Jeff Mottle Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Hey guys, I wanted to get feedback on something that will affect everyone here. I am very seriously investigating moving from this current forum software to one that is run from a true database (this is all run from flat text files) The benefits are that you would get: - Integration of logins from the main site and the forum - Better more robust searching and faster - Faster overall performance - More features - Your logins and all of the posts would get transfered. The one I am looking at can be found here: http://www.idealbb.com/idealbb The look and feel can be cutomised of course but please take a look at the features like posting, searching etc. The only drawback is that this software is relatively new and does have the odd bug. The upside is that the developer is very quick to fix them. As this is a VERY expensive proposition, probbaly about $2000-$3000US including my plan to move my database to my dedicated server. I wanted to get everyone's feedback. As I run entirely on an Microsoft IIS platform using MSSQL databases, our forum is the only one that does not, so as part of my CGA2 plan I need to switch to an ASP application. (This one uses Perl) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 It ain't broke. The 'proposed bbs' looks fine, functionally. I do not like how it builds the page as it loads. I have a very fast cable modem at the moment (probably not sharing the bandwidth much yet, as the line is new) and I could still see each page assemble itself. Also it has that 'XP' cuteness. I have been trying to swat all the cuteness I can from my new XP box. I also prefer the look of the current board to the one used by CGtalk.com If you must switch later, then re-visit the issue then. The present one works now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzagorski Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Had a quick look.. kinda hard to say whether its good or not, looks ok though. But.. phew..$2000-$3000US eh... thats a fair amount of bank. Does it come with a free Porsche? In response to Ernests posts about building pages and slowness.. I am on *shared* dialup with wife and pages take about 6-8 seconds to load here. Thats fine by my standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 You are so predictable Ernest LOLOL. I saw your reply and even before I read it I knew your response. LOLOLOL. Like I say the look and feel can be customised such that is looks just like this one. Which will change eventually when I overhaul the site (I've sarted to revisit it now) There are three major problems on this forum: 1. Searching sucks and it's very slow. This will become more and more critical as the forum post increase in number. 2. The technology used by this forum is not very scalable and we will approach critical mass in the next year I would expect. WHen that happens it means data corruption. 3. I get about 4 emails a week asking why they can't log in. Not realising that the forum and the main site use seperate registrations and logins. Mike: Yup the forum software is $600-2100US depending on the version. Which is about 10 times more expensive than any of the PHP, CGI, Perl forum sout there, but so far this Ideal BB is the only sotware I can find that has all the features that we have now (and more). If anyone knows of another I'd love to know. The rest of the cost, about $1000 US, is to purchase SQL Server 2000. Rigth now I have a dedicated server for the webpages and image storage, but the database still exits on a shared server. I want to move it to my server, but this of course requires me to buy the licence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 the new option loads faster, and runs faster on my whimpy 56k dial-up at home which is great. i kind of like seeing the page as it loads in. the search definetly kicks booty over the current one, which is slow and frustrating. especially when i get told to search the archives because my question has alredy been answered. i don't know what all of the new features would be, but i do like seeing how many times a topic has been viewed. at least this way i know the questions that go unanswered are not due to lack of being seen or read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Eloy Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Originally posted by crazy homeless guy: ... don't know what all of the new features would be, but i do like seeing how many times a topic has been viewed. at least this way i know the questions that go unanswered are not due to lack of being seen or read. I strongly agree. A good example is VRay's forum. We can always tell "being not read" from "being totally ignored" (no irony here ) Meanwhile, we can only give our opinions with some knowledge if we actually get to use this new software. Otherwise, it'll be nothing but speculations. [] Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 You are so predictable Ernest LOLOL. I saw your reply and even before I read it I knew your response. LOLOLOL.Then we must be friends--how can you know someone that well and not be friends? Pity we've never met. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 Then we must be friends--how can you know someone that well and not be friends? Pity we've never met.Indeed. I will have to come to New York soon just so I can visit everyone. Most of the people I know best live there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 we can only give our opinions with some knowledge if we actually get to use this new software. Otherwise, it'll be nothing but speculations.I will try to get the demo version up and installed very soon. I was just in contact with my host and it seems that this is the best way to go (moving the database location) to ensure the best performance. As soon as I get that resolved I will install the software for everyone to test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted June 28, 2003 Share Posted June 28, 2003 Hi All, I agree with Ernest: it 'ain't' broke, why fix it? Of course I understand overload of members would force a change, but why not initiate it in cga2 only? I've never had any problem logging in to the forum, and I don't even noticed it's slow, as I read more than I browse... rgds nisus i don't know what all of the new features would be, but i do like seeing how many times a topic has been viewed. at least this way i know the questions that go unanswered are not due to lack of being seen or read. I don't think you'll find one thread that has not been replied to here on cga! I've made it into a habit to post a 'no one?' into the threads that have not been answered within a few days. (If you do, tell me! or better, reply to it yourself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted June 30, 2003 Share Posted June 30, 2003 i love this forum the way it is. it aint broke. however, i'd love to see the amount of times a post has been viewed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Mottle Posted June 30, 2003 Author Share Posted June 30, 2003 Thanks for the feedback guys. Nisus: I am starting to plan CGA2 again and having a forum that can integrate into those plans is integral. I have to get the forum moved over first however. In a few weeks I'll have a demo up for everyone to see and you can play with it. I think you guys will like it even more. Quizzy: The new forum would have a number of views as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted July 2, 2003 Share Posted July 2, 2003 a couple of the things i like about the bb software you are using now... 1.the option to upload to your server, rather than always hosting on our own. if i display my own files, then i host it myself, but if i am modifying someone elses file, then i upload to your server. 2.i like using the UBB code rather than html, or some cryptic code. ....sometimes when i am using the forums, i am reading a thread, then i hit the back button on my browser to return to the lists of threads, and it is not displayed right. it seems like my computer is reading from a cached file. the posts are old, and it does not show the new posts. if i hold down shift, and hit refresh, it forces the page to load fresh from your site, and takes care of the problem. does this happen to anyone else? (obviously this is not one of the things i like) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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