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Gone4good

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Message 847972 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 2:09:50 UTC
Last modified: 2 Jan 2009, 2:10:43 UTC

Hi I dont know if this is the right place for this but didnt see a relevant section.

I recently joined seti to help crunch packets and thought I would check out the forums here.The thing is these forums are so un user friendly it is almost impossible to tell what posts are new or old.Just a number with posted bla bla mins ago wit hno organisation of new threads at all.Im wondering if theres any view to upgrade the forum to something more user friendly since I and I guess other new people find these forums horrible to use to be honest.

Im not new to forums and work building and repairing other forums plus running some myself for various things and I have to say this takes first prize for uselessness when it comes to using them.If Seti does have any intention of upgrading it would be nice and also think it would be more beneficial since this kind of forum looks very amateur compared to some of the forums available free to use on the net.

Im willing to build a free forum for Seti even if they want but I really think the one here now is a big turn off to a lot of new users.
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Profile RandyF
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Message 848275 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 18:03:41 UTC - in response to Message 847972.  
Last modified: 2 Jan 2009, 18:05:29 UTC

I, too, agree that this forum is somewhat difficult to use, compared to the others I have experience with. Since you say that you build and repair other forums, perhaps you could do the same to this? My employees know that, when they approach me with a problem, they must also have a solution....
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Message 848323 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 19:33:49 UTC - in response to Message 847972.  

Up near the right hand corner, there is a method to select the sorting for the posts. Indeed there is a way to tell what posts are new or old.

In my opinion, the real issue is that there's so many different software applications for web-based forums that there's a learning curve once someone gets used to things being a certain way. I know this was the case for me coming from phpBoards, and having come from three different custom made forums before that.

I really don't think they are user unfriendly, just takes some learning and getting used to.
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Message 848354 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 20:20:55 UTC - in response to Message 848323.  


I really don't think they are user unfriendly, just takes some learning and getting used to.



Well said. I second that.
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Message 848409 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 22:46:07 UTC - in response to Message 848354.  

I currently run forums based on smf (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php)which are free forums not needing any licence to use.I actively get involved in the forums in terms of help to other users who run their own forums and require help for various things.

The standard forum as you will see has a good layout and you can see who posted last in a thread,news,feeds and can have a lot of other features added depending on how you wish to use the forum.

The base install is very easy to do and can run very robustly even when member levels start to increase.There is a football club forum (I wont say names here ;) ) that has now over 5 million members worldwide running on this software.

I am 100% willing to aid in any way should Seti decide to implement a forum based on this package.If they used another source I would assist the best I could if asked to.I just think it would be very good for seti if the forums where a lot of people maybe first look were a little more inviting.I am not trying to be disrepectfull to Seti or anyone associated but with dealing with forums a lot I thought it fair as a new user to speak my thoughts but explain the reasons why as well,not simply flame with nothing constructive.

I understand that with a little time it will become easier to navigate here as it is now but others maybe get lost easily and give up.I had to look in my account and posts to find this thread again even though I was the topic starter.

I can build a forum to any specification using smf and can also build a demonstration forum if it is required which I can run on my local server.It can have a Seti theme and also plenty of anti spam and bot protection.Also an admin area as well as member and public if required.The choices are what you want basically but im willing to help if asked.
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Message 848410 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 22:48:51 UTC

I will point Eric attention on this thread. He can decide what to do.
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Profile Dirk Villarreal Wittich
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Message 848417 - Posted: 2 Jan 2009, 23:04:43 UTC

It looks interesting to me. It is worth to have a closer look at that.
Thanks for your offer (my personal opinion)

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Message 848481 - Posted: 3 Jan 2009, 2:45:40 UTC

I have been involved with other forums as well and this one as was said earlier takes a bit of learning but you should find it easy to navigate within a day or two. if you look in the upper left you will see a search and in the right just above the last post there is a drop down where you can select the order you want the posts and the order you want the threads. so it is customizable to a certian extent.




What you do today you will have to live with tonight
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Message 848531 - Posted: 3 Jan 2009, 4:51:14 UTC - in response to Message 848409.  
Last modified: 3 Jan 2009, 4:57:16 UTC

I currently run forums based on smf (http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php)which are free forums not needing any licence to use.I actively get involved in the forums in terms of help to other users who run their own forums and require help for various things.

