I have to disagree.
Almost all forums I visit *suck* compared even to this version of GForum. Granted, there would be features I'd like to see, *but* most of these other forums, PHP ones especially, look worse than MySPace. They are out of control, unfriendly, hard to read, impossible to use, and miserable to look at.
I use very, very few forums because they are so bad.
Threaded messages, even following the order of posts. Garish colors, too much included HTML and graphics, and all things that are *NOT* part of a forum, unless you are running it for 13-y/o who are sitting down at a computer for the first time.
I would like to see GForum moved over to the luna template set to match the GLinks.
I would like to see Community improved to actually do what was promised.
But the last thing I want to see is GForum turned into anything PHP-like.
If you have a "good" forum you'd like to point out, I'd be interested in seeing it, but I've been on dozens of boards from support sites to entertainment sites and no matter what they are running .php, .html, .cgi, or some funky .xxx they pretty much suck. (I have no other word for it).
Maybe I'm used to GForum.
But I gave up WWWThreads and UBB long ago, despite having paid licenses. I hate PHP, I hate the fact it was born in the desire to circumvent web-server security (eg: need for running in a cgi-bin directory). I hate the fact it's a throw-back of 10 years of trying to separate the implementation from interface by burrying code in with HTML.
I've tried open source PHP boards, and others and non have the basic look, functionality, and clean lines of GForum.
I guess it depends on what you are trying to do with your board.
If you are using it just for messaging, or if you are trying to make it do all sorts of things a message board really wasn't meant to do -- and which irritate the hell out of those who simply want to message.
Like cellular phones -- they are for getting and making calls. It's "cool" if they have a clock, even an appointment calendar. But they don't need to take pictures, play games, play mp3s, download movie clips, get stock quotes, or all the things they are doing that are anything *BUT* getting and recieving messages. When the picture phones came out -- high-security installations had a problem. So do poeple who work there. They *CAN'T* have cameras on their phones.
At some point, their original function is lost, and you are both paying for, and wading through or working around, features that don't belong there, or belong somewhere else. It's a PHONE.
Like the old joke about the secret agent's watch -- it's a laser gun, atomic bomb, x-ray machine, circular saw, garrotte rope, etc, etc, ... But can it tell time? You can't expect it to do EVERYTHING.
So, looking at a few threads here, I wonder what it is you are looking for in message boards that really belong in message boards that isn't in GForum? It's *GREAT* FORUM/MESSAGE board.
GForum isn't a blog, wasn't supposed to be RSS or other "feed", isn't for sharing music or video, and as a business tool wasn't really about cute avitars and all that. It wasn't supposed to mail your cellphone every time someone read one of your posts. But hey, people have made it do some of those things. The payment system was added as a means of giving a paid-support forum, or similar. I was/am on the fence about that.
It was supposed to be a communication tool, and after 6+ years or so using it, I can safely say it has lived up to that purpose with shining colors, outstanding performance, and rock-solid reliability.
What else is really important?
OH -- a help file :) Something for new users to read?
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