over members not being able to find replies to their own posts. I found a mod on one of the IPB support forums, that partly solved this problem, but implementing it was rejected out of hand. An acrimonious dispute ensued because of the reluctance to make needed changes. On the tail end of this one member mentioned a particular forum using SMF and even pasted in a replica of the section at the top of that boards pages, with the link for 'show new replies to your posts'.

This was exactly what we were needing. Since there seemed to be no way to convince the administrators to consider modifications placed in their lap, I decided to investigate setting up my own server and an alternative forum for this group. The group in question is http://www.the-brights.net/forums/index.php?act=portal (http://www.the-brights.net/forums/index.php?act=portal)
and have briefly had SMF working on my localhost but I had problems with server configs and broke it. I am now downloading Mepis SoHoServer, as it should almost work out of the box.

Incidentally,  I did a search of the site mentioned above and found no entry for the brights, even though it is over 1000 members strong. It occurs to me that it would make very good sense for admins, to make sure that sites like Big Boards are informed about your forums. This would be good publicity for your forums and for SMF itself.

I would be very interested in reading any FAQs about publicizing one's own site and maximizing it's exposure. If such information is not posted here already, I will try to return with a summary of what I have learned and what resources I have found.

Regards Skepticus
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Oldiesmann on October 08, 2005, 01:37:19 PM
Skepticus - you might be interested in Bloc's TinyPortal (http://www.tinyportal.net/smf) for SMF. While I am not familiar with the IPB portal, all of the stuff that's on the front page of the-brights.net can be done with TinyPortal, with the exception of collapsing individual blocks.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: X-Plosiv on December 12, 2005, 09:02:17 AM
Honestly, Its easier to work on phpBB then on SMF. Just until you dont get familiar with SMF and then you see phpBB, Vbulletin and other forums mistakes.  I had phpBB forum with 400 members adn aproximetly 60k posts, and whenever i was changing mysql base i had much problems with it, and its clumpsy to work with. When i converted phpBB mysql base into SMF base, i was suprised, than in 2minutes i had my forum up and ready to go. I`m using SMF for like 1 months so far, and every day i`m working on it, learning new stuffs, and others things, and now i really love SMF, and if i need help, in 1hour i can get it off here.

There is just one thing i dont like at SMF, and that is thing with Stickies and Announcments. As you see when you make Sticky on phpBB or Vbulletin you can see clear its sticky, because it have some space beetween usual topics and stickies, and on SMF there are just some graphic changes at left side, but ...i hate it :(

So if anyone got some template like subsilver smf template that shows nice stickies and that things, could you please type it here?

All other things about this forum..well, SMF is great, and it dont use too much DLOAD on my host, so THUMBS UP!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ben_S on December 12, 2005, 09:22:30 AM
Look in the tips and tricks board for a better method of showing stickies.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Prasad007 on December 16, 2005, 08:47:49 AM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 08:40:53 PM
The idea of open source is simple and sweet; it is not an idea of communism or socialism like its critics sometimes say.

You see, throughout commerce and money-making, there are a few important things people have found make them money:
   1. The customer being treated well, such that they will come back and recommend the product and/or services to their friends.
   2. More people knowing about the product (advertising) and being able to get use out of it.

Further, it has been concluded that the following contribute to those goals:
   1. Being able to modify the code such that you can change anything you don't like about the product, given motivation.
   2. Having the opportunity to receive the product and/or service for free or at the least possible cost.

Why are these two things important?  Because if the software is free, anyone can download it.  If anyone can download it, then anyone who could possibly get use out of the product has a chance to use it, however much money they may have.  These people then contribute by referring other people (who can also get it for free) and by:
   1. Creating and developing solutions to other peoples problems, such as modifications, which are also open source.
   2. Developing advocacy for the software because it is well written and well maintained.

So, in other words, by not charging for the software, and by even letting anyone download it... we increase the yield.  Marketting strategy.  We also develop advocacy much better and stronger (there are people who like paid products too, just not as strongly in most cases) than otherwise.  We're adding significant fuel to the fire that is the project.

Most small business that don't fail in their first few years operate on a net loss, as is commonly known.  If you want to make money, it's going to be in the long run not the short.  Open source is just a widening of this; if we have a million users (0.5% of which paid), and you have only 100 ones (who all paid, and more) we still got more money than you did.  100 * 100 < 5000 * 50.

There's also the point of support.  As we do here, most open source projects charge for advanced support.  While this isn't for everyone, this is how they make money.  The idea is to grow the client base from which the few paid ones come; again my numbers above.

Another very important and often ignored point is education.  How hard is it to enter the programming market?  Not that easy in some cases.  Sure, you can go on google and learn some things... but you're still a yellow novice.  No one would hire you like that!  Open source is a way people who aren't quite experts yet can grow and expand their knowledge such that they can become attractive employees.  Yes, they're offering their software to you for free.... but you're offering to use and test it, and give them legitimacy for free too!  They're giving you products, and you're increasing their resume.

It's barter, and it's done everywhere on this planet.  Just because open source does it so well that it's starting to threaten "paid" companies like Microsoft only proves how good a strategy it is.  If it weren't, if it weren't a gain to people... it wouldn't happen.

We're not crazy hippies, us open source people... we're programmers and I at least am a big fan of the free market.

-[Unknown]
Thats very modest of you,
but for your hard work and wonderful effort on this SMF project,
you inevitably deserve the hard cash that you must get! :)
I suggest shifting to paid!
Free isnt really benefiting you is it?
You have to think about your own profit sometimes
charge us, we'll pay, you deserve it!!

-Prasad007.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: JayBachatero on December 16, 2005, 09:29:28 AM
Prasad sometimes its not about the money.  It's for the pasion you feel for coding and the experience you get.  Each and everyone of us on the team is a volunteer.  If you feel like you would like to give back to the community you can always become a charter member. ;)

-JayBachatero
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Prasad007 on December 16, 2005, 09:31:52 AM
Quote from: JayBachatero on December 16, 2005, 09:29:28 AM
Prasad sometimes its not about the money.  It's for the pasion you feel for coding and the experience you get.  Each and everyone of us on the team is a volunteer.  If you feel like you would like to give back to the community you can always become a charter member. ;)

-JayBachatero
hmmmm.....wise you are, young apprentice  ;) lol kidding :D
anyways yes i know how it feels myself
i am a C/C++/Java programmer
me and my friend had developed a free open source encryption/decryption system
end result: I realised i had wasted time and resources, gaining nothing
the system was flawless and worked gr8 tho!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: bloc on December 16, 2005, 12:33:08 PM
But then you can't have read [Unknown]'s post carefully enough. :)

He believes by creating a product for free, creates the possibility to get paid work in addition. There is both the satisfaction of creating something many can use - and also know that by that, people will trust you and pay you for other work. Its also a security for them that you indeed created this work - and maintaining for free. Its a balance, and its for us people that like to get things for free - and also give em back.

If we were thinking pure profit, sure, put a price on it. But then it will just another job. Nothing more, nothing less.

Examples can drawn everywhere, but think creators of php, Linux etc. they are free..but they also offer a whole range of paid products, and not letting the free stuff suffer either, quite contrary.

So going the vb or ipb route is possible..but its not the same. I will never get the same sensation or even interest to "tweak" those products, not because they are worse in any way - they aren't, well not much ;) - but they cost something. You feel like just another "shopper" when using them. At least i do. ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Itch™ on December 16, 2005, 05:18:56 PM
^^^^
What Bloc said...

YM
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: anunlike on December 16, 2005, 07:11:00 PM
Quote from: Oldiesmann on October 08, 2005, 01:37:19 PMSkepticus - you might be interested in Bloc's TinyPortal (http://www.tinyportal.net/smf) for SMF. While I am not familiar with the IPB portal, all of the stuff that's on the front page of the-brights.net can be done with TinyPortal, with the exception of collapsing individual blocks.

Actually, you can collapse individual blocks now, or at least you can with the version running on http://www.tinyportal.net, which means when that's released, you'll be able to.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Prasad007 on December 17, 2005, 08:48:57 AM
Quote from: Bloc on December 16, 2005, 12:33:08 PM
But then you can't have read [Unknown]'s post carefully enough. :)

He believes by creating a product for free, creates the possibility to get paid work in addition. There is both the satisfaction of creating something many can use - and also know that by that, people will trust you and pay you for other work. Its also a security for them that you indeed created this work - and maintaining for free. Its a balance, and its for us people that like to get things for free - and also give em back.

If we were thinking pure profit, sure, put a price on it. But then it will just another job. Nothing more, nothing less.

Examples can drawn everywhere, but think creators of php, Linux etc. they are free..but they also offer a whole range of paid products, and not letting the free stuff suffer either, quite contrary.

So going the vb or ipb route is possible..but its not the same. I will never get the same sensation or even interest to "tweak" those products, not because they are worse in any way - they aren't, well not much ;) - but they cost something. You feel like just another "shopper" when using them. At least i do. ;)
hmmmm... okay
that does make sense and appeal to me, also [unknown]'s post too!
Oh well, i was just trying to convince you guys to ask for what you deserve :)
But ultimately its your call! :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Bill_Reilly on December 19, 2005, 02:02:32 PM
I didn't see this post yesterday, I would've posted here...

Yes, awesome stuff.
I put alot of work into my own site for free, I'm currently rebuilding the entire place again at the moment, but it's at least as rewarding as my business, if not more. I get a mountain of donations that I never ask for, and it's really worth all the work in the world when people send you money by choice.  If I average the donations, I make about a penny a day on it, but the "thank you" emails I get are priceless.

Emotions aside, I also have a blank check with most of the members - not money, but in car parts, tools, or whatever they have - they offer up anything they have access to, for free - I don't get paid much money, but if I need to borrow a $1500 measuring tool, someone will UPS it to me for free to use for as long as I need - do that 10 times a year and my $4 paycheck becomes $15004....

Make the circle bigger...  :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: heather0506 on January 06, 2006, 11:08:02 AM
free is sweet....that's all i have to say!!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: baloothebear on January 07, 2006, 04:30:07 AM
I've finally switched hosts so now I get to run SMF! I happy as the proverbial pig and it's just so quick. Is there a bug tracker available so I can keep up to date with security announcements?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on January 07, 2006, 05:56:47 AM
Security updates are shown in your package manager, and you'll also receive an email, unless you turn that off ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: akalaze on January 07, 2006, 11:40:54 PM
Well have been with SMF since the beginnings and was a paying
customer with yabbse.

Today I just want to take the time to THANK YOU for a job well
done. I have been a sysadmin since the beginning of the web and
therefore dealt with countless bb systems or forums.

The best I ever encountered is certainly SMF. It's a breeze to
set up and administer.

Today I upgraded one of my larger forums (an adult community)
with over 400.000 page views per day within just 10 minutes incl.
a new theme.

The users love it and I will certainly use SMF in my next upcoming
big project.

Thanks again to the SMF team who makes a poor administrators life
a bit easier ;)

akalze
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: croniksoft on January 24, 2006, 01:30:35 AM
Just wanted to say thanks and please don't compare phpbb with smf.



The smf team kick ass just like the software   8)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Prasad007 on January 24, 2006, 09:31:16 AM
When it comes to forums,
SMF - Simply My Favorite :) :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: redone on January 24, 2006, 03:08:52 PM
I agree with Bloc. Btw nobody charges anything for Firefox.

:)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: jordanpardy2863 on January 29, 2006, 03:09:12 PM
 :D I agree with whoever started this topic. I've been using Invsion Power Board for years..well..I started off with phpBB, but the design of it killed my poor innocent subSilver eyes, so I went with Invision.. I found that Invision Power Board 2.1.4 is kind of resource-eating, and slow loading as opposed to SMF. I really used to think the only three forum softwares were IPB, phpBB, and vBulletin.

My friend told me that he saw someone use SMF a while ago, but they switched to vBulletin..vBulletin is so expensive I couldn't afford it, so I decided I have nothing to lose by trying SMF.

The interface is excellent, I finally fuigured out the difference between 1.0.6 and 1.1 RC2  :P The community forums are great, and the posting screen is awesome.

And..what I couldn't believe is IT'S FREE![/u]

How could a forum software this good be free, I said to myself? Well, I think that the people that coded this forum software did a great job, and thanks!

:D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Thunderace on January 29, 2006, 04:38:52 PM
What a nice post Jordan.

