RFF Software Upgrade?

CameraQuest

CameraQuest

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We are considering the possibility of upgrading / changing the RFF software.

That is not as simple as I would like, since upgrading to the current version of vBulletin is probably not the best choice.

So..
What forum software choices would be good for RFF? why?

Just as important,
what software to implement on the back end for the classifieds and gallery so that it all works together well?

Stephen
 
I am not too tech savvy, but I like the current format where the most recent threads are viewable on the homepage (unlike DPR & FM, but like APUG).
 
Hi Stephen,

I have worked with several forum software bases, as an admin, moderator and user. phpBB and Simple Machines Forum were nice for small fora, but the size of RFF would kill them. The only two that I feel are sufficiently robust, and stable, have been vB 3.8.6 (a "minor" upgrade from RFF's 3.6.8, but not the current major upgrade to 4.0) and InvisionPower Suite 2.x. Both are quite nice, but I find the control and interface of vB to be better than IP.
 
In large-scale forum software there doesn't seem to be much choice.

How many hits per minute does RFF generate? It might be easier to move RFF over to a full-fledged community CMS (like Drupal) with good optimization and a good forum module, and implement classifieds, gallery etc. within that CMS rather than as third-party add-ons.
 
One key question you'll need to ask: would the new software allow seamless (or near-seamless) database migration?

I remember when about four or five years ago there was an upgrade, and lots of info was lost: comments, posts, technical data in the gallery, bookmarks...it was all shrugged off with a "just do it all over again". And given that the gallery is a pain in ze @ss to redo (also given the posting limits), and the one reason to keep bookmarks is so that you don't go hunting the threads again, a seamless database migration will just be a Very Bad Idea™

Not to mention the W/NW forum: lots of time and energy invested by the RFF community in there.
 
Wish I could help. I've used VB and Photopost for a long time, but VB has gone completely astray. Upgrade/maintenance have become a burden, and bugs abound.

In the CMS world, Joomla is going to same route, it seems. Drupal is probably the best way to go right now, but that's not an out-of-the-box solution.
 
Stephen,

I applaud your courage in considering this sort of major change. I know from personal experience this sort of upgrade consumes significant resources. However I also know that an upgrade has to be done.

Thanks for RFF... and I wish you the best of luck with the upgrade.
 
Dunno IF anyone suggested it. But the format of i think VB Publishing suite with plugins and customizations seen on PentaxForums is working ok.
I think that there would be members willing to donate to the cause, myself included.
 
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I like PUNBB which the manualfocusforum use. It's very lightweight software and has minimal functionality. But its clean and simple.
Then for the gallery you could use GALLERY
and a piece of classifieds software.

Problems happen when you try and integrate all this stuff into one piece of software. There is really no need to do that except auto generating accounts in the gallery and classifieds as people sign up to PUNBB which is simple to do.
But as has already been pointed out, the conversion of data is the most time consuming.

note: PUNBB allows no image uploading. But that is not a problem IMO as most people hot link thread images from flickr or other image gallery anyway or they can add them to the gallery and hot link from there.

Then don't modify the core code from any of the packages which makes upgrading a simple task. (accept for auto generating accounts in gallery and classifieds when signing upto PUNBB)

You would lose some of the functionality of VBulletin but have a much simpler code base to maintain and optimisation of databases from each package can be done spearately.

The only query I would have with that is how well PUNBB would handle 1.5M posts. Perhaps finding an implementation that has that many and talking to them might give a better insight than I can give.
 
tlitody said:
I like PUNBB which the manualfocusforum use. It's very lightweight software and has minimal functionality. But its clean and simple.
Then for the gallery you could use GALLERY
and a piece of classifieds software.

Problems happen when you try and integrate all this stuff into one piece of software. There is really no need to do that except auto generating accounts in the gallery and classifieds as people sign up to PUNBB which is simple to do.
But as has already been pointed out, the conversion of data is the most time consuming.

note: PUNBB allows no image uploading. But that is not a problem IMO as most people hot link thread images from flickr or other image gallery anyway or they can add them to the gallery and hot link from there.

Then don't modify the core code from any of the packages which makes upgrading a simple task. (accept for auto generating accounts in gallery and classifieds when signing upto PUNBB)

You would lose some of the functionality of VBulletin but have a much simpler code base to maintain and optimisation of databases from each package can be done spearately.
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I don't think that's a good idea. After all if you want to have a site with classifieds and a gallery, interaction between them isn't limited to account creation. If you want a common login (as in log into the forum and be logged into the classifieds), you'll need to change more than just the account creation script. If you want to send messages from the classifieds through the forum system, you'll need to adapt the classifieds somehow. And so on.