The standard forum as you will see has a good layout and you can see who posted last in a thread,news,feeds and can have a lot of other features added depending on how you wish to use the forum.

The base install is very easy to do and can run very robustly even when member levels start to increase.There is a football club forum (I wont say names here ;) ) that has now over 5 million members worldwide running on this software.

I am 100% willing to aid in any way should Seti decide to implement a forum based on this package.If they used another source I would assist the best I could if asked to.I just think it would be very good for seti if the forums where a lot of people maybe first look were a little more inviting.I am not trying to be disrepectfull to Seti or anyone associated but with dealing with forums a lot I thought it fair as a new user to speak my thoughts but explain the reasons why as well,not simply flame with nothing constructive.

I understand that with a little time it will become easier to navigate here as it is now but others maybe get lost easily and give up.I had to look in my account and posts to find this thread again even though I was the topic starter.

I can build a forum to any specification using smf and can also build a demonstration forum if it is required which I can run on my local server.It can have a Seti theme and also plenty of anti spam and bot protection.Also an admin area as well as member and public if required.The choices are what you want basically but im willing to help if asked.

Night,
SETI@home uses "BOINC" software, which has its own forum software built in, its not copied from smf or phpbb or anywhere else.

If you are serious about your suggestion, you could get involved in the development of the software from the BOINC website; http://boinc.berkeley.edu . There is no shortage of free forum software on the internet, there is a shortage of php programmers willing to write php code for BOINC.

There are several links on the front page of the BOINC website marked "Help wanted", you should read them. Or read this; http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/DevProjects

John.
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Message 849823 - Posted: 5 Jan 2009, 20:57:14 UTC - in response to Message 848409.  

Hi Night,

It think all of the BOINC projects would love improved forum software. The main difficulty with using outside software is changing it to use BOINC login information, understand "special user" tags, and integrate with the rest of BOINC. Please join the BOINC developers list, which is the best place to get advice about any sort of BOINC changes you may be planning.


@SETIEric@qoto.org (Mastodon)

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Message 849830 - Posted: 5 Jan 2009, 21:16:07 UTC - in response to Message 849823.  

It think all of the BOINC projects would love improved forum software. The main difficulty with using outside software is changing it to use BOINC login information, understand "special user" tags, and integrate with the rest of BOINC. Please join the BOINC developers list, which is the best place to get advice about any sort of BOINC changes you may be planning.


Thank you for the replies and I will look a bit more into this.The issue of outside login isnt a big one since the use of SSL can be used to allow login from various pages using a secure login but I wont harp on here over that.

I will check boinc out since I was unaware how this all worked together and im still finding my feet a little here.

Cheers ,Night
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Message 849854 - Posted: 5 Jan 2009, 22:23:30 UTC - in response to Message 849830.  

I would have made an edit to the post above but failed to find an edit button sorry.

I have registered on the list and can see the threads now discussing various code and forum updates but how do I go about getting hold of the raw forum code?I would need this if I were to see if an upgrade can be done and integrated succesfully plus I need also to be able to set up a local test to debug ect.

If this is not possible I understand but if it is can somone point me the right way please.

Thanks, Night

PS: The forum tags you will need that are listed on the bbcode page would not be any real issue to impliment and would be easily selectable rather than needing to type them every time or paste from the bbcode page.
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Message 849865 - Posted: 5 Jan 2009, 22:45:13 UTC - in response to Message 849854.  

I would have made an edit to the post above but failed to find an edit button sorry.

You can only edit posts for one hour after you have created them. There are depressingly good reasons for this.

I have registered on the list and can see the threads now discussing various code and forum updates but how do I go about getting hold of the raw forum code?


The BOINC code is separate from seti@home since it is used by lots of projects. Please see the BOINC home page and read this introduction to BOINC software development and follow the link Get Source Code.

The forum software is in the html subdirectory - in particular html/user .


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Message 849880 - Posted: 5 Jan 2009, 23:19:47 UTC
Last modified: 5 Jan 2009, 23:20:42 UTC

. . . the EDIT Button is missing on these Pages / Forums

edit: .O just came back w/ the Post . . . never mind ;))
BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .
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