Open Source Ecology Forums

Jason

I think we should make it a priority to upgrade the forum software asap, to a more robust, scalable, and fully featured forum. The forum is the center of our communications, and features such as PMs, embedding images, and many more, are the key to facilitating our self organization and communication.

The longer we wait to upgrade the software, the more difficult the process will be to migrate all the current posts over. I'm thinking something like vBulletin or phpBB. If anyone has this type of expertise, your services would be greatly appreciated.

I'm assuming this project is planning on growing much larger in size.

elifarley

Hi Jason,

Conor has also suggested we should replace Vanilla with something else.

So I created a wiki page to try to have a better understanding of Vanilla's drawbacks and strong points:
http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Vanilla_Forums/Evaluation

Dawg

I also find the interface hard to deal with. The private messaging is awkward and doesn't tell me when I've got something in my inbox. I still don't understand how to make a sub category. There's more but I just can't think of it.

The Dawg

elifarley

Dawg, please take a look at these tips: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Vanilla_Forums

It should help you configure your preferences so that you receive email notifications when you have new private messages.

I hope what's written there is clear enough. Please let me know if you find it confusing.

Regarding sub-categories, you just create a standard category and after that, you drag and drop it under the desired parent category.

But only certain roles can create categories (Administrator and Moderator, for instance).
Would you like to be a moderator or administrator?

More on categories:
http://vanillaforums.org/docs/managecategories

Dawg

@ elifarley - My beef really isn't whether or not it can be done. I'm sure with sufficient support it could be made to do anything. But if I'm finding the whole structure confusing I think many others would be lost. I have contributed to many Forums over the tears and never have I had this much trouble at the start. Now I'm getting the hang of it but first exposure was frustrating.

Have a look at one of my threads at a club I belong to. The interface there is easy to use and gets the job done.

http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2317&PN=1

Spend a few moments exploring that site. It seems to be organized in a logical fashion. At least it seems that way to me....:)

Uploading various file types is dead easy. Creating new threads in sub categories is available to all. Main headings can only be created by Admins.

Lets see if anyone else chimes in here before we get too exited. If I'm the only one having issues then lets not worry about it.

As for being and Admin, sure. I think I could be helpful.

The Dawg

elifarley

Hi Dawg,

I'll take a look at that site.

Regarding the creation of discussions (a.k.a. threads) in sub categories, any member of this forum can create discussions under all non-protected categories (which are the majority), it doesn't matter if the category is a sub-category or a parent category.

But if you want to make a sub-category, that is, create a new category as a child of an existing category, then you have to be an administrator.

BTW, I have re-enabled a WYSIWYG editor, let's see if it's worth keeping.

Howdy, Stranger!

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