Dev.SN

Experienced Advice Needed

posted by mattie_p on Saturday February 22 2014, @03:56PM   
from the slashcode-will-solve-all-your-problems dept.

technopoptart writes:

"I need advice from people more experienced that I am with open source forum software. I am going to be setting up a forum system for computer science students from the various colleges in the area.

I have been running a closed SMF forum for my wife for a year. I wanted to solicit advice about SMF or any other systems that I may consider. I have played with phpBB but I found it labor intensive, as newly created sections are made invisible even to the admin by default, I don't want a laborious permissions system. I appreciate any advice you can give."

• Hmm Hmm (Score: 4, Insightful) by gottabeme on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:20AM

  by gottabeme (1531) on Sunday February 23 2014, @05:20AM (#5131)

  I'm torn: I think this isn't the kind of article or "Ask Soylent" question that "we" want (we being mostly me, probably), but on the other hand, maybe right now we need all the stories we can get.

  But back to the first hand: how long would it take on Google to find recent discussions about good open-source forum software on Reddit, StackExchange/etc, and all over the rest of the Internet? This is exactly the kind of question that the Internet doesn't need Yet Another of--at least, not more than a few times a year.

  "But I want to know what (Soylent|Slashdot|Reddit|insert-site-of-choice) thinks about this, not the rest of the Internet!" To that I think I can only roll my eyes and sigh.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Insightful=3, Total=3
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		4

• mmm... (Score: 5, Insightful) by tdk on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:07AM

  by tdk (346) on Sunday February 23 2014, @09:07AM (#5171) Homepage Journal

  This is exactly the kind of thing we want
  Googling is great for finding answers to specific technical questions "what version of perl does slash code use?" "is XenForo open source?", etc
  When it comes to subjective questions ("what is the best X for Y?") you end up wasting hours reading flame wars and rants
  OTOH this is exactly where a moderated forum with only the most insightful posts visible shines.
  "But I want to know what Soylent thinks about this,"
  If high-scoring soylent comments aren't on average better informed than the rest of the web, then what exactly is the point of the site? Do you mean you come here for the articles?

  --
  Moderated Usenet [squte.com]

  Parent