And a reminder to me .. I've been enjoying the excellence of SMF for so long a reminder that it is indeed free never hurts  ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: jordanpardy2863 on January 29, 2006, 05:22:54 PM
Quote from: Thunderace on January 29, 2006, 04:38:52 PM
What a nice post Jordan.

And a reminder to me .. I've been enjoying the excellence of SMF for so long a reminder that it is indeed free never hurts  ;D

Lol..I'm having major problems now and my head is blowing up. :(
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: JayBachatero on January 29, 2006, 09:00:43 PM
Make a post in the support board and one of the Team member will take a look at it  when any one of us get's a chance :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: revolink24 on January 30, 2006, 08:33:35 PM
Quote from: Chris G. on October 24, 2004, 10:49:21 AM
vBulletin > Despise.
phpBB > Dislike.
IPB > Like.
SMF > Love.

My favorite part of SMF, hands down, is that it's fully customizable--from CSS right down to the core HTML.  Keep up the good work! :D
Why do you hate vB so much?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: LaBamba on February 04, 2006, 06:03:39 PM
Simple the Best  8)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Stuart on February 05, 2006, 11:54:44 AM
I'm extremely happy and pleased with SMF. It's the best forum software ever  :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Vexorian on February 22, 2006, 11:31:33 PM
I just found this board by accident because it turns out code::blocks ' site used it for forum software.

So far I am impressed and shocked by all the features and the fact it is free.

I've been administrating (and hacking) a site with vB and I can asure you that this software's speed is lightning speed compared to vB.

I'd want to know though if this software allows attachments and if so if there is any way to test them?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: dtm.exe on February 22, 2006, 11:44:42 PM
Quote from: Vexorian on February 22, 2006, 11:31:33 PM
I'd want to know though if this software allows attachments and if so if there is any way to test them?

As a default feature?  Absolutely :).

http://support.simplemachines.org/demo/index.php
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Anguz on February 23, 2006, 12:28:56 PM
Quote from: dtm.exe on February 22, 2006, 11:44:42 PM
http://support.simplemachines.org/demo/index.php

QuoteAn Error Has Occurred!
The attachments upload directory is not writable. Your attachment or avatar cannot be saved.

But so you can see it works, Vexorian, here's an attached file (not everyone in this forum has the permission, though, so you may not see the option in the post form).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: InterxWeb on March 02, 2006, 12:57:02 PM
Im glad i decided to choose smf, the community and the staff ar ejsut great people, among all it being free helps me most because i cant afford some vbull crap at 150$ a lisecene, they may be "great" but there notihng compared to a well figured community like this. Keep up the good work :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dr. Jones on April 02, 2006, 07:25:08 AM
i managed to just now discover this thread, but figured i should throw my 2¢ in...

(http://rammsteinhost.com/avatars/headbang_av.jpg)
SMF ROCKS!

i used phpBB for the longest time and loved it, but had to find some mod to do child boards, and it still didn't work like i wanted it to.  then one of my forum members suggested that i try SMF because of the various security issues with phpBB... i tried it and i'm never going back :D

i also used to administer the 2KSports Forums (http://www.2ksports.com/forums/) and had a nightmare of a headache when someone actually exploited a security hole to make themselves an admin and "demote" all the real admins.  i don't do the board administration any more (though i still work for the company), but if i did i would recommend a conversion to SMF :P

i'm an admin on another forum that uses IPB, and quite frankly, i hate it ::) - but the guy who runs it just absolutely swears by it, and he's paying for the hardware, domain, and B/W so whatever.  personally i think he's just so enamored with it because he spent $185 on the license *g*
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Prosperous on April 08, 2006, 10:54:33 PM
My first reply to this topic and on this forum, I thought I'd make it here since I am thinking of using SMF.

In my past, I have used a lot of forum software for a lot of my past websites/forums. Proboards, Invisionfree, phpBB, Invision Power Board v1.3.1, you name it. I have owned practically all forum software, apart from the big runners such as the new IPB v2 range and vBulletin. My favourite consisted of IPB/Invisionfree, and those were the ones I used mostly. Lately, I have used phpBB as I was told it was the best software to go for. Some problems I have come across are mainly in the installation of modifications and various other minor things which can make a forum bling out from the rest. I have only recently become a genius I guess in installing skins for phpBB forums, however, it did take me a long time and a lot of patience to get to it. Why would or should a forum be hard to install tweaks that can mean the difference between a good forum and a bad forum? Why would a free forum be like this? I have also heard about the various security flaws and holes in phpBB's software, and this has made me aware and I am now looking at another forum software to use. I prefer a free forum, as I don't have enough money at the moment to pay for an IPB license or vBulletin license. I might still just stick with the free forum even if I do have enough money to pay for it.

SMF popped into my head. I have heard various reviews of it on a lot of forums, main one being the Admin Zone (http://www.theadminzone.com (http://www.theadminzone.com)). Even though I am still getting peoples input, I am sort of leaning towards SMF. The things that are offered here are of an A+ standard, and the SMF team are continually doing things to make the services better, either in modifications and security to graphics and other sectors.

Even though I am not an SMF user (YET), I just wanted to say that everyone that is contributing to SMF are really doing a great job. Keep up the good work everyone and I look forward to using your software soon! You will know once I have made up my mind. ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sbclansite.com on June 04, 2006, 04:44:09 PM
Well i find SMF and with extensive modding of it one can make a forums better than VB , IPB or any other system, only thing about smf i dont like is that it keeps fetching info all the time in admin panel from this site, which in turn makes my admin panel dependable on smf when trying to install package cause if smf site is down i cannot do anything like installing mods etc. Plus its making smf server load too. Dont know why that feature is there , it should have mannual update check feature .But thats just my 20 cents :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: anunlike on June 11, 2006, 10:57:07 PM
If the admin page is taking too long to fetch the SMF info, you can always manually type in a different admin page into the address bar and it'll work just fine. It's only the main page that fetches the SMF info like that.

But, I agree, there should be the option to make it manual instead of just automatic.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: HvyMtalMama on June 13, 2006, 10:04:06 AM
The software itself is great. I like the software, it's the technical help that isn't so great. When I needed help with something serious. No one knew what they were talking about, I had to get an outside webmaster that knew nothing about this software to fix it, and he did so in a matter of seconds. As far as the help goes. I can't rely on it. Keep the software, get rid of the staff =)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Burpee on June 14, 2006, 02:40:44 AM
Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) :)
Everybody on the team will always do the best they can to help you, whether you're a Charter Member or not.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on June 14, 2006, 04:12:16 AM
i really love SMF and in fact i blasted vB (in a polite way) and overly praised SMF on a vB support board a while back and ended up getting banned lol

but I really do wish the SMf team would do something about:

users online today mod - its a MUST for being built into smf itself!

Also I would love it even more if the karma system was a bit modernized :D lol
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: HvyMtalMama on June 14, 2006, 08:30:28 AM
Quote from: Burpee on June 14, 2006, 02:40:44 AM
Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) :)
Everybody on the team will always do the best they can to help you, whether you're a Charter Member or not.

Oh, right.... have to pay for the good stuff =) The service must be good enough for me to want to spend money................ teehee.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: kman on June 15, 2006, 03:03:00 PM
From what I've seen so far, it looks like there's a lot of value considering it's free.  However, one thing that puts me off is the messy look.  Compared to software like vbulletin it's much harder to find your way around, but I'm sure this will improve with future releases.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on June 15, 2006, 03:24:13 PM
??? ??? ???


I think SMF is much EASIER to navigate than VB or phpbb...    In addition, with the format of the themes, it is fairly simple to create a theme that looks EXACTLY as you want it to...   Want to duplicate the look of a VB forum? (why anyone would want this, I'll never know)   You can do it.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on June 15, 2006, 03:47:33 PM
Quote from: kman on June 15, 2006, 03:03:00 PM
From what I've seen so far, it looks like there's a lot of value considering it's free.  However, one thing that puts me off is the messy look.  Compared to software like vbulletin it's much harder to find your way around, but I'm sure this will improve with future releases.

I partially agree with you that SMF is a harder to navigate at first - it just takes getting used to, much like any other forum software.

But I do sincerely believe that SMF needs to have some sort of control panel for the users allowing them a personal area for personal thread notfications etc.

Just my opinion though....:D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on June 15, 2006, 04:33:13 PM
Akulion.....    that already exists....  it's called the user's profile. Look at all those wonderful options listed in the control panel to the left...
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: JayBachatero on June 15, 2006, 04:44:45 PM
Quote from: kman on June 15, 2006, 03:03:00 PM
From what I've seen so far, it looks like there's a lot of value considering it's free.  However, one thing that puts me off is the messy look.  Compared to software like vbulletin it's much harder to find your way around, but I'm sure this will improve with future releases.

Like vB?  I saw vB's admin interface and I find it to be one of the uglies admin panel I've seen.  I would rather see a phpBB3 panel than vB.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on June 16, 2006, 01:52:31 AM
Quote from: JayBachatero on June 15, 2006, 04:44:45 PM
Like vB?  I saw vB's admin interface and I find it to be one of the uglies admin panel I've seen.  I would rather see a phpBB3 panel than vB.

yes i agree i used it - its very cumbersome to use plus not very helpful in its explanations as to exactly what everything does

---------------------------

Kindred what u said gives me an idea :D i think ill rename the profile link to CP in my menu and see how it works out :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sawz on June 16, 2006, 04:43:04 PM
i've only used 2 forums, SMF and the other guy :)
i like SMF
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: kman on June 16, 2006, 05:36:03 PM
Quote from: JayBachatero on June 15, 2006, 04:44:45 PM
Quote from: kman on June 15, 2006, 03:03:00 PM
From what I've seen so far, it looks like there's a lot of value considering it's free.  However, one thing that puts me off is the messy look.  Compared to software like vbulletin it's much harder to find your way around, but I'm sure this will improve with future releases.

Like vB?  I saw vB's admin interface and I find it to be one of the uglies admin panel I've seen.  I would rather see a phpBB3 panel than vB.

Well I agree that vB's admin panel could definitely use some work in terms of organization.  It has a lot of options and it can be hard to find the thing you're looking for with the messy organization of vB.  What I meant was from the USER end; i.e. the view of a normal member.  On vB, it's much easier for me to locate everything.  On SMF, it's not as easy... for me.  It's probably a combination of things not placed where they could be placed best (e.g. the "previous _ next" topic navigation at the bottom put me off first, because I thought it meant pages), and also the padding (everything just seems squeezed together -- a little more padding around everything would make it look better).  Also, there should be more borders that define each area in my opinion.  I am of course talking about the default blue skin here; I'm not sure about the other skins.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on June 16, 2006, 05:40:04 PM
well, I disagree (as I have already said)...   Personally I *HATE* the look of vB forums.

but that being said...  that is the glory of SMF's theming system...   you can deisgn the theme to make your SMF look however the hell you want. :)   You want to move the previous/next links? then change display.template.php. You want to make it look exactly like vB (ugh! Why?)   then you can do it...

So, don't complain that you like vB's look better...  SMF is completely customizable when it comes to looks.  I think SMF's FUNCTIONALITY is better... and that is what is really important.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: kman on June 16, 2006, 05:57:58 PM
Quote from: Kindred on June 16, 2006, 05:40:04 PM
well, I disagree (as I have already said)...   Personally I *HATE* the look of vB forums.

but that being said...  that is the glory of SMF's theming system...   you can deisgn the theme to make your SMF look however the hell you want. :)   You want to move the previous/next links? then change display.template.php. You want to make it look exactly like vB (ugh! Why?)   then you can do it...

So, don't complain that you like vB's look better...  SMF is completely customizable when it comes to looks.  I think SMF's FUNCTIONALITY is better... and that is what is really important.

I'm not complaining.  I'm just stating my opinion.  Is that not allowed?  In no way am I bashing the software.  It has its merits, and as with anything, it has its faults, which is largely SUBJECTIVE.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Harzem on June 16, 2006, 06:11:00 PM
I don't like borders :) But I agree about the previous-next links. But as said, the theme is highly customizable. Have a look at the Wiki theme. vBulletin or phpBB can't create a theme like that. It shows the power of SMF template system.

SMF needs a few more things to be implemented. Like custom profile fields thing, visual warning thing, a better karma system (I never use karma, but there are ones who use it) etc... But I know many new features are coming with the next version already, so I'm only speculating.

