Time For New Forum Software

R U tocking abaut this interface? Whut duz it not do now? Y iz it bad?

The biggist problem iz with riting a post.

You cant scroll up & read any previous post, only the wun you are replying to.

It starts to crunch up the letterz wen you have more than a few paragrafs and scroll up & down wen youre compozing.

The requirement to preview & then post iz probably an option they coud turn off with this software, but its useless none the less.

The email notification link usually duznt work. (Suprizingly for this wun it did) This makes it a chore to get to the latest post wen the topic gets long, such az the the TRiSeK, wich iz over 300 posts.

Thoze post lists are a clunky way to navigate a topic and having a second wun for 'good ansr' only strechez the page length even further.

The post lists and other links get buggy wen the topic gets long. Putting the cursor over a post link makes it disappear.

The entire forum layout iz bad. You don't get a good overview uv the topics.

Occasionally, memberz hav posted piks that were too big and it strecht the whole topic way wider than my monitor so reading anything required side to side scrolling.

Posting a pik iz impossible if your screen hite iz too short, such az the netbook I'm on; the dialog box goez below the bottom uv the screen and iznt scrollable, then its locked up since the off button, if there iz wun, iz not vizable.

People get used to thingz. We adapt. Unfortunately, we are often adapted to thingz that arent very good and then hav trouble seeing the advantagez uv a superior version. I'm sure sum memberz hav adapted so completely to this that they will be offended and will be in defense mode.

Hav a look at

http://theinfinityprogram.com/index.php?threads/conversion-vote-poll.4206/#post-58373

Are you buying? The current CR4 platform was built in-house. Most third-party platforms are not free to use. (CR4 isn't free, either, but we have a programmer that does other work.)

We welcome suggestions for improving the current forum. (No guarantees that they are implemented - it depends on community need and availability of resources.) I tried to read your list of complaints in the comment above but it was too time-consuming for me to decipher.

Didn't know you made it yourself. Congrats. I respect that.

Maybe 4 or 5 years ago it was great, but it seriously doesn't measure up anymore.

I don't know how much a xenforo licence costs. But I have the impresssion that the Infinity forum guys aren't rolling in money, so I'd be surprized if your corporate sponsor couldn't afford it.

My guess is that you have spent waaaaaaaaayyyyy more on this home made platform than any of the 'factory made' software costs. And thinking that your software guy will get his salary whether he's working on this or not is no excuse.

About the spelling, I didn't start it!

Z man, you said "I don't know how much a xenforo licence costs. But I have the impresssion that the Infinity forum guys aren't rolling in money, so I'd be surprized if your corporate sponsor couldn't afford it." What inside knowledge do you have about the financial well being of GlobalSpec?

You also said "My guess is that you have spent waaaaaaaaayyyyy more on this home made platform than any of the 'factory made' software costs." So, now it is simply a guess.

Then you said "And thinking that your software guy will get his salary whether he's working on this or not is no excuse." This is a self serving, face-saving comment.

Finally, you said "About the spelling, I didn't start it!" This seem a defensive posture and comment. We (CR4 members) have visited with you in the past about this. It should be no surprise that you are still getting some other-than-positive feedback on it.

Hard to think of anything that doesn't get cheaper in production. Although software isn't exactly the same as a solid product, it still can benefit from the development cost being distributed over many customers.

It is also dependent on how good the software is, which is one of my big pet peeves. There's a poor attitude about development in the industry which has allowed lots of barely past prototype stage junk to get passed on to customers. That's been a very good reason to do it yourself if you have the capability. The amount of time millions end users have spent over the last 30 years dealing with bug infested ergonomically rediculous crap is mind boggling.

But the situation seems to be substantially improved here in 2012. The xenforo software is a good example.

I mentioned 'people get used to stuff' above. English spelling is an excellent example.

I have to agree with you; production is a good way to reduce unit cost.

