Hi Everyone!
I am looking at starting up a forum and am currently trying to figure out which forum is suitable for me. Apologies in advance if it's a lengthy post but any help is much appreciated.
I am looking for a forum that has/does/can do:
- Polls/Voting features for members to be able to vote on certain topics and questions
- User Profiles that are customizable
- Subscription feature that gives me the ability to make certain sections of the forum subscription based only.
- Reputation system for users that is based on posts/thumbs up/contribution. This will also be good if I can customize it to give users badges/stars/or any custom icon
- Option to react (Like facebook and whatsapp) or thumbs up other users' posts
- Spam protection to avoid bots/external users from signing up and spamming the forum or posting inappropriate content
- A donate option for users who wish to donate and contribute to the forum (Not sure if it's classified as the same as the subscription feature). This is more for users to donate any amount of their choosing towards the forum if they would like to support
- Be able to make users of my choosing moderators or super moderators with custom permissions in order to help manage the forum
Questions:
• Is it possible to make a certain section of the forum follow a template (made by me) for users to fill out and submit? Once they do, a post will be made with their answers against the template and then users can respond to it. This will be used for feedback purposes. I would like my users to be able to give and share their feedback via this template.
• This is something that I may consider eventually - not at the beginning: Is it possible to set up a shop via a different page on the forum to sell merchandise?
• Say I have a special section in the forum that contains a lot of topics. Am I able to make it so that certain users or ranks can only view 2-3(or any number) of these topics once every 3(or any number here) days? Is this customizable?
Thanks a lot!
Hello there and welcome to the SMF community! :)
I'd say that with appropriate mods you can easily do what you need. (the bold part from your message)
Regards your questions though, not sure about the 'post template' part, we had a mod for 2.0.x branch but I can't find a suitable one for 2.1x though, but I assume one will appear soon-ish.
The shop is also possible with a mod, and limiting views for specific membergroup was also possible on earlier branches, so I also think it will be possible with a mod (can't find one right now).
Hope you'll enjoy using SMF, it's really customizable and easy to use once you get around. I suggest setting one for a test and giving it a ride! :)
Quote from: Siloxic on July 14, 2022, 12:50:13 AM- Polls/Voting features for members to be able to vote on certain topics and questions
- User Profiles that are customizable
- Subscription feature that gives me the ability to make certain sections of the forum subscription based only.
- Reputation system for users that is based on posts/thumbs up/contribution. This will also be good if I can customize it to give users badges/stars/or any custom icon
- Option to react (Like facebook and whatsapp) or thumbs up other users' posts
- Spam protection to avoid bots/external users from signing up and spamming the forum or posting inappropriate content
- A donate option for users who wish to donate and contribute to the forum (Not sure if it's classified as the same as the subscription feature). This is more for users to donate any amount of their choosing towards the forum if they would like to support
- Be able to make users of my choosing moderators or super moderators with custom permissions in order to help manage the forum
Polls are a built in feature.
There is no mod to allow customization of profiles (such as changing the colors, a header image, etc.). Custom profile pictures are a built in feature though.
Paid subscriptions are built in as well.
There's a mod for badges, but no built-in reputation system
The option to "like" posts is a built-in feature, and there are a couple of different mods to add Facebook-style reactions
There is no specific donate option, but it's not hard to add a Paypal "Donate" button somewhere
You can make people moderators (moderation permissions only on the boards where you make them moderators) or global moderators (designed for people who will have moderation features throughout the forum). You can also assign individual membergroups as board moderators. The permission system is quite flexible and will allow you to do whatever you want for moderation purposes.
Thank you for your responses! It is good to know that a lot of the features are already built in.
Quote from: Dzonny on July 14, 2022, 03:19:30 AMRegards your questions though, not sure about the 'post template' part, we had a mod for 2.0.x branch but I can't find a suitable one for 2.1x though, but I assume one will appear soon-ish.
The shop is also possible with a mod, and limiting views for specific membergroup was also possible on earlier branches, so I also think it will be possible with a mod (can't find one right now).
The creation of a template(by me) for my users to fill out and post as feedback is quite a main & essential feature that I'd want to have. Of course, it can be done manual but it's best if the users are able to just click and fill an existing template. I'll have a look around :laugh:
There's always the custom form mod which people fill in and it creates a templated post from that.
Quote from: Arantor on July 16, 2022, 01:53:30 PMThere's always the custom form mod which people fill in and it creates a templated post from that.
Hi Arantor! That could be just what I am looking for! Do you have any links for it or am I able to test it?
Also, I've noticed that SMF has more than 1 version (1.1, 2.0, 2.1) - Do mods/plugins that were made for 1.1 or so work on the latest SMF version? Apologies if it's a silly question ::)
No, you should always look to install mods that are compatible with your SMF version. And it's recommended you run the latest which is 2.1.
The custom form mod: https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=1279
As you can see that mod is only compatible with SMF 2.1.x
Quote from: Diego Andrés on July 17, 2022, 01:29:50 AMNo, you should always look to install mods that are compatible with your SMF version. And it's recommended you run the latest which is 2.1.
The custom form mod: https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=1279
As you can see that mod is only compatible with SMF 2.1.x
Thank you
@Diego Andrés I had a quick search through the 2.1 compatible mods/plugins but couldn't find any mods related to Donations/Paypal/Subscriptions although they do exist for previous versions of SMF from what I could see. Will such mods be developed for 2.1.x soon/eventually or is this unknown? If not, is there another way to implement paid membership access to certain sections of the forum with version 2.1?
Subscriptions are still a default feature, check in the admin under the members area. Can't recall if you need to enable it in 2.1
They do have to be enabled.
Quote from: Diego Andrés on July 17, 2022, 01:29:50 AMNo, you should always look to install mods that are compatible with your SMF version. And it's recommended you run the latest which is 2.1.
Definitely this. If you are setting up a new forum go for 2.1 NOT the earlier 2.0 version
Quote from: Siloxic on July 18, 2022, 01:12:18 AMI had a quick search through the 2.1 compatible mods/plugins but couldn't find any mods related to Donations/Paypal/Subscriptions although they do exist for previous versions of SMF from what I could see. Will such mods be developed for 2.1.x soon/eventually or is this unknown?
For existing 2.0 mods you can go to their conversation threads (linked at the top of the mod page, for any given mod) and see if there has been any recent discussion there.
Otherwise the answer is 'unknown'.