These are user-end features. I mean, an admin or a SMF user wants to see these as features. But actual SMF code has many more cutting-edge features that an admin will never see. For developers, these features are more important. For users, end user features are more important. So, there becomes a conflict about what users want and what developers develop. Both wills are completed in time, but in the mean time there are some complaints.

For example, 1.1 RC3 is coming with a lot better internationalization. But english users will never see it. Or other language users will not see it unless they have real problems. Developers will say "we have developed a lot", but users will say "I don't see that much of new features" etc..

Anyway, I like SMF :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: HarryWx on June 16, 2006, 06:19:09 PM
Quote from: kman on June 16, 2006, 05:57:58 PM
Quote from: Kindred on June 16, 2006, 05:40:04 PM
well, I disagree (as I have already said)...   Personally I *HATE* the look of vB forums.

but that being said...  that is the glory of SMF's theming system...   you can deisgn the theme to make your SMF look however the hell you want. :)   You want to move the previous/next links? then change display.template.php. You want to make it look exactly like vB (ugh! Why?)   then you can do it...

So, don't complain that you like vB's look better...  SMF is completely customizable when it comes to looks.  I think SMF's FUNCTIONALITY is better... and that is what is really important.

I'm not complaining.  I'm just stating my opinion.  Is that not allowed?  In no way am I bashing the software.  It has its merits, and as with anything, it has its faults, which is largely SUBJECTIVE.

He never said you couldnt. He gave his opinion just like you did. I agree with his because i cant stand the way VB looks as well. It is the ugliest look out there.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Trekkie101 on July 12, 2006, 09:47:36 AM
Quote from: HvyMtalMama on June 14, 2006, 08:30:28 AM
Quote from: Burpee on June 14, 2006, 02:40:44 AM
Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) :)
Everybody on the team will always do the best they can to help you, whether you're a Charter Member or not.

Oh, right.... have to pay for the good stuff =) The service must be good enough for me to want to spend money................ teehee.

SMF charter members and non-charter members will get the same final forum system. There may be a beta release that is exclusive to charters as there is no need for it to go public. As for support, right now we are stretched really thin, and everyone is working their hardest to pick up the slack. SMF is a free product and is free to use, to this end we still need funds for our server, equipment and lawyer fee's, to cover these costs we ask for either donations or charter memberships, thus why priority support is given to charters. However we make sure all support topics are looked at and we respond to the best of our ability.

None of us get paid, and we do try our hardest but I see this fails to meet your satisfaction, I hope we can prove how wrong you are and will continue as a team to strive to provide the best quality product and service we can, all we ask is a little patience.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: hachem on August 16, 2006, 08:19:42 PM
i love PHPBB to be honest and i also like vBulliten
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Harzem on August 17, 2006, 12:42:28 PM
Quote from: hachem on August 16, 2006, 08:19:42 PM
i love PHPBB to be honest and i also like vBulliten

I also like MyBB, PunBB, XennoBB, IPB, etc...

What is the point of stating that here? ::)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: nitins60 on August 24, 2006, 05:46:20 PM
SMF s the best. Myself, i tested more than 25 forums(medium/big), before going to start a stable forum. Finally, i am completly satisfied with it.
We should discuss about dark side also(will help you to improve SMF, don't mind), i am not digesting a fact about attachments download. But i am sure, This team is going to solve problem one by one Cheers
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: SaltedWeb on September 01, 2006, 01:44:15 AM
 My Opinion on Th etop Three.

Yabb, old school and seems not to have graduated with teh class. Its classic and stable. easy enough newbie like it. But it lacks raw power.

PHPBB. Great program well developed, but in 3 years its the same old things. Its like looking at windows 95- ME looks and acts the same jjust a different name.
Php has great mods and a very high end curve to learn. Unless you do little with it.
If you are coder the kind of guy that writes HTML from pure scratch in Note pade then this is for you.

SMF, the new kid on the block lacking in options that have been around for years. The program seems like google in constant beta mode. The stable versions as old school technology and noy MYSQL friendly, but the beta  are Mysql friendly.
SMF will someday be worthy of a pay version if was ever availanble as once it crosses a leve of quality it stays there and never looks back. the other two come out with new versions and then patches to fix the new version.

Over view:

Yabb, is a Pizza boxed forum set for those that want a forum in 30 minutes or less and its free.

PHpbb is good, support is sub par to SMF and Yabb. But is built well once all patches are finally applied.
There have been more security patches needed on Phpbb then any other noted foru,m.

SMF, is like the Win2000 NT version of MS. Solid, works well, the options it has are perfect. But the options are limited to this new kid. for now. I say for now for with each version it become not only better then the others. It passes them in the areas of new interest.
SMF has teh best admin of all three.


Ratings  1- 10

Yabb 4
PhpBB 6
SMF   7.5



Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on September 11, 2006, 11:34:06 AM
i recently had a look at vB enhanced and their ported over gallery + arcade system....

man it was really good...

but still nothing beats smf :D lol
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: NotNice on September 11, 2006, 03:41:43 PM
I tried several forums, I have used YaBB for several years and the only reason I turned to SMF is because YaBB did not go too well with Joomla. I tried to transfer all members and topics and so on from YaBB to SMF and failed miserably. My members were slighly upset because I simply told them that if they did not like it they should start their own forum ;) sp they lost all their gossip. For your info: I have a forum because it helps me to keep my phone-bill small, so mainly my friends spent too much time gossiping on my forum and we have a lot of non-serious fun in general

Now that they are used to SMF they are actually happy that I 'stole' the old YaBB forum, because they like the SMF a lot better. We also frequently visit another forum which is phpBB and my friends told me that they like my SMF forum even better that the phpBB, or other forums for that matter.

I think that my opinion about the forum is irrelevant, when the members are happy and visit the forum a lot I will have achieved my goals: create a (small) community where people can have contact with eachother. Sure, a nice admin-center is cool, but what good is that if your members run away screaming?

I think SMF is great, simply because my forum-members love it
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: madfiddler on November 16, 2006, 10:38:07 PM
Quote from: [Unknown] on September 22, 2004, 08:40:53 PM
The idea of open source is simple and sweet; it is not an idea of communism or socialism like its critics sometimes say.


..etc.etc..

I guess this isn't unlike the old Amiga demo scene which I used to be heavily involved in. Whist I was also composing and sound designing as a career and earning cash, I was also writing lots of tunes which were given away free within the demo scene for use in the demos. The more you did, the more market share, the more well known you became.. I guess...

m (TDK in the Amiga scene if anyone remembers that).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: madfiddler on November 16, 2006, 10:39:41 PM
BTW - I think SMF is great as a forum. The best I've looked at.. I just wish, since I'm trying to grow my site from a forum into a community that more of the other PHP type programs supported and integrated SMF rather than Vbulletin etc.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on November 17, 2006, 05:14:31 AM
I believe SMF is the forum for TRUE webmasters who actually know or at least learn along the way to know what they are doing

For me I started off with 0 knowledge of PHP - just using smf for 1 year and now I can actually handle simple level php with ease and also able to actually sit read and understand a php file to a large extent.

So this forum system is not just about the looks and functionailty but it is a complete learning system too where you experience so many things which teach you about really being a webmaster
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: *yasin* on November 17, 2006, 12:47:37 PM
site nasıl oluyor
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: madfiddler on November 17, 2006, 04:31:04 PM
It's been a heck of a learning curve for me. I can't figure out php though, but I knew nothing about hosting, and servers etc etc 4 years ago.. I still don't really haha but can at least find my way around.

Turkish post above methinks.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: simonben on November 21, 2006, 02:40:49 PM
Yes, definately. I have no idea what anything said above means as I am so far out of my depth it's a joke. But I felt the need to get a word in here to make myself look as if I know what the hell I'm talking about.

One thing I will say though - Bloody great software, and it's free. Well done chaps, and thanks

:)

P.S. I'm not drunk you know!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on November 21, 2006, 10:16:19 PM
Quote from: Diamondcomputer on September 01, 2006, 01:44:15 AM
SMF, the new kid on the block lacking in options that have been around for years. The program seems like google in constant beta mode. The stable versions as old school technology and noy MYSQL friendly, but the beta  are Mysql friendly.
SMF will someday be worthy of a pay version if was ever availanble as once it crosses a leve of quality it stays there and never looks back. the other two come out with new versions and then patches to fix the new version.

As far as I know, no one in the SMF team is looking at turning SMF into pay-ware.

I don't know that you could say SMF is in constant beta mode. If you stay on the development versions it will seem that way, but 1.0 is the real release currently. You could make the same comment on PHPbb, with version 3 being in beta for years. I am not fully sure what you mean by SMF not being MySQL friendly though.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on November 22, 2006, 06:30:25 AM
I used to think that it was annoying that new releases were really slow and used to complain

but actually its good to have less 'new releases' all the time - this way a person actually gets to enjoy their forum instead of upgrading every 2nd month and all that

SMF has the correct forumla I think by keeping the base straight forward and all the 'jazz' comes via the mods - and also by keeping the new releases at a slow pace
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: septor on November 24, 2006, 08:35:48 PM
I just learned about SMF today through a forum post on the e107 site. I like the fact that this all feels like vBulletin, but it's a whole lot better. I like the idea of how easy it is to install mods. It's like the developers knew they'd not get everything in that people wanted so they built in a way for mods to be installed easily for the user.

This is all speculation, since I haven't done a lot of research, but damn. I'm overwhelmed with how advanced this forum system is.. and it's free.

Edit: I'd like to note that I've tried a few forum systems; vBulletin, phpBB, XMB. miniBB, WordPress' forum system, Ikonboard, and I'm sure a few others. Out of all those I liked XMB the best (vBulletin is nice, but I refuse to pay money for something that I can easily get somewhere else for free) so far, however, I see no reason to not use SMF over these for any future plans I may need a forum system for.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GiNi3D on November 24, 2006, 10:34:41 PM
Quote from: septor
...I see no reason to not use SMF over these for any future plans I may need a forum system for.
Exactly, there are no reasons not to use SMF, especially if you have security in mind.

Comparing similar powerful boards at Secunia:
SMF = 4 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/5285/)
phpBB 2 = 36 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/463/)
vBulletin3 =  12 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/3212/)
XMB = 10 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/1491/)
IPB 2 = 19 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/3705/)
Woltlab 2 = 8 Secunia advisories (http://secunia.com/product/131/)

And let's not forget that some have low advisories numbers due to the fact that they are not widespread; like Woltlab. SMF started to be highly deployed and tweaked from all sides and manners; I think SMF is doing above reproach in this field, especially against the big ones like vB and IPB. So why use something and wait for the next security surprise, when you can use something now that will make you feel more at ease. And even if something will come up with SMF sooner or later, hey! don't you think it's still above reproach since the beginning.

And one thing I find sickening about vBulletin, is that you pay quite a bit for it, yet, it's one of the worst in security. I say that if you want to use something that must be paid, for one reason or another, at least go get Ideal BB, even if they are only for windows platform, at least you get a board with only 1 known vulnerability to date, compare that to vBulletin! As for phpBB, they seem to be unable to get rid of their bad habits. And IPB, I just hate their day to day bugs and the security issues.

There are reasons why not to use others boards thought!  ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on November 27, 2006, 11:44:12 AM
That isn't a valid comparison, you just did a Microsoft.

Comparing raw bug data is not helpful at all unless it slants your particular way (Linux had more bugs than Windows!). As much as I am happy that the data favors SMF, it is not helpful unless the bugs are broken down by severity, since 20 very minor bugs are still better than 10 highly critical ones.

My terms:
1 box = ultra low
2 box = low
3 box = moderate
4 box = high

Of course, this also leaves out other info such as unpatched security issues (Check Secunia pages for that), time between notification and patching, etc.

As an example, if we eliminate all boards with high security issues, we find out that wBB has 2 / 25% of reported security issues unpatched, and XMB has 6 / 60% unpatched (both with moderate as the highest ranking). SMF has been fully patched for all reported issues. Of course, sometimes Secunia is a bit off, so it would be wise to check the unpatched issues reported and see if there is a patch out for any of them.

Of course, if you are concerned enough like this, you should do your own research using the metrics that you find most useful to you.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GiNi3D on November 27, 2006, 12:03:51 PM
^^ I understand your point, well done too, but at the end my point still stands, no matter how you try to dissect the terms and classify it, SMF since the beginning his still the best of them all regarding security issues, you made it even more clear now. ;D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Shaman666 on December 03, 2006, 10:25:04 AM
Quote from: Chris G. on October 24, 2004, 10:49:21 AM
vBulletin > Despise.
phpBB > Dislike.
IPB > Like.
SMF > Love.

