3 Commando Brigade

Realism. Tactics. Fun.

+ New Topic + Post Reply
6 posts in this topic
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2016 10:59 pm     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline

Posts: 8
Ribbons:
Public Regular (1)

A Friendly Forum Suggestion


Hi everyone,

I can't seem to find anywhere to post forum suggestions, so I'll leave it here!
Since I deem myself a certain 'part' of the community, I'd love to offer a quick suggestion to those who run/administrate the 3CB website.

Although the forums are currently looking great, I know of some really really great forum software that (once funds are met of course) 3CB would very much benefit from.
The forum software is Xenforo. Here's a link: https://xenforo.com/

Again, the forums right now are great. But there's awesome things that Xenforo do that the current forums don't benefit from (improved usergroups, PMs, really great profiles system, etc.), and would be really great to see 3CB getting at some point in the future.
This is just a friendly suggestion and nothing more - just in case Xenforo hasn't been brought to your attention before. If you ever want any help setting it up or tips/further recommendations, don't be afraid to shoot me a PM :)


Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:37 am     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline

Posts: 8
Ribbons:
Public Regular (1)
clyde wrote:
The guy who runs this place (lol) has looked at it before and made a version of the website in it, but he never went ahead and switched to it.
Ah that's good to know. Well, it would be a nice addition of he's still thinking about it! (*hint hint, nudge nudge*)


Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 9:56 am     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline

Posts: 5913
Location: Essen, Germany
Ribbons:
Media Man (2) Donator (1)
A simple update of the forum software would be nice too. :)

I am relatively sure we are a bit behind on actual phpBB versions. Beside that, there are two main issues. The biggest issue is backwards compatibility and functionality. As a public player, you only see a glimpse of the forum. Beneath that you do have a lot of user groups with different permissions, different forum parts and functions. It would be a lot of work to bring all these things over to a new forum.

When it comes to Xenoforo, I don't think it is a good alternative. It is not exactly bad, but other forum software is just better. On top of that Xenoforo is pointlessly expensive, compared to other forum software that has the same or a even better feature set. Xenoforo is very strong when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization), but that is not exactly important for us, since this is more or less a private, or at least very specific forum. User groups and how you can manage them are one of they key features we need in a forum and from my experience it is the biggest flaw of Xenoforo.

There is no war to end all wars.


Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:16 pm     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline

Posts: 8
Ribbons:
Public Regular (1)
Mefirst wrote:
A simple update of the forum software would be nice too. :)

I am relatively sure we are a bit behind on actual phpBB versions. Beside that, there are two main issues. The biggest issue is backwards compatibility and functionality. As a public player, you only see a glimpse of the forum. Beneath that you do have a lot of user groups with different permissions, different forum parts and functions. It would be a lot of work to bring all these things over to a new forum.

When it comes to Xenoforo, I don't think it is a good alternative. It is not exactly bad, but other forum software is just better. On top of that Xenoforo is pointlessly expensive, compared to other forum software that has the same or a even better feature set. Xenoforo is very strong when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization), but that is not exactly important for us, since this is more or less a private, or at least very specific forum. User groups and how you can manage them are one of they key features we need in a forum and from my experience it is the biggest flaw of Xenoforo.
Couldn't agree more. Regardless of software, a much improved forum would be nice. It's one thing getting people on the server, but captivating people to become members of the community heavily relies on a nice forum. Which is why I think it would be a nice step for 3CB to take :)


Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2016 4:40 pm     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline

Posts: 5913
Location: Essen, Germany
Ribbons:
Media Man (2) Donator (1)
The forum/webpage is alright in my book. There could be some improvements on the homepage, but those would be things which can be solved within the current software. The forum is alright too, the looks are alright and most importantly it works. The only thing I am missing is a proper advanced search function in the forums search engine.

There is no war to end all wars.


Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 4:44 pm     Super secret spam barrier
Quote
Offline
Major
Major
Other duties:
Site Admin
Game Admin
Modder
Founder

Posts: 3774
Location: London, UK
Ribbons:
Service Medal (7)
This is a quote from an old thread:

Goodson wrote:
I agree, Xenforo is lovely. But switching everything over takes alot of time and effort.

Things that would need to be done:
  • Creating a new homepage that displays news posts (involves querying database via PHP, plus I'd need to create the homepage via HTML).
  • Redesigning the website around XenForo's templating system. Unfortunately we can't just install XenForo on top of our current website design - it will need to be completely redone (again, takes time).
  • Implementing an attendance registration feature for our ops/training/other events.
  • Implementing ribbons feature (there's probably a mod out there for Xenfo that does this, but it will still involve lots of tweaking to fit our needs).
  • Migration of all forum data (users/threads/posts/groups/permissions) to Xenforo (they have a tool that helps us do this, but it still requires some effort, and I doubt it will go smoothly the first time).
  • Porting/recreating our Schedule + event notification tool.

If you're good with PHP and HTML, you're more than welcome to volunteer to help out.
Perhaps if I've got time before I go back to uni, I might have a go at porting things over.

Unfortunately I never did get enough time to port things over (and now I'm back at uni again).


+ New Topic + Post Reply


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 40 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

cron
phpBB © Forum Software
© 3 Commando Brigade Gaming Community
All images belong to their respective owners


3CB Modern design by Jamie Goodson
WysiBB