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My opinion on SMF

Started by Golden_Helmet, September 21, 2004, 06:01:36 PM

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Elijah Bliss

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!

Chris G.

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

brlmedia

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.


Oldiesmann

Interesting... Even with Firefox's support for many international character sets, I mostly see ?'s all over the place.
Michael Eshom
Christian Metal Fans

Spug

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.

Meriadoc

If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side? : Leo Tolstoy
Everything I know I learned from Calvin and Hobbes.
And patience is about the most useful thing you could ever have.  That and backups. : [Unknown]
If I choose to send thee, Tuor son of Huor, then believe not that thy one sword is not worth the sending. : Ulmo, Lord of the Waters - Unfinished Tales, by J.R.R. Tolkien

[Unknown]

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]

† ÐëepÇuT¹ †

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.




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packman

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.
Chris

Oldiesmann

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.
Michael Eshom
Christian Metal Fans

Tony Reid

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]
Tony Reid

packman

I mentioned posts because smf_messages was by far the biggest table in my database.
Chris

† ÐëepÇuT¹ †

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?



Personal Website
x3Generation - gaming
graphics and anime.
 

Favorite Forums
> SimpleMachines Forum
> GamerzPlanet Forums


Burpee

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...

Grudge

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...
I'm only a half geek really...

BMW-Guy

you can also make the database a little smaller, I believe, by optimizing the tables once in a while. :)
I get paid to drive Porsches!

Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of
doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations.
Philosophy does not result in 'philosophical propositions', but rather in the clarification of
propositions. Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries.
~ (Tractatus Logico Philosophicus; Wittgenstein)

Ben_S

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.
Liverpool FC Forum with 14 million+ posts.

diva

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.

yexusbeliever

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.

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