Gaming forum in SMF? (Could I get these features)

[OblivionMage]

Well, I have been thinking of making a gaming forum for a while now, just for something fun to do. I hope to be able to have quite a few features, and I was first led to the paid forum software. What I want to know, is if it would be possible to get these features (list right below) in an SMF forum (I am not even sure I could get these easily in a paid forum, most of them seem worse then SMF ):

-Reputation/Karma --> This is a big one that helps a community out a lot in my opinion. Does a feature for this come with SMF, I have found a couple Karma-mods on the modification page, but they all seemed to be additions onto a previously existing karma system. Does one come with SMF and how 'good' is it? (IE. Does the karma automatically go up if a use votes it so, or does it require the user to post a note as to why they are giving them karma, etc..)

-Subscriptions/Private-Forums/Donations --> This would help alot, is it possible to get a subscription/donations system?

-Portal/CMPS system --> This would also help out, I believe that there are some mods for this but could anyone suggest a particularly good one?


Other then that, SMF seems great so far! The community is (ridiculously) large/helpful and the themes are..free! (I was looking through some of the paid forum software (Again I won't mention the name) skins and they were almost all expensive.

Cheers,

[capabmx]

-Reputation/Karma --> This is a big one that helps a community out a lot in my opinion. Does a feature for this come with SMF, I have found a couple Karma-mods on the modification page, but they all seemed to be additions onto a previously existing karma system. Does one come with SMF and how 'good' is it? (IE. Does the karma automatically go up if a use votes it so, or does it require the user to post a note as to why they are giving them karma, etc..)

Yes it comes with a karma system. You can choose how it works in the admin panel under features and options > karma. You can set a minimum amount of posts needed to be able to give someone karma. You may also disable it. You may also name it something other than karma, and the applaud / smite.

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-Subscriptions/Private-Forums/Donations --> This would help alot, is it possible to get a subscription/donations system?

There is a paid subscriptions mod that works with paypal and a couple other online payment options. You can always set what membergroups can view boards in the admin panel, under boards > modify permissions. As for the donations I believe you could use the paid subscriptions mod, or there is another mod just for that somewhere too.

-Portal/CMPS system --> This would also help out, I believe that there are some mods for this but could anyone suggest a particularly good one?

There are many portals. The best portal in my opinion is Tinyportal, no need to use a bridge, or an integration. But, if it doesn't meet your requirements, there is mambo, and various other portal/cms systems that have integrations. You may download the integrations straight from this site.

I hope this helps, and may I also say that this forum software is so much better IMHO then paid softwares. Uploading mods is as easy as download, and upload for the most part. Also this software is very flexible, themes are easy to edit, or install.

[OblivionMage]

Thanks for the help!

I have just installed SMF forums on my host, it took all of 5 minutes to do (Even with having to create a database via my hosts cpanel!). Amazing so far! MUCH better then the paid forum software I was looking at, and I already know of a couple of themes that should fit with the forum very well.

One question, my forum is currently at, <Site>.com/forum, can I get the tiny portal CMPS to come up with the url <site>.com? ((And would I do this by moving the index.php file into the correct place?))


Other then that, the forum is great so far, can't believe how good it is actually, I am in shock o.O


Edit:: According to this page, http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=97 , Tiny Portal doesn't have a stable release at this moment, any thoughts? ((As in, is there an older one that is available somewhere else?))
Edit2::Theme installation went creepily well, I am looking for another portal system to use.

Other then that, I would just like to say thank you to..well..the SMF team. Great piece of software, thanks so much for keeping it free and open.

Edit3:: (Lots of edits, I know) In my search for a CMS, I have only really come across one that is specific to SMF, that would be the Gencportal, as the TinyPortal is, as mentioned above, apparently lacking a stable release at this time. Any suggestions? I don't really want to go with mambo/joomla/mkportal as I want my portal (if I really need one) to be small and only be a slight extension from the actual forum.

[capabmx]

Tinyportal does have a stable release. Go to tinyportal.net, and you might have to register, but then download 0.9.8. It works with 1.1. +. Also, yes you would move your index.php into the root of your domain probably public_html/. Then download repair_settings.php and change the path to your index.php I believe to reflect where it is now. Then delete repair_settings.php, and you should be set. I believe Tinyportal is exactly what you are looking for. It fits right in, and looks like it is a part of the forum. It is the best portal in my opinion, and I am running it on my new site. the hangout spot. It has a few quircks and I have a few other mods installed, but it pretty much creates a home page, and you can set up the blocks on the home page to displa many things from the forum. In fact at tiny portal they have precoded blocks availabe. Thank you for choosing smf, and I am very glad that you like it. I must say that you saved yourself a hole in your wallet, and also a lot of frustration. SMF is always progressing, and the team here can answer pretty much anything you want to ask. Also if you feel like getting an answer very quickly, you may read the docs. Welcome to smf, and may I wish you the best luck with your website :].

[OblivionMage]

Would I change the path (In the repair_settings.php) of the "Forum URL:"?


Well, I moved the index.php (Not sure if I should move the index.php~ file, I tried and it did nothing) into my public_html, but I get an error screen when I go to <site>, or <site>/index.php. ((Error has this text and a bit more: Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required)) I moved the index.php file back into the /public_html/forum directory and the forum works fine again. I am just not sure how to get it to work with the index.php being in the public_html and nothing else.

[capabmx]

Hmm I think it was requiring settings.php, might need to be in the same place as index.php. Someone will come around soon to giveyou specific details. I'll search around for a bit on this, and I'll get back asap.

[metallica48423]

tiny portal is an addon to smf. that is, it changes the default action to its own and adds an action for the forum part. so move the while installation to the root to make the portal the front page. then upload and run repair_settings.php to fix all the directory references.

[OblivionMage]

Sorry, but what exactly do you mean by moving the 'while installation'? Do you mean move the TP installation? How can I do that? And what should the directory references be set to in order to 'fix' them? I don't know, I get my apache server list if my index.php is not in the root, and if it is, I get an error message.


Any ideas for getting my site's address to direct to my forum's TP index page?

[metallica48423]

you might try doing a forum search here -- theres been many topics regarding moving SMF to a new folder.

TinyPortal basically is a part of SMF, it runs from the same directory and everything (notice the ?action=forum when you visit the forum?).

To move SMF to a new directory, through FTP, download all of the files in your forum directory, then upload them back to the directory where you want them.  After that, take the repair_settings tool available in the downloads section here (What is repair_settings.php?) upload it to where your forum now is, and run it in your browser (instead of index.php, go to repair_settings.php).  Where all the blue links are at the bottom, click those to fix the paths and URL's, and then your forum should work in its new directory

[OblivionMage]

Ok, I moved my SMF (/forum) directly into my public_html folder and I fixed all of the paths with the repair_settings.php. The site loads fine, except there are no images for any of the themes. All of the settings in repair_settings.php are the default ones, and the path to the theme's and the default theme seems to be correct. Does it matter that I have other folders (Besides SMF-related ones) in my /public_html? Any ideas on how I can get images? (Searching the forum right now too)

[metallica48423]

if its not the default theme, you will need to go into the themes area and change the paths for those themes (when you go to it there should be something saying like "warning: this path is not correct"

[OblivionMage]

It worked!

Thanks so much for all the help, I am looking forward to using SMF now and in the future.

(Let the thread die..)