Please update the forum software.

This forum is very helpful.

That said, BBCode markup is seriously hampered. I'm not asking for smileys if DH finds them useless. Fine.

I'm asking for an interface that works. There is a forum about scripting/coding, and I can't even use standard BBCode markup "[code]my code[/code]". How sad.

Plus, the rss suddenly dropped for all my rss feeds on the discussion. ??

This forum is based on wwwthreads.com's forum software. Posting on wwwthreads.com's forum allows bbcode, and also has a wysiwyg interface. The latest version would have to be better than the hampered version used in this forum. (The width of the textarea for the post body could be wider though. Why not create a javascript/css textarea resize?)

Please upgrade or go to a different forum application.

Please please please?

I think the problem is porting to another forum and the possibility of going to something so mainstream that exploits are found daily.

I personally like this forum... Works!

Precisely why I don't specify any particular open-source developer <cough>phpBB.com</cough>.

Even if they just stuck with wwwthreads and enhanced the capability a little - lists and code markup, and a wider taller Post textarea - I'd be happier.

I can agree to that. More functionality would be nice..

I've no complaints. Like the Panel, once you get used to it, it's pretty manageable. If you want code markup, use the "pre" tags instead.

Click on the FAQ for more tips.
http://discussion.dreamhost.com/faq_english.pl?Cat=

-Scott

I'm with Scott.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" wink

How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

sdayman,

Thanks for the markup faq. It's actually from there that I could see that "[code][/code]" and "[list(=a, etc.)][*][/list]" were not available. I'm used to using them elsewhere, and these markup bbcodes tend to be a lot more useful than [ pre][/pre] for showing code and making lists. They're certainly a lot more useful than " blush (blush)" and " crazy (crazy)".

The software available on wwwthreads.com is not the same as the one that is being used here. The original WWWThreads was acquired by Infopop/Groupee (the makers of UBB) and eventually became UBB.threads. The pile of junk from wwwthreads.com is an abandoned rip-off of PunBB.

I agree with the OP. This is one of the two worst forum interfaces that I need/desire to frequent. The community here is great. This forum software sux bigtime.

"If it works don't fix it?" That view would have us still dialing up to a BBS.

People here afraid of FLOSS offerings? Dear me, what a statement about the state of the art of Open Source and the general quality of software in the world today. If we need to stick with something like this just to avoid abuse then we might as well just stop using software altogether.

For companies like DreamHost that thrive on the contributions of the open source community you'd think they'd lift a finger to contribute time or money to help fix problems that occur with OSS, rather than taking people's money to host software that they wouldn't dare use themselves.

Sorry, but this one got my goat.

In reply to:
"If it works don't fix it?" That view would have us still dialing up to a BBS.

Ridiculous comparison is ridiculous.

How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

@sXi,
The forum in your signature is a link to a forum hosted in phpBB3. Would you use the software used to host discussion.dreamhost.com? Is the suggestion really so ridiculous?

Technically, the bbcode is broken.

Look at the two items bbcoded below. The first shows bbcode for 'quote' without a reference to the 'in reply to' field. The second shows broken bbcode markup because the 'in reply to' capability isn't even supported. What's up with that?

I want a fully functional, modern bulletin board. I am with Starbuck: While I value the helpfulness of the members on this venue, the interface through which we must partcipate is worthy of ridicule. phpBB has set a standard that this interface cannot match. phpBB is open source. The successor to the software that this became is now commercial and not even as nice as phpBB. This forum should be either frozen and archived, or transferred along with the membership to a new forum - preferably phpBB3.

In reply to:
The software available on wwwthreads.com is not the same as the one that is being used here. The original WWWThreads was acquired by Infopop/Groupee (the makers of UBB) and eventually became UBB.threads. The pile of junk from wwwthreads.com is an abandoned rip-off of PunBB.

[quote="oldschool"]The software available on wwwthreads.com is not the same as the one that is being used here. The original WWWThreads was acquired by Infopop/Groupee (the makers of UBB) and eventually became UBB.threads. The pile of junk from wwwthreads.com is an abandoned rip-off of PunBB.[/quote]

By the way, there *is* a Suggestion box in the Panel, and someone has already suggested they change this forum software.

-Scott

Quite right Scott. Vote casted.

I'll summarize my reasons why I think this forum software should be changed:
- This forum makes the service offering look very early 1990's. It's an anti-marketing tool.
- Searching is a pain and encourages people to repost common questions. That wastes people's time and affects server performance.
- The existing software is missing many convenient features which have been adopted over the years into all forum packages because this is what forum users want and expect. (Don't ask "like what?" just look at the common feature list of any modern forum where features have been added to respond to common requests and requirements.)

I have to admit on the other hand that of course this software is functional as-is and I am unaware of a compelling need to change it. If DH is simply trying to avoid the hassle of periodic vulnerabilities (and related diversion of support/developer resources) then I guess this is one effective way to do it. But I personally disagree with this approach to problem solving.

In reply to:
The forum in your signature is a link to a forum hosted in phpBB3. Would you use the software used to host discussion.dreamhost.com? Is the suggestion really so ridiculous?

As a matter of fact I'd have no problem at all using this exact script on a website, except I couldn't find it available for download. wwwthreads moved onto more "convention" PHP based solutions. They apparently sold this extremely low-overhead, high-performance, zero-exploits PERL version. Thanks for asking smile

In reply to:
I have to admit on the other hand that of course this software is functional as-is and I am unaware of a compelling need to change it.

I agree.

PHPBB is fantastic on *low usage* sites. I don't have the figures, but I'm betting this board gets amazing hits. Make a post with something new in it and within an hour it is first in Google. Use Newsfeeds? I do! The ammount of data sent out through here would be absolutely fantastic. I love my PHPBB3, but it would fail in minutes here fellas. Soon as an exploit is discovered this site would be down for us all. You know it, I know it, Dreamhost knows it.

Maybe you could get DH to consider implementing a few changes to the software already in place to brighten things up a bit? I'm sure they have quality PERL coders available for the task. Switching the software entirely is likely something they won't consider a priority.

How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

Please post a link to the suggestion. I'll vote for it. I searched using the terms 'forum','discussion' and 'board', but found nothing to vote on that wasn't a one-click install or something other than this website. How old is the suggestion? If it's years old, maybe it's time they really revisited the suggestion more closely.

@sXi, That's fine with me. I just want [code] and [list], along with a wider taller post textarea. [u] and [hilite] might be more effective too. [code] doesn't even need to have fancy color coding.

In reply to:
Maybe you could get DH to consider implementing a few changes to the software already in place to brighten things up a bit? I'm sure they have quality PERL coders available for the task. Switching the software entirely is likely something they won't consider a priority.

In reply to:
along with a wider taller post textarea

Edit Profile > Display Preferences > TextArea columns/rows smile

Thanks oldschool!

In reply to:
As a matter of fact I'd have no problem at all using this exact script on a website, except I couldn't find it available for download. wwwthreads moved onto more "convention" PHP based solutions. They apparently sold this extremely low-overhead, high-performance, zero-exploits PERL version. Thanks for asking

WWWThreads 3.5.1 was the last version available under GPL, meaning it can still be legally downloaded for free. Here and here are two sites that still have it. Unfortunately, compared to the version being used here (which seems to be somewhere in the 5.1.x range, after WWWThreads went commercial), 3.5.1 is missing a lot of features.

I already had the older version, but I do appreciate the response wink

Thanks!

How To Install PHP.INI / ionCube on DreamHost

Please update the forum software.