SMF 1.0 Beta 6 Released to Charter Members

[Burpee]

SMF over IPB for me any time...

I've just been looking at one primary downside to SMF that I (and several of my members told me today that they) have been looking at.
The whole of the SMF board just tends to look cluttered. There is so much information on each page and it's just hard for newbies to recognize everything easily. This is also caused by a lot of xx-small font sizes, which make certain text hard to read even at 800x600 (for my dad it's virtually unreadable). Another thing is that the screen is just too horizontally oriented at times, when most people actually prefer a vertical use.
There should be a balance between having a page with no line breaks (horizontal) and a linebreak between every character (vertical). If the page is too horizontal, it will be harder to read and equally so when it is too vertical. It is however easier to read vertically than it is horizontally. Hope I explained this concept properly and didn't confuse you guys

I know these things are all theme related and that themes are (ofcourse) left to us, the people using the software, but I'm just attempting to give comments on SMF in general

[fastforum]

Yes i believe...but can anyone here release a bug free chat bubbles theme? huhuhu

[[Unknown]]

Just go to View -> Text Size -> Larger.  Makes everything bigger.

-[Unknown]

[Fizzy]

Or if you have a wheel mouse, hold CTRL key and scroll the wheel.

[ECCShaman]

I have used IPB and SMF. Here is some valuable input to take into consideration.

I used the latest version of IPB for my board needs before switching over to SMF. I started looking around for another board to use because of a serious security concern with IPB, which was the ease with which it could be hacked down. My IPB message board was hacked into twice, and the hacking finally took the IPB based board I was using complety off line, and the result was that I lost everything in the board - a board that had close to 1,000 members in it at the time.

I have found SMF to be safer than IPB in regards to hacking. SMF is also more user friendly than IPB, for both the administrator and the general / member user.

Give the developers and the charter members the time they need to complete the BETA process, and don't get impatient. What little time we have to wait until the final release will be worth the wait.

I am currently using the BETA 5 version and have had no major problems with it, which is much more than I can say for the IPB board program I was previously using - a program that was filled with problems.

To what I consider as IPB trolls posting here to disuade others from using SMF - please go elsewhere. SMF is a great program.

[Vinoth]

SMF Is the Best Board I have ever seen after i used PHPBB AND IPB/


I will say all of my friends to use it and make this team a great success.

[LiroyvH]

Hehe thats easy,
phpBB has security leaks and IPB doesnt have very much functionality

[Mike Bobbitt]

I think this is the wrong place to ask for a truly unbiased opinion. Folks here obviously prefer SMF for one reason or another, otherwise we'd all be on the IBP forums!

[Alisha]

They are all still there and NOT here, just becuse they don't know any better! Once they figure out whats up, they will be here also!

[CM]

I wonder what IPB author trying to do, IPB has become a big bunch of unusable garbage that nobody normal forum board user need!

I think nobody want to config IPB because of millions of different settings. I have observed IPB support boards has suspended all kind of support for newer versions and this is a mark of IPB become too complicated and most users run for seek another soft.

This is still good software, if you not start to add more options that nobody can use as rights on forums, little complicated biuild of easy thing

BTW. Is it long time left before this beya 6 arrive :=)

[Peter Duggan]

BTW. Is it long time left before this beya 6 arrive :=)

Beta 6 is a stop-gap release for Charter Members, so the next scheduled public release should be RC1.

[Cypher7]

Just go to View -> Text Size -> Larger.  Makes everything bigger.

-[Unknown]

Or if you have a wheel mouse, hold CTRL key and scroll the wheel.

This is something that I don't agree with... IMO. I don't like having to change my font size for one page/site. Mainly because it means you have changed it for every other page that you then open, and just looks wrong on most sites. Or you then have to change it back when you're done... ok so it's just a quick flick of the finger but doing it everytime you visit and leave that site it would just get annoying...  also you loose information when you do that... eg, on this page you would loose some of the text on the right hand side...

I don't do it for this site, but there are some sites I'd like to visit but don't cos of their xx-small fonts for main content and it's hard on the eyes.

Sorry for bringing this off topic... just though I'd throw in my two cents on that! I'll shut up now!  

[Burpee]

I didn't even intend to bring this back up, but I do certainly agree with Cypher7.
I just didn't want to say any more about it because I do know that design is not the coder's responsibility, but the designer's responsibility. That is - if we dislike the layout, we should just design one ourselves, right? Don't worry though, it will eventually all be straightened out

(Oh my, (even more off topic (but interesting) lol) I just killed 8 bugs with three slaps at my monitor (insane amount of bugs in here))

[Ben_S]

Just go to View -> Text Size -> Larger.  Makes everything bigger.

-[Unknown]

Or if you have a wheel mouse, hold CTRL key and scroll the wheel.

This is something that I don't agree with... IMO.

And thats exactly why SMF makes it easy for you to change.

[Alisha]

I am prolly wrong on my thinking here, although I read somewhere that the whole SMF project started on July 25, 2003. 

Now, my thinking is that is the date they are holding out to release RC1 then or they are working hard to meet that date! Maybe just a female mind here, but Release of RC1 one year later?

hmmmm Just a thought!

[Oldiesmann]

I am prolly wrong on my thinking here, although I read somewhere that the whole SMF project started on July 25, 2003. 

Now, my thinking is that is the date they are holding out to release RC1 then or they are working hard to meet that date! Maybe just a female mind here, but Release of RC1 one year later?

hmmmm Just a thought!

Technically, the whole SMF project was "announced" on July 19th, 2003 at the YaBB SE Chat Session. You can still read the transcript. Go to the YaBB SE forum and look at the "YaBB SE Chat Transcript" post in the Announcements section. As far as "holding out" - no, they're just trying to make sure they get as many bugs fixed as possible and also want to finalize any features for version 1.0. Like I have said several times, I think that RC1 will be out sometime within the next few months. The developers are hard at work and will continue to work hard until they get the system the way they want it...

[Grudge]

RC will be released when it's ready. There is no specific anniversary date or otherwise we aim for. Once we are happy we are ready it will arrive. There are more things than just the code itself which needs to be ready for RC.

[[Unknown]]

I wonder when my birthday is?  Hmm....

-[Unknown]

[Vinoth]

what i liked in smf is the support,


Normally in other BB's you won't get support from the developers, only the members do answer your questions/

that is not in case of SMF, and more over SMF is much secure that IPB and also has some features that i like in SMF which is not in IPB.

so more over SMF is the best than any forum software, and the next rc release could make an great change in the forum industry.

[Alisha]

Well not ONLY is the SMF Support the best in the computer industry! I have also, started to Learn PHP from this forum!

[Unknown], BabylonKing, and several others have help myself and others so much, and not only with SMF problems, but other things as well to the point of where I now understand PHP.

Never will find that on IVP, MS, NETSCAPE or any other support forum!