Forum Software Update Question

[Leel]

The Xenforov, and SMF strike me as looking like phone apps. the Bulletin 4 seems the most formal in appearance, somewhat old-school look, but has the least visual deviation compared to what we got now IMO.

I do like the current layout seems very bland yes but professional, less frills than the vBulletin 4, and SMF. I like the header/layout on Bulletin the best.

On appearance alone I would choose the Bulletin 4, but have no technical knowledge to add to the conversation.

@Kestryll off topic, but can we get a pic of the CalGuns' server/s?

[CCWFacts]

Can I strongly suggest, independent of the forum software, you set up the server so that connections to port 80 get redirected to the TLS port 443? And further, put in a HSTS header?

[Preston-CLB]

Here is a very active Discourse forum related to computing. it seems to work fine for the subject matter, but not sure it's a good fit for CalGuns.

https://discuss.howtogeek.com/

I prefer V-Bulletin. Also, it seems to me that migrating from one version of V-Bulletin to a later one would be easiest, and less prone to data loss in the transition to a new database.
-P

[Idescobe]

Xenforo.

[meno377]

Actually VB5 looks good to me. Again I can roll any direction, but I can see how VB5 would work fine for me.

[Chenzo951]

They all look fine. What I would like to see is a better search feature. Make it searchable by distance, county/ies or SoCal (NorCal). Thanks!

[MarkInFolsom]

SMF looks good but doesn't have message preview when you hover of the messages list. I find that very useful

[Deedle]

Here is a very active Discourse forum related to computing. it seems to work fine for the subject matter, but not sure it's a good fit for CalGuns.

https://discuss.howtogeek.com/

I prefer V-Bulletin. Also, it seems to me that migrating from one version of V-Bulletin to a later one would be easiest, and less prone to data loss in the transition to a new database.
-P

I really like the no-more-paging thing, I have to admit.

[Kestryll]

Here is a very active Discourse forum related to computing. it seems to work fine for the subject matter, but not sure it's a good fit for CalGuns.

https://discuss.howtogeek.com/

I prefer V-Bulletin. Also, it seems to me that migrating from one version of V-Bulletin to a later one would be easiest, and less prone to data loss in the transition to a new database.
-P

I really like the no-more-paging thing, I have to admit.

Discourse is not in the running, that is just flat out pug fricken ugly.

[Pinto]

Discourse is not in the running, that is just flat out pug fricken ugly.

To be fair, a sizeable number of people find pugs fricken adorable. But I agree, Discourse, not so much.

[Kestryll]

To be fair, a sizeable number of people find pugs fricken adorable. But I agree, Discourse, not so much.

Yeah, I really wasn't being fair to pugs was I?

[CandG]

Where's cabinetguy when you need him?

[reverser]

Ok, while I believe that Discourse has a superior UX and an inferior UI, I just found something out that is worth mentioning. Jeff Atwood (the Stack Overflow cofounder) is head of Discourse and he is anti-2a all the way. Just ask him, he'll gladly tell you all about it and why you're a horrible person for owning a gun. I wouldn't pee on him if he were on fire and I'll certainly never recommend their product to anyone again.

[broadside]

I have built and used many forum software. I was a contributing coder to MyBB even many years ago. I have built converters to go between several forum software, but I have been out of the game for a couple years now.

If you like "traditional forums" then VB. Managing the vb4 back-end has always felt overwhelming to me however.

If you like modern, but can be customized to look older, then XenForo. XenForo also had great mobile support for themes that is mostly automatic. So using phones and tablets does not require Tapatalk. The admin backend is also very easy to use.

[PeterGunner]