I think if you want a forum with classifieds and a gallery, it's best to start with a system that gives you all that, rather than to hack together three systems and hope that they remain both interoperable and maintainable. I guess a CMS would really be the best solution both in terms of flexibility and maintainability, but as Pickett Wilson said it's not out-of-the-box.
 
rxmd said:
I don't think that's a good idea. After all if you want to have a site with classifieds and a gallery, interaction between them isn't limited to account creation. If you want a common login (as in log into the forum and be logged into the classifieds), you'll need to change more than just the account creation script. If you want to send messages from the classifieds through the forum system, you'll need to adapt the classifieds somehow. And so on.

I think if you want a forum with classifieds and a gallery, it's best to start with a system that gives you all that, rather than to hack together three systems and hope that they remain both interoperable and maintainable. I guess a CMS would really be the best solution both in terms of flexibility and maintainability, but as Pickett Wilson said it's not out-of-the-box.
Click to expand...

I don't see the logins as an issue. You need cookies switched on and once logged in to all three you can flip between any of them without a problem. So its a once only situation unless you clear your cookies.

The classifieds would have its own messaging system, why would it need to send messages to the forum? That's just complication for the sake of complication which leads to the situation we have now.
And the gallery is the same.
Sure all this inter relationship can be coded but I question the need for it and the complexity it creates.

And as for Drupal, if you can find someone prepared to put the time and effort into it and produce something that can be upgraded with future releases if necessary then fine. But somehow I don't think that will happen.
 
tlitody said:
I don't see the logins as an issue. You need cookies switched on and once logged in to all three you can flip between any of them without a problem. So its a once only situation unless you clear your cookies. [...]

The classifieds would have its own messaging system, why would it need to send messages to the forum?
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Because I don't want to have three different PM inboxes and login windows? :angel:

I agree with you about having to find someone to set up a CMS, but then I don't think finding someone to continually maintain and update three different pieces of software and hope that they don't break is going to be much easier.
 
I'd like the classifieds just being another thread (or threads). Would bypass the limited image sizes, avoid bogging down RFF with having to host the images, and be searchable by most recent first with ability to thread subscribe to only what you're interested in, e.g. MF or 35mm and not have to see everything all the time.
 
rxmd said:
Because I don't want to have three different PM inboxes and login windows? :angel:

I agree with you about having to find someone to set up a CMS, but then I don't think finding someone to continually maintain and update three different pieces of software and hope that they don't break is going to be much easier.
Click to expand...

Software doesn't break. Its either right or wrong. Breaking happens when you try and extend functionality by installing or modifying existing software.
If it ain't broke don't try and fix it. The combined maintenance on those three packages would be minimal and if anyone of them does get broken the other two continue to work normally. And fixing one of them would likely be simpler than fixing one combined package.

[edit] and you can do upgrades or mods to any of them (if you must) without fear of breaking the other two.[/edit]
 
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ampguy said:
I'd like the classifieds just being another thread (or threads). Would bypass the limited image sizes, avoid bogging down RFF with having to host the images, and be searchable by most recent first with ability to thread subscribe to only what you're interested in, e.g. MF or 35mm and not have to see everything all the time.
Click to expand...

+That and maybe make only a special group of users be able to post new threads to that area like at a 10$ cost per 30 days and at the end of that period you just stop being a member of the group or so.Something the GetDpi forums have in place for their print selling section :). Would be cheaper and less system consuming, could lead to possibly a larger turnaround on the site probably in the end making it more popular for other photogs also.
 
t.s.k. said:
I don't know if you checked out the ranking site for discussion groups.

http://rankings.big-boards.com/

Might give some insight into what other high-traffic boards are using and doing.

Just a thought and gooood luck. This is a huge decision.
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I don't think there is any correlation between top of the forum rankings and/or best forum software. The rankings are more to do with what the forum is about I think.

I only found one PUNBB forum in that list which, purely by chance, has roughly the same amount of posts in it as RFF.

PUNBB is like a Rangefinder. It has only the things that are essential to running a forum. Like a RISC processor built for speed without any resource consuming fancy bits. But if you want fancy bits then its not for you.
 
tlitody said:
Software doesn't break.
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After being the manager responsible for the operation of some major CMS driven web sites: Nope, they do break, in terms of security relevant bugs becoming public and exploited - and in that case you'll have to fix them ASAP, which is a major PITA if you modified the software to the point where you cannot install security patches any more.
 
sevo said:
After being the manager responsible for the operation of some major CMS driven web sites: Nope, they do break, in terms of security relevant bugs becoming public and exploited - and in that case you'll have to fix them ASAP, which is a major PITA if you modified the software to the point where you cannot install security patches any more.
Click to expand...


Well thats the difference between you and me. You perceive the useless security protection as something which can be broken whereas as I see it as bad programming which is a gaping hole for anyone to dive into. So why was software with gaping holes installed in the first place? Obvious really, the people writing it and installing it got it WRONG. It didn't break, it was wrong when it was installed and before it went live.
 
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