What's the state of SMF?

Started by mzarate, September 25, 2012, 02:26:02 AM

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mzarate

Hey folks,

I'm trying to start a forum community, and I'm stuck choosing between SMF and vBulletin.  In doing some research, I found this posted on another forum:

QuoteI do not like SMF at all, it's developers have had problems in the past and they have admitted (and retracted such admittance when discussed) that the future of the software is not certain. They also have a serious ego issue. It is not easy to customize if you are a novice or even intermediate.

Can any of the SMF team or strong community supporters speak to the recent and current state of SMF development?  I'm mainly concerned about the part in bold; I'm hesitant to lock into a forum package if it's future is uncertain.

Also, that comment was posted in 2010.  How have things changed since then?

Chalky

Hi mzarate.  Considering the amount of work the team are currently putting into, not one but two updates for SMF software, I think you can rest assured that SMF isn't going anywhere ;)

Have a look in the Developers' Blog board here for an idea of the plans and work that is currently in progress, in particular you might be interested in this topic on The Future of SMF :)

live627

Quote
Also, that comment was posted in 2010.  How have things changed since then?
I can assure you that development has picked up a lot since then. Future releases are planned and being developed - indeed, SMF 2.1 is now in alpha, while  2.2 is being worked on/ So, yes, there is a future here. SMF continues to live on...

kat



We have the odd bit of weirdness going on, from time-to-time, just as any other organisation does.

It'd be boring, here, if we didn't have some good old weirdness going-on, after all. ;)

Of course the devs have problems, from time-to-time. ALL devs do, surely?

Everybody has differing ideas about what should be being done and that's bound to create a bit of flak, every now and then.

SMF is owned and run by it's members. So, occasionally, there's bound to be a bit of "Politics" and the odd bit of strife. Those members are in all sorts of weird places, around the world. We really are "Global", in that respect.

Ego? Not really. We're all fairly normal (Except Old Fossil, obviously) ;)

Bigguy

Also, if I am not mistaken, that is an older quote that was probably posted when SMF was having some issues. Those issues are past now and things are looking good for the future. :)

Kindred

I will also note that, as far as I know, there were never any such statements made (or retracted) by active developers or team members.
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Quote from: mzarate on September 25, 2012, 02:26:02 AM
QuoteI do not like SMF at all, it's developers have had problems in the past and they have admitted (and retracted such admittance when discussed) that the future of the software is not certain. They also have a serious ego issue. It is not easy to customize if you are a novice or even intermediate.

I hope you edited this a lot because "it's developers have had problems in the past and they have admitted (and retracted such admittance when discussed)" and "They also have a serious ego issue" don't seem to go together.

Kays

2010 was when we started the transformation from LLC to NPO and that was a bit of a bumpy ride. But it's long past us now.

Quote
It is not easy to customize if you are a novice or even intermediate.

This I gotta disagree with. One does not need to be an expert coder to customise SMF. Most of the code is well commented and laid out in a fashion that it can be easily modified. This is what attracted myself (and I'm sure others) to SMF.

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Quote from: Kays on September 25, 2012, 09:10:58 AM
Quote
It is not easy to customize if you are a novice or even intermediate.

This I gotta disagree with. One does not need to be an expert coder to customise SMF. Most of the code is well commented and laid out in a fashion that it can be easily modified. This is what attracted myself (and I'm sure others) to SMF.

I think this part of the comment was because that person was looking for some simple "template engine" like other software has, a kind of duck programming. SMF uses proper PHP coding, so it tends to make people shy off a little because it's "coding". What they don't realize is that most template engines are just much less flexible coding.
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mzarate

Thanks folks.

Quote from: Bigguy on September 25, 2012, 07:36:21 AM
Also, if I am not mistaken, that is an older quote that was probably posted when SMF was having some issues. Those issues are past now and things are looking good for the future. :)

Yep, that quote was from 2010.

Quote from: Kays on September 25, 2012, 09:10:58 AM
Quote
It is not easy to customize if you are a novice or even intermediate.

This I gotta disagree with. One does not need to be an expert coder to customise SMF. Most of the code is well commented and laid out in a fashion that it can be easily modified. This is what attracted myself (and I'm sure others) to SMF.

Agreed.  Personally, having already setup SMF, I found it easy to install, customize, and dig around in under the hood.  I certainly like it.

Kill Em All

Glad to see that you are happy so far with it. When I first started, even I didn't find it that hard to understand. The code is clean, plenty of comments made in the code to understand what it does, and along with a few jokes. :)

And of course if you ever have any questions, there is always someone looking to lend a hand to help.

It is also free! woot!


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