My favorite part of SMF, hands down, is that it's fully customizable--from CSS right down to the core HTML.  Keep up the good work! :D

I agree 100%. SMF is the best. I mailed one of the developers last month saying that I love them :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: freebrowsers on December 27, 2006, 12:47:21 PM
This forum is going great. I discovered it only yesterday..and I'm surprised by it's popularity and usefulness. The developers and moderators are really working their best, giving it proper attention. It shows. Way to go people.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: yelegen on December 30, 2006, 03:11:50 AM
when I decided to set up my own forum I happened to see the link at the bottom of a forum I am a member of, it was SMF...
So my first ever forum experience was SMF and I loaded as started to get familiar I started to mess with joomla, Tp, MK but then I started to think hey there has gotta be others out there and so I discovered PHPBB, Nuke, and whole bunch of others and tried almos all of them and I could not belive how lucky I was to discover SMF the first time around.

I consider myself now a tried and true SMF er there is just simply no other forum software out there that can even come close as far as I am concerned.

Great work guys thank you all.. :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: machaanz on January 17, 2007, 10:11:37 AM
Earlier I used phpbb. But i need a cms to be integrated and I found this wonderful board which is perfectly running and very fast. Thank you guys.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gobo on January 17, 2007, 10:28:28 AM
Quote from: machaanz on January 17, 2007, 10:11:37 AM
Earlier I used phpbb. But i need a cms to be integrated and I found this wonderful board which is perfectly running and very fast. Thank you guys.

u may wana try tinyportal.net
its a mod / cms specifically built for SMF
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: TheWrath! on January 17, 2007, 10:33:24 AM
i am an admin on a website that runs Tiny Portal.  Tiny Portal is awesome to use with your SMF Board as a CMS.  I believe it is one of the best.  I have used phpNuke, Py pnd MKPortal and I believe for SMF, tiny portal is the best. It is the easiest CMS to use with SMF
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on January 17, 2007, 10:46:25 AM
I started using SMF for a while now and I am very happy and satisfied.  It''s nice and easy to get to understand and use it. It has many useful and handy features. Pet off to the guys that created it and developed it, making SMF what it is: THE BEST FORUM SOFTWARE THAT EXCISTS TODAY.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: recentcoin on February 11, 2007, 11:47:57 PM
I've used both.  In fact I currently admin both an SMF board and a phpBB board.  I have to tell you that my experience as an admin in both is that admin'ing a phpBB board sucks. 

We're getting spammed on the phpBB board and I can't add captcha without hand hacking files.  Yeah - doing that in a code base I don't know that well isn't asking for trouble or anything....

Heck, I can't add any kind of a mod without hand hacking stuff right and left.  That part of it sucks. Plus the skins are...fugly.  Well not all the skins, but most of them. 

The user interface isn't friendly or intuitive and doing simple things requires lots of searching.  It's pretty retarded all around, in my side by side comparison.  
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: JayBachatero on February 12, 2007, 12:56:22 AM
/me points recentcoin to the Converters and Importers (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=20.0) board ;).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: MegaTinkerCoder on April 15, 2007, 01:17:59 PM
I think free is wonderful. You guys should make a store like cafepress for the site so people could buy shirts and cups and stuff... with your logo on it...

It doesn't cost anything to run... the only down side is you dont get your profits earned until 45 days after someone buys something, but since it doesn't cost you anything to put it up it could be extra revenue for you guys...

You should retail alpha and beta's for a fixed price ;) with a disclaimer of course saying you are paying for the bandwidth ;)

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Lady Ambrosia on April 16, 2007, 06:35:36 PM
First let me say, I LOVE SMF!!!  I've tried phpBB and I found it CONFUSING, granted it's got a few features that I liked, it wasn't worth it when I was too confused by applying mods and themes.  Where as with SMF I can add mods and themes with ease.  NOT to mention my members LOVE how SMF looks and how easy it is to use.

And you know what the BEST thing about SMF is?  Is that there are people out there who are willing to write mods and create themes for SMF, a community of people coming together from ALL walks of life willing to help one another!  THAT in itself is amazing, and well worth being apart of the SMF community!!

I wish I could code mods, as I've love to help out, but I can't :(  I've tried and tried, but I just don't get php, the only thing I can do is tweak it enough to get things to work for me.  But hopefully one day I'll be able to code and get some of my ideas for SMF out there!!  But until then....KUDOS to EVERYONE who helps with SMF from the creators to the mod writers you all are GREAT!!!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: lockelymarkets on April 22, 2007, 05:47:09 AM
I 100% agree with all comments so far. SMF is truely the best.

See, I first descovered forums altogether on a small phpbb forum I was once on, and I wanted my own so I googled it and found some free (adsupported) phpbb forum providers. I made a forum on a few and found it disappointing. One site in particular made it hard to change themes- you would have to upload 1 image at a time and 99% of the time you made an ugly forum.

Then someone I know started a SMF forum, and I joined and wanted to know more about SMF. Because then I didn't have a website to test forums on, I researched free smf providers/hosts and was delighted, even though those hosts didn't permit the adding of mods.

So then I descovered the perfect website hoster, and I used Fantastico to put on SMF (the only other option was Phpbb) and played around with it, and then I also uploaded Phpbb to see what its really like, and I found the admin panel even more duller than before.

I will always stick to SMF, their design is unique, the admin panel is like the forum and has the same theme and everything (in other scripts its a separate page only found using a link at the botton of a page). I am impressed with their regular changes, and the easeness of adding themes and mods.

Thankyou SMF!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Sarge on April 22, 2007, 06:47:47 AM
Quote from: Lady Ambrosia on April 16, 2007, 06:35:36 PM
I wish I could code mods, as I've love to help out, but I can't :(

There are more ways to get involved:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=7121.0

"Whether this is through development, support, packages, themes, smiley sets, bug reports, or feature requests doesn't matter - every little bit counts, and makes SMF better."

For example, if you can design really nice-looking buttons, avatars, smileys and other graphics, you could help theme authors, regular users, even the SMF team.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sawz on April 22, 2007, 07:02:44 AM
getting a Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) is another excellent way to contribute to this community.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: cyberspace cadet on April 23, 2007, 11:57:50 AM
Hello to all  :)

I am new to using SMF, and to having a "real" web site. I've managed online communities on Yahoo! and MSN, and have had a blog on Blogger... perhaps I need not say that I have much to learn  :o

My site has not yet been officially launched. I have SMF installed and have been learning my way around.

As to my opinion on SMF so far... I think it is one of the best. Although I haven't used any of the others, I did spend a considerable amount of time reviewing them, and reading reviews of them. I have also clicked around to many SMF sites, and have been much impressed with how much can be done!

Was and still am impressed with this forum/community, too.

I seem to be a slow learner, but also a persistent student. Being patient with myself seems to be the only struggles I have experienced so far.

I'm glad to be here, and learning how to use SMF.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: metallica48423 on April 23, 2007, 06:45:54 PM
Welcome to SMF :)

I see you've gone all out and gotten yourself a spiffy charter member badge :P

Just want to say thanks for supporting SMF!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on April 28, 2007, 01:09:19 AM
Quote from: sawz on April 22, 2007, 07:02:44 AM
getting a Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) is another excellent way to contribute to this community.

That''s why I became a charter member in the first place and I will countinue to support smf remaining a life-time charter member, like my signiture says.
Even if I won''t have a forum in the future, I won''t quit the charter membership ever. Cause the guys here deserve our support to the fullest of our abilities. It has amazed me how nice, polite and helpful the SMF Community is, how these guys always find the time to help everyone. You don''t see this kind of thing in any other community.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: cascara on June 10, 2007, 09:36:13 AM
Am new here, have never set up a forum before and just want to thank you all for the above posts - reassuring and confidence inspiring! Especially the first one when I was just going into panic mode!

I haven't started building yet but presumably I can panic on these forums if I get things wrong?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on June 10, 2007, 02:09:09 PM
I recommend not panicking at all. Panic will cause more problems. If something happens, put in a support request and fill out as much detail as you can think of with as much explanation as you can of the situation. The more information you can give, the easier it is to give support and the quicker things will be solved. Remember that not much can be broken irreparably, provided you don't panic and start deleting stuff at random.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: lockelymarkets on June 11, 2007, 04:33:36 AM
Quote from: babjusi on April 28, 2007, 01:09:19 AM
Quote from: sawz on April 22, 2007, 07:02:44 AM
getting a Charter Membership (http://www.simplemachines.org/charter/) is another excellent way to contribute to this community.

That''s why I became a charter member in the first place and I will countinue to support smf remaining a life-time charter member, like my signiture says.
Even if I won''t have a forum in the future, I won''t quit the charter membership ever. Cause the guys here deserve our support to the fullest of our abilities. It has amazed me how nice, polite and helpful the SMF Community is, how these guys always find the time to help everyone. You don''t see this kind of thing in any other community.

Spot on. Ask for phpBB3 support on phpBB and you get murdered... even though its RC.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: rsdoran on June 11, 2007, 12:17:57 PM
I just got through spending a day trying to upgrade/convert my phpbb software that I have been running for years. It worked ok but did not have any features without going through adding MODS; which makes it hard to upgrade.

With downloading software from SMF, reading the installation and conversion instructions, etc., it took me less then an hour to have my new SMF forum running. NOTE: I mentioned I spent all day yesterday trying to do this with phpbb.

I am not too the point where I know everything about SMF but the features I have already seen and used have made a "BELIEVER" out of me i.e. LONG LIVE SMF. Please keep up the good work. I know I will be making a donation if not becoming a charter member; wish I found this long, long, ago.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: jocar on August 22, 2007, 03:58:26 PM
Quality function deployment
 As a project or design progresses the greater opportunity or change becomes for specific customer needs and expectations to be overloaded.
In order not to neglect or overlook the voice of the customer the technique of quality function deployment has been developed.
 The initial development work took place in the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi, heavy industry.
 The Q.F.D. technique is similar to value analysis as both techniques seek to understand the basis function or customer requirements and determine how best these functions can be achieved. The aim of Q.F.D. is to identify the key customer needs and translate these needs into controls. This is achieved by establishing what the customer requires and through the various stages of Q.F.D. how these requirements will and can be achieved.
 Q.F.D. is not intended to determine the function of the quality section    but to produce better quality planning.
The 7 tools of Quality function deployment
 Affinity Diagram (creative)
Inter-relationship (Logical)
Tree Diagram
Matrix Diagram
Matrix Analysis  
Arrow Diagram
Process decision Chart
Jocar
Bibliography  P.B.Crosby, Frank Price, BS5750 BS5760



Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Peter Duggan on August 22, 2007, 04:36:57 PM
Quote from: jocar on August 22, 2007, 03:58:26 PM
Quality function deployment
As a project or design progresses the greater opportunity or change becomes for specific customer needs and expectations to be overloaded.
In order not to neglect or overlook the voice of the customer the technique of quality function deployment has been developed.
The initial development work took place in the Kobe shipyard of Mitsubishi, heavy industry.
The Q.F.D. technique is similar to value analysis as both techniques seek to understand the basis function or customer requirements and determine how best these functions can be achieved. The aim of Q.F.D. is to identify the key customer needs and translate these needs into controls. This is achieved by establishing what the customer requires and through the various stages of Q.F.D. how these requirements will and can be achieved.
Q.F.D. is not intended to determine the function of the quality section    but to produce better quality planning.
The 7 tools of Quality function deployment
Affinity Diagram (creative)
Inter-relationship (Logical)
Tree Diagram
Matrix Diagram
Matrix Analysis 
Arrow Diagram
Process decision Chart
Jocar
Bibliography  P.B.Crosby, Frank Price, BS5750 BS5760

Please explain relevance to this topic! :-\
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: RuneBlast on August 30, 2007, 03:43:57 PM
My opinion on SMF is short nd simple :P

Its the best :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 24-7GT.com on September 09, 2007, 06:10:51 AM
smf is the best free but vbulletin is the best paid if u know what i mean.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on September 09, 2007, 06:11:42 AM
What makes vBulletin better? Status?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Xarcell on September 11, 2007, 11:05:37 PM
vBulletin seems better on the outside, but not on the inside. SMF seems real good on the inside, and ok on the outside.

