Board administration features, please?

[Brat]

First off, I'm very excited to learn of this project. I've been using YABBSE on my site since Version 1.4x. I looked at other forum softwares (including all the usual suspects), but this was the only board that had the power and features I needed while not requiring me to give up my day job and personal life to skin the damned thing. 

However, I must admit - I was evaluating other forum packages recently due to YABBSE's - shall we say - meager forum controls.

I guess it's easier for me to point to what I do like to help 'splain. I really, really like the controls afforded by, say, Invision Board with respect to forum / board access and member controls. At my site, some discussions need to be held out of general public viewing, and Invision's setup makes it easier for me to create and manage the user groups and related features.

For example, in Invision, I can define a board for password access separate from the main login. Another really neat feature is that boards can be hidden altogether from general view. Almost every
feature of board functionality was controllable from the administrative panel. That included administrative assignments (i.e., levels of mod-dum beyond just admin, global moderator and moderator). And, as a little thing, I liked that the administrative controls opened in their own separate window (so I didn't have to leave my normal board view).

Currently, in YABBSE, most of the above features are not available.

Even so,  I am still with YABBSE. For all its great features, I just found Invision (and phpBB for that matter) just too difficult to change aesthetically without giving me a headache.

Truth is, I don't want to migrate to another platform. My users love the boards, as they're easy to navigate and use. My site staff, however, is grumbling about the austere administrative controls (or lack thereof).

I searched here for some more info as to exactly what SM is going to do regarding these issues. Will there be greater administrative / board controls? All these new board features are great, but without commensurate administrative features, it's like having a Hummer with a lawnmower engine - kinda defeats the purpose.

Our users will get the joy of SM (because I am going to switch over as soon as a stable version is available). So, may my staffers and I have some nice new forum controls to go along with it? Please? :: looks for begging smilie ::

Thanks for letting me have my two-cents (of course adjusted upward for inflation), and I look forward to using SM when it's ready.

Regards,
Brat.

[[Unknown]]

I'll repsond with more later, but the permissions system is probably going to be your favorite thing about SMF.

(can't type much at the moment, sorry.)

-[Unknown]

[charlottezweb]

Maybe you know this already, but you can setup "hidden" boards already using user groups in YSE

Jason

[Brat]

Yep, I know about the groups feature for controling access. I've actually used it. While it does work for very small restricted forums, it becomes tedious after at time. Also, sometimes you don't want the board "hidden" so much as the access restricted, and therefore requiring a password for access offers another alternative.

I am really looking forward to seeing what Simple Machines will do. I like what I see.  I KNEW in the long run YABBSE was the right way to go, and this just proves it.

Regards,
Brat.

[space]

I searched here for some more info as to exactly what SM is going to do regarding these issues. Will there be greater administrative / board controls? All these new board features are great, but without commensurate administrative features, it's like having a Hummer with a lawnmower engine - kinda defeats the purpose.

As things stand, got to agree with Brat, YSE's current admin features leave a lot to be desired. With due respect to Unknown, SMF is still "vaporware" at the moment - seeing is believing.

Reason for hanging out here is that I need to implement a member's forum like yesterday. I'm tossing between YSE and phpBB. Like Brat I'm looking to implement a user hierarchy of sorts - as in an "executive committee, members and joe public" sort of structure - basically a 'hidden', 'closed' and 'open' groups set up.

This seems to be something phpBB seems to have already - having only done some basic evaluation on both these beasts.

Looks like we may go with YSE as in having the better UI and setting it up as a closed pw protected entity. We'll see ...

[[Unknown]]

You can use the Allowed User mod for YaBB SE, I'm almost dead sure it does everything you're asking for.

Currently, SMF does not support password protected boards... mostly because this does not seem - imho - to be a standard forum feature.

However, requiring a password would not be difficult at all.  Add a field to boards, select it when loading the board, and then have an associative array in the session that tells what boards have already been entered with what passwords.  If it's not there yet, ask for a login, and put it in the array.

Bam.  Done - that wasn't hard, was it? (man, the existing board permissions system was a LOT more difficult to get in.)

-[Unknown]

[Brat]

Yay! Thanks [Unknown]!

To space and others evaluating forum softwares, I've installed almost every high-end open source / GPL / "free" package out there that's worth a darn (Invision Board, phpBB, OpenBB, etc.).

Yes, I like the administrative features of IB and phpBB, but the skinning / templating was just a bit too much overhead for me. Having to create 11 files, and macros, and...

I COULD do it, much like I COULD walk across hot coals, but why put myself through all that pain? 

Plus, NO community has been more supportive, responsive and helpful than the YABBSE community, and I see it holds the same for SMF. No matter how good a software is, if the community is non-responsive or rude, that's a turn-off. I'd posted some very reasonable questions at phpBB and at Invision Board. To date... NO responses. It's like they don't want to believe users of other forums exist, and thou art an infidel for having been "too stupid" to pick the "right one" upfront. So forget about migration - most of these folks will not be of any help TRUST ME. This is a deal-breaker for those of us with large or pre-existing boards (one forum I have is nearing the 23,000 post mark); losing posts and attachments is just something I cannot stomach at this point.

Whew! Didn't realize how much vinegar I'd built up about the whole situation. 

Anyway, Simple Machines is (almost) here. I'll give it a chance - if for no other reason than the alternatives are scary. 

Regards,
Brat.