Hopeless.

[bbbbbbb]

Too many topics. I don't know where to start to get the help I need. Which particular topic do I post under. I simply need a bit of help installing the download mod and can't find it anywhere. Spent an hour looking. Back to phbb .

[Dannii]

http://docs.simplemachines.org

Try there

[gamesmad]

You have to be joking?  phpBB support forums are 10x more confusing than here.  If you need to find a specific topic, try the search box in the top right.

Will

[Remaker]

Too many topics. I don't know where to start to get the help I need. Which particular topic do I post under. I simply need a bit of help installing the download mod and can't find it anywhere. Spent an hour looking. Back to phbb .

Use the search feauture, look around, post your question, it's not so hard!
I'm sure you will not find a forum on the internet where the information you need pops out to you!

[Gary]

If you cant find anything, post.

-AwwLilMaggie

[Rob Roye]

Another thing to keep in mind. Unlike some other places, this forum's population doesn't seem to attack people for posting a question that was already posted 209843087365 years ago and was hidden away in a small sub-section of Hades that no one has been to since.

In other words - feel free to repost if you can't find something after 15 or so minutes of looking. Give it a good try  (really, please do) but if you cannot find the answer - post.

It's MUCH more productive than making your first post a notice that you'll be leaving.

[sandfly]

Whoa! What do you want for fee?

If you want an abrasive forum, try the postfix mail list!  This is heaven by comparison!

And while I'm here (takes up the position), Thanks for some great software guys. I run for or five small forums - Just moved the latest to SMF!  a joy to use. Waiting for the latest stable version of 1.

[phu]

Unlike some other places, this forum's population doesn't seem to attack people for posting a question that was already posted 209843087365 years ago and was hidden away in a small sub-section of Hades that no one has been to since.

Very true... however, it usually feels like pulling teeth here to get answers to anything that isn't "where is the reply button."

The only thing I miss about running phpBB is that the support there definitely is a lot better.  Not taking anything away from SMF -- I'm still using it, that's for sure -- but while the atmosphere on phpbb.com is not as friendly, help is MUCH easier to find.  That's largely to do with the size of their user base, I would think, but it's still a pretty sharp contrast that's difficult to deal with when switching over.

It's great that there are people here who are dedicated to providing answers to SMF questions, but it's disconcerting that there is little to no helpful developer presence on the forums.  Makes it extremely frustrating and difficult to get answers that would be obvious to someone familiar with the code.

[Dannii]

There's a strong developer presence here, and if theres a topic that needs their attention that they don't see we'll often point them to it.

[phu]

I have yet to see a post from a developer in any thread I've been involved in, even when that kind of input was necessary.  Case in point: The feature request for avatar file size limitations.  It's been up for over two months, and has had two SMF support people posting contradictory guesses with no attention from a dev.

Before that, I had attempted to find out about options for automatically marking posts read, the 'last post' functionality (which is still broken in 1.0.8, even for what it's intended to do), and a couple other topics that could have been settled very quickly through programmer attention.  I've yet to see it.

Perhaps I'm posting in the wrong sections, or maybe I'm just a jerk and the devs don't like me, but based solely on my own experiences, I would not call this a 'strong developer presence.'

[gamesmad]

There certainly is a strong developer presence, look at the member list.  All the developers come online, and they all post regularly.

Will

[phu]

Uh... that's fine and all, but if they're not posting in threads that need their attention, they might as well be used car salesmen for all the good their 'strong presence' is doing for the community.

Personally, I would not expect devs to be posting here.  I would hope, though, that at least some of the support staff would be familiar enough with the code and the actual functionality beyond the GUI that someone would be able to answer questions that would go to a programmer in a more formal environment.

That doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon here, so if the devs are in fact browsing and posting in such a way as to solve the problems of those of us less fluent with SMF, perhaps my luck is just astronomically poor.  It's possible.  Doubtful, but possible.

[Thantos]

phu, I looked through your recent posts and honestly I didn't see a topic requiring dev's response.  It looks like your support questions were answered.  Feature requests often don't get a dev response right away, especially towards the nearing of a final release.  I can honestly say I haven't looked at the feature request board lately, because right now I'm working on getting 1.1 out the door.  Once thats done I'll be going through that board and seeing what is being asked for and what would make good features in the next version (or even versions after that).

[Joshua Dickerson]

Feature requests almost never get a post giving a definite yes/no unless the feature has been created in an upcoming release or was created in a past release. If the team were to give a definite yes/no and we didn't deliver what was expected, people begin to complain. You are more likely to get a feature made as a mod than a feature. Try asking in the Mod requests forum next time.

[phu]

If devs aren't going to respond to feature requests, perhaps this part of the feature request readme should indicate that it is not likely that users will receive a response at all.  I'm looking through that entire post, and I see nothing to that effect; all I see is "responses you might get," which, to me, implies that there is likely to be one.

Besides, if a dev isn't going to bother to respond, it'd be nice to have someone who actually knows what's going on -- you have an entire section of your forum devoted to feature requests, and the 'support specialists' can't agree on what is or is not being worked on or even considered.

Ask in the mod requests forum?  Give me a break.  The specific feature I'm referring to is very basic; there are MANY features of SMF that could or should be mods instead of features, and this is not one of them.  If your stance is "just ask for a mod," why bother having a feature request forum?  If you want people to contribute and suggest things in this manner, don't turn around and tell them "We're not going to answer you; just request a mod next time."

I understand that developers don't have time to sift through every whiny "I want this!  Implement my feature!" post on the board.  But three months with no developer input and conflicting support responses?  Sorry, that just seems excessive to me.

If you don't intend to respond to our requests, let us know in the Feature Requests readme.  We're trying to help SMF (even if it is for our own purposes); don't leave us hanging.

[Thantos]

If I was to respond strictly as the readme would suggest then every feature request would have a response of "Denied" as they aren't going to make it into SMF 1.1.  I think the confusion between the support specialist is because this was something that was discussed.  And honestly all Ben said was he believed it was in the DE version and then huwnet said it wasn't.  Not really that big of an issue.  I've been corrected before about something that I thought was/wasn't in and it turned out the opposite is true.  Its no big deal.

Now, seeing as this topic has vastly diverted from the orginal course, and it has no positive future, lets go ahead and stop this now.