SMF is free and vBullentin isn't.

SMF is the best by far, in my overall opinion. No other forum can compare.

SMF is also getting better, at a faster rate than vBullentin. Just my opinion of course.

Waiting for SMF 2.0 [drools]...

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: rsalafi on September 15, 2007, 05:41:22 AM
I'm sorry if my English is not very good.

I have used phpBB 2.0.x before but it doesn't have attachment feature, but this feature is available in phpbb v.3.x but in my opinion smf is still the best.

I have made some modification to phpbb and i want to do that for smf, and when I look into the source code, GREAT!!! the author made very useful comments on the source code, it is very helpful!!!

Keep up your good works!!!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Fiery on November 06, 2007, 01:32:22 AM
Quote
vBulletin seems better on the outside, but not on the inside. SMF seems real good on the inside, and ok on the outside.


How can SMF improve on the outside?  We appreciate any input.

Thanks
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 01:41:29 AM
vBulletin has many more features. I drool over their control panel. But that's paid. As far as free goes, SMF is the best. There's some features in other forum softwares that I really wish SMF has. But, in SMF 2.0 most of the features are being added :)

One thing that I wished was different in SMF, was the Admin CP. I personally don't like how it goes with the rest of the forums theme. I like it more where it's separate. And everywhere you look you see buttons to change options. 

But if nothing else, SMF has one feature that none other has. And that's it's SSI function. I love it. And most of all, I do love SMF. It's a great software, and I'll be sticking to it for a long time.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on November 06, 2007, 02:07:56 AM
Quote from: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 01:41:29 AM
vBulletin has many more features. I drool over their control panel. But that's paid. As far as free goes, SMF is the best. There's some features in other forum softwares that I really wish SMF has. But, in SMF 2.0 most of the features are being added :)

I find vBulletin's ACP to be awfully designed, it is just link soup.

You are welcome to mention what features you find missing in SMF.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on November 06, 2007, 08:29:12 AM
Quote from: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 01:41:29 AM
One thing that I wished was different in SMF, was the Admin CP. I personally don't like how it goes with the rest of the forums theme. I like it more where it's separate. And everywhere you look you see buttons to change options. 

???   I think an organized CP is must better than just throwing buttons around the screen...
Also, why should the admin be separate form the theme? It's part of the board....

On the other hand, if you want the admin to look different, you can do that, using the SMF theme/template system, I just don't think it should be made to look different by default.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on November 06, 2007, 08:36:26 AM
The vB admin panel is a bad example of how it could be separated from the main forum. I agree it's icky. There could be better examples perhaps. (http://dev.eldacar.com/mytry.html)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 09:05:36 AM
Quote from: Motoko-chan link=topic=16971.msg1299390#msg1299390
You are welcome to mention what features you find missing in SMF.
/quote]

I think that SMF misses a restore back up function at the ACP, other than that I think it is complete. About that  restore back up function I mentioned, it is not that I miss it personally, but cruising through the topics and posts here, I have seen a lot of people having problems with restoring the backup and I think it would help them a lot
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on November 06, 2007, 09:54:44 AM
So... You'd be required to do a full install before being able to blow that away and restore?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 10:37:43 AM
Quote from: Motoko-chan on November 06, 2007, 09:54:44 AM
So... You'd be required to do a full install before being able to blow that away and restore?

I am not sure I understood what you meant Motoko-chan. But what I had in mind is something like I have seen at another forum software. For example, if someone messes up his forum and looses everything, then by re-installing a fresh smf, he/she would be able to go to the acp and restore the backup from the restore option. So the forum would get up and running from the same exact point that the backup was made. However I am aware that this can not be achived if the backup is large but it would be nice for people who are beginners
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: metallica48423 on November 06, 2007, 12:59:50 PM
or the fact that your can't get to the adminCP if the database fatal errors :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 01:15:37 PM
Quote from: BlackMage on November 06, 2007, 12:59:50 PM
or the fact that your can't get to the adminCP if the database fatal errors :P

BlackMage, none of that matters. Because, as I said above, if someone has database fatal errors or any other kind of errors for that matter, they can re-install the forum from the very begin and then restore the backup from the acp. Now, that is the beauty of having such an option, isn''t it? ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 01:22:06 PM
Quote from: Motoko-chan on November 06, 2007, 02:07:56 AM
Quote from: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 01:41:29 AM
vBulletin has many more features. I drool over their control panel. But that's paid. As far as free goes, SMF is the best. There's some features in other forum softwares that I really wish SMF has. But, in SMF 2.0 most of the features are being added :)

I find vBulletin's ACP to be awfully designed, it is just link soup.

You are welcome to mention what features you find missing in SMF.
Quote from: ܝܠܕܟ on November 06, 2007, 08:36:26 AM
The vB admin panel is a bad example of how it could be separated from the main forum. I agree it's icky. There could be better examples perhaps. (http://dev.eldacar.com/mytry.html)

Well I'm not saying the Admin CP has to be designed exactly like vB's. But to me, is just looks more profession having the Admin CP separated like that.  But that's just my own opinion.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on November 06, 2007, 01:25:36 PM
how does it look "more professional"? to have the admin in a different layoout/look from the forum?
Personally, I feel it is more professional to keep the look/theme throughout. (you don't have a different layout for windows control panel, or for Mac controls, for that matter)

However, as I stated above... if you really want it, it could be done using the theme engine...   so go ahead and request someone to make you a theme that does it... (or do so yourself).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 01:33:57 PM
Quote from: Kindred on November 06, 2007, 01:25:36 PM
how does it look "more professional"? to have the admin in a different layoout/look from the forum?
Personally, I feel it is more professional to keep the look/theme throughout. (you don't have a different layout for windows control panel, or for Mac controls, for that matter)


Totally agree with every word kindred said. Some time ago, i had a look at the acp of vbulletin and ipb. And what I thought was precisely what was described above by kindred.
Smf acp, especially the 2.0, beats them all. No doubt about that
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on November 06, 2007, 01:37:42 PM
Quote from: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 01:15:37 PM
BlackMage, none of that matters. Because, as I said above, if someone has database fatal errors or any other kind of errors for that matter, they can re-install the forum from the very begin and then restore the backup from the acp. Now, that is the beauty of having such an option, isn''t it? ;)

I suppose some people might find it useful, but I think it is rather silly to have to do a full install just to do a restore. If you do that, you lose all the mods and any custom code. If you have thse files backed up, then is is doubly silly (upload the files and do the install so you can restore the db and re-upload the changed files).

This doesn't mean it isn't something we would refuse to do, but I'm just calling into question the utility of the feature, especially when there are so many dedicated SQL restore tools around.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on November 06, 2007, 01:58:58 PM
@Motoko-chan, I understand your point of view, and I think the same by the way. However, as I stated above, it is not that I miss it personally, but I have come across plenty of posts here when users had problems with restoring the backup and don''t forget that a lot of people are just starting out and don''t have a clue about those many dedicated SQL restore tools around. So for them it is not so silly to do a full install just to do a restore. Anyway, I just stated what I thought that smf misses in my opinion, that is all
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Stargater59 on November 06, 2007, 02:08:53 PM
Quote from: Kindred on November 06, 2007, 01:25:36 PM
how does it look "more professional"? to have the admin in a different layoout/look from the forum?
Personally, I feel it is more professional to keep the look/theme throughout. (you don't have a different layout for windows control panel, or for Mac controls, for that matter)

However, as I stated above... if you really want it, it could be done using the theme engine...   so go ahead and request someone to make you a theme that does it... (or do so yourself).

It  doesn't really make any difference either way.

I just think it makes the forum software itself look more professional. Just call me weird  :P

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on November 06, 2007, 02:14:33 PM
"you're wierd..."
O:)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on November 06, 2007, 06:49:10 PM
QuoteHowever, as I stated above... if you really want it, it could be done using the theme engine...   so go ahead and request someone to make you a theme that does it... (or do so yourself).
I started... haven't had the time to finish it though. (http://dev.eldacar.com/mytry.html)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: metallica48423 on November 06, 2007, 09:05:23 PM
i kinda like it.  Looks neat.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: humbleworld on December 15, 2007, 05:20:24 AM
The People behind Simple Machines Forum software should be given gifts this Christmas.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: ArticleRus on January 29, 2008, 01:42:27 PM
I choose SMF for my first forum because of the good feedbacks that I searched in the Internet.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: kizer on January 30, 2008, 02:20:07 PM
Well let me tell you. I've been running a forum since 2003 and I was happy to use phpBB2 because it was easy to use and really easy to setup. I ran it faithfully for 4years and did nearly every mod that was well cool enough to run. Then a security fix would come out and lord it really sucked trying to update things. I got hacked twice, but luckily I was able to fix the holes and update my database.

I'm tooling around and land on a buddies forum and I looked at the powered by and thought SMF what the heck is that? Landed here and looked through the mods and well wasn't sold right away. 6months later goes by and man I was getting hammered by SPAM like you wouldn't believe. Patch, patch, patch and lots of swearing my buddy said try SMF. I installed it and ran it beside phpBB2. My members had mixed thoughts on SMF. I got dozens and dozens of approvals and 2 dislikes. I made a decision that I was going to swap out the forum software in 3weeks and fade out phpBB2. Sure enough a week later my database crashed on phpBB2 and the new forum came on line with some forwarding code I threw up.

Getting used to all the permissions in SMF was tough because its uber security happy, but man talk about a level of confidence in knowing that my forum is tighter than fort Knox. Needless to say I haven't had one piece of spam, not one complaint other than can you tweak this and its been running smooth. The load times are insanely fast.

I haven't donated to the site as of yet, but I'm planning on it. Tech support here has been almost instant and you can tell by the level of detail off the posts that there are people that want to be here not a bunch of script kiddies looking well to look cool.

Oh the Spell Check is insanely cool too. ;)

Ive read through a lot of the posts and I keep seeing Yeah its free and Vbulletine is not. I've tried it and I wouldn't use it if it was free.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: metallica48423 on January 30, 2008, 10:40:37 PM
Thanks for the kind words :)

To be fair, i've used several forum systems, each has their good points and bad points... but SMF fits my needs best
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Anguz on February 09, 2008, 04:08:17 AM
kizer, I loved your review.

I follow this thread usually and don't comment much, but yours is very informative and to the point, and touches the point of SPAM, which is a problem a phpBB using friend is having right now and won't listen to me about SMF :P. I'll point him to your post soon.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: humbleworld on March 02, 2008, 09:38:14 AM
I dream of having 1 Million posts in one of our SMF-powered sites next year. I like dreaming big things.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: wookey on March 05, 2008, 06:07:26 AM
That has been an interesting thread. I came here because I read a forum (navitron.org) that uses this software so I thought I'd have a look at where it came from. It is a very nice piece of software, and as a user only I'd say was somewhat nicer than phpBB2, the only other I have used much, although not critically so. However amongst all the comment here there seems to be a terrific lack of understanding of what Free/Libre software actually is. SMF may cost nothing to download and use, but it is not Free Software by the normal definition of that. It is almost-free, but the critical 'no distribution without permission' is fatal. Firstly this means that it cannot be included in Linux distributions, which no doubt severely reduces its uptake - If I install Debian or fedora or Ubuntu and look for forum software I will find phpBB2, but not SMF, entirely because of the licence. It will not have the corresponding integrated install of packaged software. No doubt the developers have done their best with their own independent packaging, but that's usually a very poor substitute for distro-based packaging.

Undistributable software is not Free Software. I was quite keen to install it for some of my sites until I read the licence. Now, whether it is better or not is simply irrelevant. Having been burned before I now never use any non-free software unless there really is no alternative, and in this case there are alternatives. Obviously, not everyone takes that view, which is fine so long as they know and understand what they are getting.

Now it may be the case that the simplemachines will always give permission if you ask, but in that case what purpose does the licence serve - they might as well use a normal one that just allows distribution anyway and save themselves and distributors the hassle. Thus I presume that distribution is not always allowed, perhaps not ever allowed without some payment, in which case this is simply normal copyrighted software which you are allowed to check out the source code for. That's fine of course, but people shouldn't go round calling it 'Free Software'. There is an accepted defintion for that and SMF does not meet it. Consider what happens if Simple Machines LLC go bust tomorrow and their website disappears. No-one else can distribute the software, and the original is no longer available. That's it - no more SMF (beyiond those who already got a copy). That is an example of why the redistribution requirement for Free Software is important. At least in SMF's case existing users will have the source and will be able to maintian themselves, so they are in a better position than binary-only proprietary software, but the software itself cannot last beyond the life of Simple Machines LLC without a licence change, and I have no idea how practical that is.

