Bring forum into 21st century?

woodyg · 2011-11-04 10:04:54

When joining this forum I realised I hadn't seen many forums like this lately... where one has to write tags for links, type smilie codes manually, no possibility of attaching images (or other files). I'm not familiar with FluxBB, so I may be wrong about how things work, but are the things mentioned disabled, or hasn't the forum been updated for a long time... or is perhaps this the latest FluxBB version.

In either case, have you not considered updating the forum so that it will be more user friendly? For a newcomer it all looks a bit stale... which is probably not the impression you want to give.

Nick · 2011-11-05 07:40:12

It is the latest version and there are link at the bottom if the post box how to use the bbcode. Attachments are disable.

Paulw2U · 2011-11-05 11:46:19

woodyg wrote:

For a newcomer it all looks a bit stale... which is probably not the impression you want to give.

Have you tried changing the forum theme? I've found the default is not always the best. Currently using "Oxygen".

woodyg · 2011-11-05 12:49:01

I hope I didn't sound too negative, as I was trying to come with constructive criticism. When I said that it looks a bit stale to me, I mainly had in mind the lack of features, as outlined in my previous post (though "Oxygen" is an improvement in my opinion as well). While anyone after a while can get used to writing tags for links and code for smilies, it is without doubt a bit of a put-off initially. How much of a put-off can of course be debated, but I can't see a reason to actually doing this to new visitors/members when there is an alternative, i.e. enable the features if FluxBB offer them or move to a different type of forum if the limitation is FluxBB.

What is the reason for disabling attachments? Almost any forum offer the opportunity to attach images, something which would be very useful in a forum where many posts is about explaining/discussing features or problems. If I wouldn't have been very committed when I did my first post in this forum, then I would have left the forum the very same minute I realised that I couldn't upload an image illustrating my problem. As it were I had to find a website that offered free image hosting before posting in this forum.

I have been running a couple of forums over the years, and I think the user-friendliness in those were well above this one even when I got started back in 2003. If this is the limit of what FluxBB has to offer, may I suggest phpBB instead (user-friendly for both user and administrator)?

Nick · 2011-11-05 13:04:51

Fluxbb is a nice and quick forum (== Xfce philosophy), attachments are almost never required apart from the screen-shots thread for which there are enough free hosting alternatives. In fact, looked in the Fluxxb config and there is no support for attachments.

Problems with the Xfce applications don't belong to the forums, we have a bug tracker for that; simply because the developers only visit the forums once in a while. That's also the answer you will get most of the time when you find a problem in the code and post it here.

Wysiwyg editing is not implemented as well, but be honest, if you have a problem and you need coloured text with bold accent and smilies, you've probably reached the wrong place to talk.

Xfce had several forums over the last years; phpbb and SMF, both were slow and looked messy, not to mention all the spam... Fluxbb suits us fine, the forum usage increased a lot since the switch and I hardly hear any complaints.

jeromeg · 2011-11-05 14:21:20

For screenshots, I was told there is an awesome Xfce4-screenshooter 1.8.0 application which uploads the screenshots for you and gives you the BBCode so that you just have to copy/paste it.

mmassonnet · 2011-11-05 22:50:00

jeromeg wrote:

For screenshots, I was told there is an awesome Xfce4-screenshooter 1.8.0 application which uploads the screenshots for you and gives you the BBCode so that you just have to copy/paste it.

PS: I like the Colbat display style.

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#1 2011-11-04 10:04:54

Bring forum into 21st century?

#2 2011-11-05 07:40:12

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

#3 2011-11-05 11:46:19

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

#4 2011-11-05 12:49:01

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

#5 2011-11-05 13:04:51

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

#6 2011-11-05 14:21:20

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

#7 2011-11-05 22:50:00

Re: Bring forum into 21st century?

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