I would be interested to hear from the developers or simplemachines what the criteria for allowing distribtuion are. Payment, purpose, simply asking, or something else?

The licence is even more restrictive than DJB software such as qmail, which let you distribute the original unchanged, so all changes had to be shpped as patches, which ultimately led to the death of qmail as apopular MTA, despite its suberb quality. I hope that the developers of SMF will consider these things, and in time decide to release SMF under a genuine Free Software licence. In the meantime it would be good if all you people who are obviously huge fans of the software and not very bothered about the licence, could distingush between 'cost free, source available' (which SMF is) and 'Free Software' (which it isn't).

Clearly SMF has a place in the world, but sadly it's not on any of my machines, or those at work.

Very nice bit of work though - congratulations.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on March 05, 2008, 06:36:34 AM
I think there's actually a precedent for considering the distribution clause of the SMF licence irrelevant because themes can be distributed, though I wouldn't know if that's legally valid.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kindred on March 05, 2008, 08:56:40 AM
Quote from: wookey on March 05, 2008, 06:07:26 AM
Undistributable software is not Free Software. I was quite keen to install it for some of my sites until I read the licence.
...
... but people shouldn't go round calling it 'Free Software'. There is an accepted defintion for that and SMF does not meet it.

However, you are incorrect.  Your definition is only ONE definition of "free software" and, despite pressure form the FSF, it is not the only, nor the most accepted, definition of the word.

\If you've read this thread and done a brief search of this community, you will see that every so often, we get someone making the same claims...   I will summarize once again.

SMF is not GPL, that is quite correct.
SMF *IS* free, however. It costs no money. THAT is the meaning of the term "free", despite any desire by GPL or FSF supporters to have it mean something else.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=16971.msg140624#msg140624
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=81575.msg544890#msg544890

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: wookey on March 05, 2008, 10:02:49 AM
QuoteSMF *IS* free, however. It costs no money. THAT is the meaning of the term "free", despite any desire by GPL or FSF supporters to have it mean something else.

OK 'free' is a word with more than one meaning in English, meaning both cost-free and restriction-free ( as in 'free market', 'free man'). And both these uses can be applied to software. That is one reason why other terms have been coined to describe Free Software: Libre Software, Open Source, because the term 'free' can be confusing in english. (I tend to use capitals to make the distinction clearer 'Free Software'.)

However it is idiotic to claim that the definition of Free Software that I was talking about in the above post, and that the whole world refers to when talking about FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software), is the 'no cost' one. Yes, SMF is 'no cost' software (as I said in my original post 'cost free, source available'), but it is not FLOSS.

There are 52 accepted FLOSS licences last time I looked (OSI's list), of which the GPL is only one. The FSF is not the only outfit that defines the term. OSI and Debian both have widely-accepted defintions too (The OSI one is derived from Debian's, in fact). SMF's license does not meet any of those, and thus will not be considered FLOSS by nearly everybody.

I don't know if you really are not familiar with the above, or are actively trying to ignore it. And I don't know if you just represent yourself, or Simple Machines? You seem to be conflating Free Software/FLOSS in general with the GPL, which is only one of many such licences (the most popular, it is true). Things can be FLOSS without being GPL. They cannot be floss unless they allow redistribution.

Is there actually an attempt in the SMF community to redefine what Free Software is? If so Simple Machines are not alone in trying to bring forward new definitions of 'Free Software' and 'Open Source'. Some of the CMS people have been doing it recently, e.g. with software generally referred-to as 'Badgeware'. It's a valid business model, but sowing confusion about terms is not helpful.

Personally I think you are on a hiding to nothing. You will confuse a lot of people, but are very unlikely to change the world to accept that non-redistribution should be removed from the definitions (Item 1 in the Debian Free Software Guidelines, and the Open Source Definition, 'Freedom 2' in the FSF's terms). Redistribution matters.

Like I said, I have nothing aginst SMF, or Simple Machines. They have a business model and some good software. I wish them every success. But I do feel that muddying the waters on what 'Free Software' means is very unhelpful. By all means coin a new term for the sort of 'free-ish' licence SMF uses - there already is one in fact: 'Source-available', (pick another if you don't like it) but please don't go round claiming that your definition of 'Free Software' is right, and the whole of the rest of the world is wrong - it makes you look silly.

Now unless there are further matters of genuine confusion or misunderstanding I can help clear up, I think it would be best if I said nothing further. The above may well be a message people don't really want to hear on this forum, and I don't want to be accused of trolling. I only posted here to clear up apparent confusion.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on March 05, 2008, 11:11:40 AM
Quote from: wookey on March 05, 2008, 10:02:49 AM
Is there actually an attempt in the SMF community to redefine what Free Software is? If so Simple Machines are not alone in trying to bring forward new definitions of 'Free Software' and 'Open Source'. Some of the CMS people have been doing it recently, e.g. with software generally referred-to as 'Badgeware'. It's a valid business model, but sowing confusion about terms is not helpful.

(This are my personal thoughts. They are not, in any way, a representation of any official position of the team or Simple Machines.)

Might I note that the word "free" has generally meant no-cost for perhaps the last several decades? It is only recently that a small, but vocal, group has been pushing for that word to mean something else entirely. It can lead to situations like this where you are stuck in your meaning but we are using the older, more widely held, meaning. I suggest you use FOSS or FLOSS instead of "free software" for your meaning. I don't think anyone here is arguing that SMF can count in the FLOSS category.

Likewise, "Open Source" has a history going back before the OSI tried to restrict the meaning and yet those who are indoctrinated think that the term is being abused when it is used in the way it has been historically.

While I respect your views, please realize that both terms have a history and don't start accusing people of redefining them when they are using the older (and possibly more understood) meanings instead of what the OSI and FSF have deigned them to mean.

/me climbs off the soapbox
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: rsw686 on March 05, 2008, 11:51:01 AM
Quote from: wookey on March 05, 2008, 06:07:26 AM
There is an accepted defintion for that and SMF does not meet it. Consider what happens if Simple Machines LLC go bust tomorrow and their website disappears. No-one else can distribute the software, and the original is no longer available. That's it - no more SMF (beyiond those who already got a copy). That is an example of why the redistribution requirement for Free Software is important. At least in SMF's case existing users will have the source and will be able to maintian themselves, so they are in a better position than binary-only proprietary software, but the software itself cannot last beyond the life of Simple Machines LLC without a licence change, and I have no idea how practical that is.

This is the only downfall I see to the license. However I don't think SMF will just disappear. Somebody on the team will continue the development or I'm sure the development would be handed off to somebody else.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: wookey on March 05, 2008, 04:43:43 PM
Motoko-chan, thank you for that response.

Are you sure that 'free gift' is an older usage than 'free man' or 'free house'? According to http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=free&searchmode=none 'free country' is 1375, 'free of cost' is 1585. I have no idea how definitive that is, but I think it is safe to say both meanings are 'very old' in relation to software :-)

I am not aware of usage of the term 'Open Source' before Bruce Perens coined it and formed OSI. Can you point to any instances? I am genuinely interested in the etymology of this. As you say I have been 'indoctrinated' for nearly a decade now, which would no doubt explain my lack of knowledge in this area.

QuoteI don't think anyone here is arguing that SMF can count in the FLOSS category.

OK, that's all I ask. It is not the impression that a casual visitor from the FLOSS world gets, and your page http://www.simplemachines.org/about/whyfree.php 'Why Free is better' definately does claim that SMF is Open Source. At best this is misleading - it looks disingenuous to me.

The confusion over 'free software' can be dismissed as nothing more than the genuinely problematic twin-meaning of 'free' in english, combined with the fact that you wish to continue using the term 'free software' rather than choosing something which is not open to misinterpretation. Fair enough. The use of 'Open Source' as well seems harder to explain away. I await your pointers to these 'older' meanings which I presume you feel justifies the usage there?

I guess this problem will get worse with time as more and more FLOSS people come across SMF. I see a fellow called wobo was badly caught out in 2006. Oh well, I certainly understand your position much better than I did yesterday.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on March 05, 2008, 05:20:14 PM
Quote from: wookey on March 05, 2008, 04:43:43 PM
I am not aware of usage of the term 'Open Source' before Bruce Perens coined it and formed OSI. Can you point to any instances? I am genuinely interested in the etymology of this. As you say I have been 'indoctrinated' for nearly a decade now, which would no doubt explain my lack of knowledge in this area.

It may take a bit, I need to dig out some of my older stuff, and it's rather inaccessible right now (I'm doing some cleaning at home, and that stuff is behind quite a few piles). I do remember seeing it being used in material published in the late 70s (I'm a packrat and collector - even have a few OpenVMS manuals around). At latest, I can think of around 1984/1988 with the formation of X/Open and the Open Software Foundation (take a look at their meaning of open, it wasn't the OSI meaning for sure).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF continued
Post by: forumnoob on March 06, 2008, 12:39:32 PM
WOW

very interesting turn (if somewhat offtopic)

I am wary to join, lest it turn into one of those pseudo religious diatribes from the "GPL Religious Fundamentalists" which seem to hover like termites in the woodwork the better  to nip out at every opportunity :P

still, that 'anti-distribution' clause seems shortsighted and fatal to me.
More than anything, as wooky says, that limits penetration, which we all want ( can I get an 'Amen', ladies! :P)


I am saddened (and I am sure that Lewis feels the same way) over the handling of the SMF/Joomla/GPL debacle, which, ultimately (in my mind) led to an inferior product now getting the recognition that SMF should be having.

"Free" is NOT the same as zero cost to download. Shifting costs (real or imagined -or deferred) does not make a product "free" - it may seem like splitting hairs (and to the majority of users it is) but its still a significant concern to others.

Now there are valid concerns about allowing others to distribute your code without a contractual obligation to do so. - A distributor may continue to release older code that was otherwise removed  in response to a security flaw.

The answer I feel, is not to deny distribution as SMF has done, but change the license to allow distribution WITH THE CAVEAT THAT THE DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE ONLY THE MOST CURRENT VERSION  (or) have the software check the most current version directly from SMF

The excuses/reasons that have been given for SMF not being 'fully free' seem to point back to some time when SMF was Yabsee under the GPL and some other outfit took the code (which they were free to do under the GPL) and offered a version of it- WITH THE OPTION OF PAID SUPPORT (which no doubt eats into the model of "Give away free donkeys, charge for the hay" :P)

consequently, there is a new restrictive licensing model in place, which 'protects' SMF. We now own 100% of a tiny tiny marketplace, instead of 30% of the universe!

way to go!



(lol?)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF continued
Post by: 青山 素子 on March 06, 2008, 12:59:21 PM
Quote from: forumnoob on March 06, 2008, 12:39:32 PM
The answer I feel, is not to deny distribution as SMF has done, but change the license to allow distribution WITH THE CAVEAT THAT THE DISTRIBUTOR RELEASE ONLY THE MOST CURRENT VERSION  (or) have the software check the most current version directly from SMF

This is actually done. We have several places that we have given permission to redistribute our software with the term that they must offer the latest version within two weeks of it being offered by us (I believe it is two weeks, I'd have to double-check the terms). Most of those under these terms are hosting providers who want to offer SMF to their customers. It is often quite difficult to get even those simple terms to be followed. This permission is given for free upon consideration and approval of their reasons for wanting to do so.

I, personally, would like to see the redistribution restriction lifted (maybe redistribution, but not modified), but processes to change things take time, especially when there are many people invested in the process. I do know for sure that we won't be going GPL any time soon because of certain events. I'm not going to elaborate, please don't ask for more info.


Quote from: forumnoob on March 06, 2008, 12:39:32 PM
The excuses/reasons that have been given for SMF not being 'fully free' seem to point back to some time when SMF was Yabsee under the GPL and some other outfit took the code (which they were free to do under the GPL) and offered a version of it- WITH THE OPTION OF PAID SUPPORT (which no doubt eats into the model of "Give away free donkeys, charge for the hay" :P)

SMF was never YaBB SE. They are separate codebases. I believe there was more involved in the whole issue, not just a paid support option. Specifically, forks giving the main line a bad reputation and other behind-the-scenes issues I'm not qualified to go into (I wasn't around back then and so cannot offer insight).
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: brad82 on April 24, 2008, 11:24:07 AM
Free is good. You've got your priority's right - IM ABSOLOUTLY DELIGHTED WITH THE SOFTWARE. really easy to use, moderate, and install *thumbs up*
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: brad82 on April 24, 2008, 11:25:01 AM
I can only say one word  BRILLIANT!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: yoni on May 01, 2008, 01:02:07 PM
שלום אני חדש
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Gary on May 01, 2008, 10:56:20 PM
Please use English when outside of the language boards.

Cheers.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on May 23, 2008, 01:26:51 AM
Quote from: acynonyxx on May 22, 2008, 11:02:35 PM
What I have found is that the open source software I've downloaded seems to have more integrity and work better than the commercial software generally. I don't know if that is a rule or an exception to a rule.
And I don't know if that will change if/when open source is no longer an "underdog" and no longer has something to prove. It's possible, I recall the the old saying "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

I'm not really sure it will change. The open movement is defined by making software that the developer wants/has interest in. This leads to quality because it is more driven by the desire to make it rather than some external pressure. Unfortunately, this can also lead to uneven quality as not all developers are equal and as interest and need changes.

Take SMF for example. Although we'd love to see it be the top software choice (hey, the team has great love for the project), a lot of what the developers do on the software is what interests them. There is a lot of external feedback from others using the software on where to go, but in the end, the feature set is defined by those building it.


Quote from: acynonyxx on May 22, 2008, 11:02:35 PM
An example would be Windows Vista, in which MS tried to pack in everything that they thought everybody wanted and made it really flashy, etc, etc, but, as far as I have seen, most Windows users prefer XP to Vista. So it didn't work.

And don't forget the fact that the most of the big touted features (WinFS anyone?) were dropped because they were way too ambitious (and poorly defined, imo). The big problem with Windows is the huge baggage of backwards compatibility. It's a self-made problem, but something they will need to solve (virtualization seems a nice way out - kinda like OS X's "classic" mode) to actually advance.


Quote from: acynonyxx on May 22, 2008, 11:02:35 PM
Part of this has to do with the degradation of marketing to using crude and obvious manipulation (and also subtle, not-so-obvious psychological manipulation) as a way to sell products, which disrespects people in general and the culture as a whole.
It didn't used to be this way, but the change has come in the past couple of decades and has been
very subtle and almost invisible to those who might not be paying attention.

I think marketing has for the most part gone the opposite way. It is much more subtle and invasive now. Back in the old days, it was very obvious (I've had to do research on old advertising for a college course). Sure, some advertising is very ham-handed and obvious, but I can't help but wonder if that wasn't the point. Ever wondered why deodorant packaging is (rarely) red or orange? It's because of marketing research.


Quote from: acynonyxx on May 22, 2008, 11:02:35 PM
So an honest creation (whether we are talking about software, music, movies, or whatever) is almost forced to steer clear of the world of marketing in order to maintain its integrity.
I think that is very sad.

I don't think that is 100% true. Rather, I think that integrity calls for a different type of, and more honest marketing. Perhaps, it needs to be more obvious, even.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: lukasztarkowski on May 27, 2008, 08:33:47 PM
I like this forum and I'm glad its free :)
Making themes for this forum is easy :)
If I could support them I would, but for many reasons I cannot send money to donate to anyone on the net :(
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: setthedark on June 03, 2008, 07:54:01 AM
No offense toward SMF team , i like this forum and everything how is desgined , and in some point it might be batter then invision , but in near future none will supras Invision Power Board!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ben_S on June 03, 2008, 08:50:08 AM
Use IPB then? ::)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Oldiesmann on June 09, 2008, 04:10:34 PM
From the YaBB SE 1.5.1 (http://www.yabbse.org/community/index.php?thread=21033/0) release topic:

QuoteOne thing you will notice is that this package is no longer released under the terms of the GPL.  The developers felt that while the GPL is a popular license it did not protect the source code as was felt needed.  This does not mean that YaBBSE is no longer open source software.  YaBBSE is and always will be open source software.  The new license was written to meet guidlines for open source certification.

I don't remember a whole lot about this as this all happened around the same time that I started using YaBB SE (I believe 1.5.1 was the first version I ever used), but I think the biggest issue was that people were blaming the YaBB SE team for security issues caused by changes made in modified distributions. David, [Unknown] or Compuart could probably explain it more.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ben_S on June 10, 2008, 04:23:43 AM
Basically, some clown forked YaBB SE, then went on a spree round various forums claiming YSE was insecure & his own forum had all the problems fixed. Which was a load of bull basically, his clone was just as insecure & buggy as YSE was.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: baanhinghoy on June 10, 2008, 12:42:20 PM
This forum is great!!

ทดสอบภาษาไทยครับผม
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: dejiman on July 07, 2008, 02:10:10 PM
The software is mervelous.
I don't know how to say my appreciation.

SMF GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT and GREAT forever.

please SMF people(users) just like me, let's continue to encourage SMF Developers and programmers etc... with something appreciating..

Thanks SMF you have really kept my pocket.

Regards

www.dejimanaire.com (http://www.dejimanaire.com)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Eliana Tamerin on July 07, 2008, 04:43:17 PM
We have your pocket? Really?! Then why aren't you a charter, yet? :P

Just a little humor for you.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: dejiman on July 07, 2008, 06:39:16 PM
I mean saving me money rather than paying for some BULLETIN BOARD stuff. like VBULLETIN.....uh

Quote from: Eliana Tamerin on July 07, 2008, 04:43:17 PM
We have your pocket? Really?! Then why aren't you a charter, yet? :P

Just a little humor for you.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: metallica48423 on July 07, 2008, 07:04:36 PM
welcome :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: BCK on September 18, 2008, 04:35:04 PM
well..i know free always seems great..we all like it..im new at this and do use smf,,,but must admit..i liked it enough to get a charter membership,,for the main reason..that it helps keep things going,,and believe if you get smf..use and like it..a donation or chartermembership..if you can afford to...will help keep good products like this alive,for us all to use and enjoy..as for the  "by smf" at the bottom of my site,,i leave it there for all to see..not much..but hopefully helps ...my hat off to all involved here,,,staff and members alike..ive gotten some great help here from both sides,keep up the awesome job...all of you...thx
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: joshuam08 on September 24, 2008, 07:53:23 AM
Best Software EVER!!!  ;D

Keep Up The Good Work!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sonic on September 25, 2008, 07:32:08 AM
I can only echo what has already been said...A brilliant peice of software and a big thanks to all of you guys when I do something wrong, always a quick response and very helpful.

Keep up the good work guys, I applaud you.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: simmer on October 01, 2008, 11:36:14 AM
yeah yeah yeah i love smf :D :D :D smf is no 1 :D proud to be a owner of a sfm forum :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: thenepalgallery on October 05, 2008, 08:00:54 AM
Quote from: brad82 on April 24, 2008, 11:24:07 AM
Free is good. You've got your priority's right - IM ABSOLOUTLY DELIGHTED WITH THE SOFTWARE. really easy to use, moderate, and install *thumbs up*

yup its true
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: ccraciun on October 23, 2008, 04:43:21 AM
This way i want to say Thank you! to all developers and contributors of SMF and it's Mods!

I am very familiar with popular forums running IPB, but only now, after installing and testing SMF for my own community, i could not understand why someone would use something else, thinking at all the customization an features available for SMF - and all of these for free!
I tried PhpBB but, just to exprim myself with diplomacy, SMF is much better! ;)

I wish that you will keep up the good work and i hope that my community will become popular - this way to be able to support  the further development of your great work.

Thank you!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: domineaux on November 01, 2008, 09:10:57 PM
I got ragged into the mud for slamming all the Joomla commercial software extensions.

Joomla lets those payware guys advertise and promote their stuff for free.

I think they should at least have to pay for promotion.

The payware guys for Joomla are entrenched all over the Joomla community boards.

They'll nail you fast for talking down paywere extensions.  In other words, the payware boys have clout on Joomla.

It always irks me when people take free Linux, free Apache, free php and make a script and then sell it.

Then they usually don't sell enough of their addon to properly support it.

So, the poor buyer of an application that should have been OS all the while gets the stick.

I wouldn't mind if SMF put ads in the forums. Most of us know those click thrus are good for revenue for the site.





Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Ranjeet Malik on December 15, 2008, 02:00:16 PM
Better Than Others and whats this its FREE Too :-*
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: vmgamer on December 18, 2008, 03:44:42 AM
SMF da best!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: taha116 on December 19, 2008, 11:40:36 AM
SMF is under appriciated and needs to get a chance in the spotlight like phpbb and stuff!

SMF Rules
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: hafizadam on December 23, 2008, 06:11:20 AM
SMF is great and I installed all forums in my Organization's web using SMF..
haha I'm the Admin so no complaints..

most people didnt want to convert to SMF maybe because there's much work to do after that.. maybe..
(i never converting forum before so i'm not sure)
after all, their forum has grown really big..
they're afraid there'll be much work to do: changing code or something like that..
or the links will change... image, or looks..
whateva..

maybe you need to put demos in the converting thread..
before and after..
something like that..

btw, i love the link etiology..
even if I moved the thread into different category, they'll not change..
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Luage on February 07, 2009, 03:15:51 PM
Quote from: Golden_Helmet on September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM
To be brief, this is the BEST forum software i've EVER used. I've never been able to install a forum myself, that is, untill i tried SMF. I've used quite a few forums in my time, and this one definetly tops them all.

Now, in to more detail. I'm fairly new to the world of installable forums (i used to think that if you wanted a forum, you had to code it yourself, good times :P ).When compared to my previous long-time favorite, Invision Power Board, the invision board seems as bad as that crummy phpBB board that php-nuke installed for me. When used on the same host (dhost.info is my fav), my old Invision Power Board 2.0 PF3 took an average of 0.3-1.6 seconds to create the page. With SMF, my average time is 0.02-0.3 seconds. Quite a nice difference. As far as SQL goes, i was getting SQL errors on my second day with IPB, i'm on day 4 with SMF and i havent had a single problem yet (and i havent optimized yet either).
Installation was also quite easy, and it would have been even easier is my damn FTP program would work right for a change. Asides from having php-nuke's phpbb module install some phpbb forums for me, i've never installed a forum myself before. With SMF though, even me, a complete idiot, was able to get a fully functional forum running in less than 15 minutes.
Let's have a look at things from an admins point of veiw now. The admin CP is easy to use, dosent take forever to load *shakes fist at Invision*, and i can do so much customization that i'm getting lightheaded.
Now, from a client's point of veiw. It may take a while to find the "Post new topic" button, but other than that, theres plenty of toy's for clients to play with in their profile controls, post options, and so on. SMF is fun to use as both an admin and a client, who could be displeased with that? :)
Now, for features, did you guys ever consider holding back on that? I mean, come on, this is a free forum, and it has more toy's than any pay-for forum that i've ever seen, it's just not fair (for them) :P

To wrap things up, SMF is fun, easy to use, powerfull, free, and everything in-between. Who could ask more? You guys did a great job on this forum system, i honestly didn't think there was anything better than IPB :)

QFT   :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: D9r on February 09, 2009, 04:04:10 PM
Quote from: Fiery on November 06, 2007, 01:32:22 AM
Quote
vBulletin seems better on the outside, but not on the inside. SMF seems real good on the inside, and ok on the outside.

How can SMF improve on the outside?  We appreciate any input.
Thanks

One thing that I like very much on vBulletin, and that I wish were on SMF, is vBulletins 'Suscribe-to-this-topic' feature. I like being able to mark a topic as a favorite that goes in a list for future reference. Very nice.

Other than that, SMF looks good. I haven't used it yet but am planning to. I just hope the xhtml/css eventually validates for 1.0 Strict, and the markup becomes clean and uncluttered..
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on February 09, 2009, 04:17:31 PM
Quote from: D9r on February 09, 2009, 04:04:10 PM
One thing that I like very much on vBulletin, and that I wish were on SMF, is vBulletins 'Suscribe-to-this-topic' feature. I like being able to mark a topic as a favorite that goes in a list for future reference. Very nice.

Use "Notify". It's the same thing (except topics you participated in are not auto-notified, and have a special area to avoid conflating things).


Quote from: D9r on February 09, 2009, 04:04:10 PM
Other than that, SMF looks good. I haven't used it yet but am planning to. I just hope the xhtml/css eventually validates for 1.0 Strict, and the markup becomes clean and uncluttered..

The problem with Strict validation is that it removes the target attribute from the a tag. We use this in things such as the links in our copyright, etc. The alternative is to use a Javascript function, which can be messier. Nevertheless, there is an option to force for strict validation in the upcoming 2.0 (on a per-theme basis) that uses the workaround. It's up to the theme authors to choose to enable this option.

There are a few other issues with missing functionality in strict versus transitional, but I believe the target issue is the main one.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Dannii on February 09, 2009, 05:45:57 PM
There's another option you know, not to use target attributes at all ;)

"Missing" is completely the wrong word too! Transitional was meant for legacy pages that couldn't be easily updated, it wasn't supposed to be the new standard. HTML4 Strict is what HTML4 is supposed to be.

HTML5 adds it back in btw. Has the team considered aiming for that?

Also, fake XHTML still sucks :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Tiribulus on February 09, 2009, 11:24:23 PM
Some may find this: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums?s=50009562&a=tpc&m=381003756931&f=6330927813 (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums?s=50009562&a=tpc&m=381003756931&f=6330927813) entertaining.

It's how I found SMF through a very experienced forums guy's enthusiastic recommendation.

As anybody would immediately gather my only experience with forums at all started on the 14th of January, but I have been thoroughly impressed not only with the package itself, but this community as well. Good stuff.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Eliana Tamerin on February 10, 2009, 01:12:15 AM
Very entertaining. The debate continues. Both forum softwares have their good points and bad points, and SMF does have those negative draws as well. But none of us would be here if we didn't like SMF. :P
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: coucnilhomeswap on February 17, 2009, 03:53:18 PM
i dunno if my opinion counts on this but i personally would not touch any other forum scripts with a ten foot barge pole. Simple Machines Rocks, Always has and always will.

The Community support i recieve on here nearly everyday is unparaleled. No other website on the World Wide Web can or ever will match SMF forums. If this ever happens i will show my bare butt cheeks in trafalgar square in london.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Antechinus on February 17, 2009, 04:16:47 PM
Do it anyway, just for a laugh. YouTube it too. Kthnx.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: coucnilhomeswap on February 17, 2009, 04:19:55 PM
ok Antechinus nobody likes a smart ass. i was only messing as i know it will never happen. just been reading some comments about SMF on Hotscripts
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Antechinus on February 17, 2009, 04:28:59 PM
I was only messing too.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: coucnilhomeswap on February 17, 2009, 04:42:25 PM
i know you were mate. No worries
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Antechinus on February 17, 2009, 04:49:00 PM
It would be funny though. Imagine the reactions you'd get. :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: coucnilhomeswap on February 17, 2009, 06:34:33 PM
Ive been looking at a few other forum scripts and to be quite honest none compare to SMF at all.

One script when installed didnt display the main template to the site properly infact it didnt display any images at all just the basic board out-line.

And well the other 3 were just s**t basically
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Eliana Tamerin on February 17, 2009, 07:02:08 PM
Imagine the jail time he'd get! :P

Thanks for your vote of confidence, alan1979.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Tiribulus on February 17, 2009, 08:14:10 PM
Quote from: alan1979 on February 17, 2009, 03:53:18 PM
<<< The Community support i recieve on here nearly everyday is unparaleled.  >>>

You'd be lucky to get paid support this good in a lot of cases. Take it from somebody with 10 years of corporate PC support (Ford Motor Company) under his belt who knows. There are some folks floating around here with frightening skills in the relevant areas who are also very free about sharing them.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: silvios on September 08, 2009, 10:00:33 AM
Understand that IF this forum goes start selling it, alot of the supporters will leave. IPB is a prime example as they started free.

I havent fully taken a look at this forum, which i am doing now. Just tried phpBB and, holy ******.. it sucks. no offense to phpbb.. but ******.. templates and adding mods is a royal pain in the ass. (Now this can just be me, so please try them out for yourself.)


I have been using IPB for a few years now, and havent had any complaints and i tried SMF a while ago and didnt like it, but things improve. So i figure why not try it again.

When you start selling software it is harder to get volunteers to help you, since your making money people want to be paid. So this amazing support could go else where. Who knows.

IF this software ever starts selling, i would suggest possibly considering leaving it free for those with smaller forums, or those not profiting from it. Or even selling it to them for a lower cost. Of course personally i would want it to be free, but i know how much it can cost to start up a site. and the bigger the site the more money your paying for servers. licenses, domains, SSL certificates, bandwidth, it adds up
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: babjusi on September 08, 2009, 10:05:29 AM
Quote from: silvios on September 08, 2009, 10:00:33 AM
Understand that IF this forum goes start selling it, alot of the supporters will leave. IPB is a prime example as they started free.

I havent fully taken a look at this forum, which i am doing now. Just tried phpBB and, holy ******.. it sucks. no offense to phpbb.. but ******.. templates and adding mods is a royal pain in the ass. (Now this can just be me, so please try them out for yourself.)


I have been using IPB for a few years now, and havent had any complaints and i tried SMF a while ago and didnt like it, but things improve. So i figure why not try it again.

When you start selling software it is harder to get volunteers to help you, since your making money people want to be paid. So this amazing support could go else where. Who knows.

IF this software ever starts selling, i would suggest possibly considering leaving it free for those with smaller forums, or those not profiting from it. Or even selling it to them for a lower cost. Of course personally i would want it to be free, but i know how much it can cost to start up a site. and the bigger the site the more money your paying for servers. licenses, domains, SSL certificates, bandwidth, it adds up

The Smf Leading has been very firm on the software remaing free, so no worry there.

Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sshahnawaz on September 19, 2009, 03:24:55 AM
I say SMF is the best solution I have ever seen for creating and managing a forum or a community website. It has all the tools and enhancements one can imagine...  :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: orelanic on September 19, 2009, 06:30:38 PM
Quite simply I think SMF is the best forum software I have used. :D
Lots of thanks to the team and the comunity :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: nextz77 on October 03, 2009, 02:33:26 PM
Just my opinion, I`m using SMF too with one reason because its free and I didnt afraid if SMF will be an old fashion because they have team that develop SMF to be better in each version.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: orelanic on October 07, 2009, 08:23:07 PM
I just like to offer my congrats to the team, I have tried other forums and this one rocks, it easy to install and a nice speedy forums to boot :)

Just waiting for the new final release before going nuts :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sshahnawaz on October 08, 2009, 02:49:57 AM
Me too...  :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Wolflux on October 20, 2009, 10:58:36 AM
SMF is the absolutely best forum software I have ever used. Not only does it come with powerful tools and excellent efficiency, it's also very secure and flexible!

I've been running stress tests on a LAN server, just to test how much stress the forum software can handle and no matter what I did, the software didn't disappoint.
That is why I'm also coding my own website to function intimately with SMF; it's the safest thing I could do for it.


I recommend SMF to everyone who wants to run a community forum of any kind!
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kamali on November 01, 2009, 03:37:00 AM
I have used UBB, which seems quite limited from what the Admin has said of the Admin CP.

I have admined PHBPP, and while the older version was okay, I hate the latest version - talk about confusing!! 

I have forums with InvisionFree, they use an old version of IPB, and the software is great.  I also have a bought IPB forum, the software is bang up to date and it was great until the latest version which has made me realise that it is time to move on from IPB.  :(

Now I am making a new forum for a group of friends.  I tried the new 'ZetaBoard' software, and it's dreadful.

I looked at vBulletin, and I have to admit I loved it.  The Admin CP is very like the old IPB Admin CP.  Just as I had decided on paying $180 for a vBulletin licence, someone mentioned SMF.

So, I had a look round, saw that people liked it, saw a couple of screenshots.  Couldn't find a demo version so gave up on the idea.

Then I found a free (advert-supported) site that uses SMF, so I registered for a site so I could check out the Admin CP.  A couple of hours later, I knew that SMF was for me.  It has the simplicity of the old IPB versions, the clean look of vBulletin, so many mods and skins that people seemed to have no trouble installing, and a friendly helpful help forum.

So I got some webspace, installed SMF - quaking all the way, as this is all way beyond anything I've tried before - applied mods, applied skins, need to figure out how to do fix something (which is why I'm here in the help forum, lol, trying to find out how to fix a bit of the skin to the right of the logo that is the old grey colour instead of the new green one), and can only say that based on all my forum experience so far:  SMF is right up there with the best of them!  :D

Actually, I am so impressed I am considering terminating my contract with Invision when it runs out and changing to SMF.  I saw converters mentioned somewhere, so it should be possible to convert IPB to SMF.

Great work by everyone involved, and I'll be making a donation very soon.   :)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen on November 01, 2009, 03:47:20 AM
Welcome to SMF Kamali. :) I have to say it is always a pleasure reading feedback like yours.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Kamali on November 01, 2009, 08:23:07 AM
Thanks for the welcome, Lex - it was a pleasure for me to be able to write such positive feedback.   :D
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: sshahnawaz on November 01, 2009, 12:15:16 PM
I found a great gesture here.   :)
I am seriously thinking on how to write next time to be appreciated by LexArma.....  ;)
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: YogiBear on December 13, 2009, 07:40:08 PM
My only grumble about SMF is I wish Mod Authors would automatically include UTF-8 support or at least language packs which can be installed via the packet manager.

Otherwise, SMF is light years ahead of the opposition.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Arantor on December 13, 2009, 07:44:14 PM
Mod authors can add English UTF-8 support easily enough, though other languages may be difficult; mod authors may not know how to get transliterations/transcoding working.

As for language packs via the package manager... interesting idea.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: x86cam on May 22, 2010, 09:17:49 AM
I have never heard of smf until
I saw mattmakesgames.com/forum last year,
a couple months later I was wanting to build a forum, I started out with PhpBB(Sucks) and then Forumotion..... At summer break of 2009... I did not want ones that were on domains like yourname.forumotion.com so I started looking up some forums... I discovered mattmakesgames forum. I was looking in the top right corner(IDontKnow..) and I saw simplemachines. So I searched simplemachines and I found this website, not the community... I downloaded the SMF 1.1.10 software and then I set it up. My forum has currently no members on it. But I want people to join. Look at the forum http://igeek.netau.net/forum hosted with 000webhost.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Liam. on May 23, 2010, 06:32:01 AM
To those comments back in December... Aren't I to believe that one part of the Customization Site upgrades was to bring SMF's translators closer to the mod authors?
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: GarryRicketson on June 20, 2011, 08:28:11 PM
It is great that SMF free, and also all the open source software, which in so may cases is better, then paid or purchased software.
Something I have hard time understanding, though, is why so many people are "down" on any one useing free hosting, or any forums, useing free hosts ?---seems contradictory,..to me,..but thats normal I uasually am confused about everything.
from Garry
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: mashby on June 20, 2011, 08:35:34 PM
SMF is software. Hosting is hardware and control of the environment that your site lives on. I don't have anything against free hosting at all but I also don't use it nor do I mind paying for hosting. Makes it a more comfortable environment for me. To each his or her own.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: Illori on June 20, 2011, 09:07:36 PM
a lot of people find that free hosting has too many restrictions and they can use issues as well.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: 青山 素子 on June 20, 2011, 10:36:04 PM
Quote from: GarryRicketson on June 20, 2011, 08:28:11 PM
Something I have hard time understanding, though, is why so many people are "down" on any one useing free hosting, or any forums, useing free hosts ?---seems contradictory,..to me,..but thats normal I uasually am confused about everything.

Software, like SMF, is a one-time acquisition investment. It has a fixed cost. Also, once you download a copy of the software, you "own" that copy of the software.

However, "free" hosting is an ongoing expense for the provider of the service. Nearly all of these services are funded by advertising revenue. As the costs are ongoing, and the revenue is coming from these other companies, you wind up not being the customer of these services. The people paying the bills are the customers. You are just the product that brings the eyes that help the revenue. Also, becuase the revenue stream is often so small in relation to the costs, the service level will be much poorer as the host needs to cut down expenses. That means heavily packed servers, very restrictive rules to restrict resource use, etc.
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: theyunus on June 22, 2011, 12:17:30 AM
Whoever runs that SMF board (currently at position 105) needs to update its profile
Title: Re: My opinion on SMF
Post by: totook on June 22, 2011, 11:30:06 PM
i like it free!because i m not as rich as others! yeah!