This forum has a different 'feel' to it. This is, in part, due to the way it works. I don't mind it at all, and in many ways I find it more user friendly than another forum I belong to.

Is this the most user friendly? Dunno. If you consider all of the different operating systems, all of the different browsers, all of the variables involved... is there one forum platform that really, truly, makes everybody happy? That would be a real accomplishment.

You said "I mentioned 'people get used to stuff' above. English spelling is an excellent example." The resistance I have to your special way of riting is, I spent a LOT of time studying to get decent grades in English. I simply hate to think that I wasted it.

See ya around the CR4 drinking fountain, Doorman.

There are definitely worse forums. Some are hardly more than long strings of posts with nothing but a border to seperate each one.

"That would be a real accompishment"

Alot of stuff is Java these days, which I understand is OS neutral. I haven't heard anybody complaing that a forum totally doesn't work with whatever browser, but I know some details can fail. One of the comments in the thing I linked to was something about xenforo not doing something in Twitter correctly.

Your resistence to Nooalf is futile. And someday I'll get around to watching ST TNG to know what the Borgs are nagging about. You did waste alot of your time because you never learned a way to think about spelling and the sounds of speech.

A small, non-Nooalf thing I can help you with in English - your last sentence means you were writing to someone named Doorman. You have to put your name on the next line at least and preferably with a space between the lines and your name indented.

I was going to check for other foibles in your post, but as an example of a problem with this software, your post is now almost entirely illegible.

"...your last sentence means you were writing to someone named Doorman."

Oops! Ya kot mi!

I think there are two ways to view this forum...

It gets the job done certainly. It appears similarly for all browsers and devices. It is overall attractive, easy to follow, and once you get used to the menus, very, very user friendly. The symbols panel is very nice for a technical forum like this.

It's somewhat limited though. Embedding video is an old hat by now; yet this hat has tricorners. It can be er, um, 'clunky', is a good way to put it.

My opinion: everything adapts eventually, because if it doesn't, it dies. Be patient friends. Maybe CR4 is just awaiting the 'hologram' emebdding technology I've heard so much about!

xenforo is 140$.

HUSH, you wrote that everything adapts.

Forums are the environments. Membership requires you to adapt to a forum.

It is characteristic of humans to modify the environment to better suit them. Much of civilization and technology could be thought of as artificial environments.

Unforunately, the individuals within environments that others create often don't have much power to make changes or move to a better one. Look at the history of home computers - Amiga was fundamentally superior to Apple, which is superior to Windows, yet purely thru aggressive business practices, Windows won. Amiga is extinct and Apple barely survived.

And when individuals get tired of seeing the same issues after several years, and find a new forum to express themselves? They're attentions will focus elsewhere, dwindling the precious resource of this forum: the users. The Apple/Microsoft analogy is quite the red herring thrown in. Ultimately, everyone is here by choice. This site does rather well despite its antiquated feel. I think that is again a product of the community, it's overall friendliness, and accessibility.

That is basicly incorrect. Forums are based on a subject in general. Not many members here is going to switch to the Beauty Tips forum just because they like the platform.

But people do have multiple interests and forums do have alot of overlap in topics, so there's a limit to how crappy a platform can be. It really only has to be 'good enough' to retain the old timers, but anybody dropping in here who is used to a superior platform is likely to be chased away.

I think we finally agree on something: that this site can be indeterminable and perhaps intimidating to a prospective user. However, it's the content--and more importantly the discussion and quality of the users--the will ultimately determine this site's use.

A quick Google/Bing/Roundsearch will show many technical/engineering forums, but is the quality on par with CR4? That's up to the individual, but I don't expect many of these forums have this level of moderation or financial backing. So, you could expect a better forum design, yes, but I think it works for now.

Btw, thanks for keeping this discussion sociable, and well-thought.

You're welcome.

I just noticed your signature line. HAHA! Is it a coincidence?

"Nded et iz."

Synchronicity!

Fast forward from the first request for embedded video capabilities on CR4 made in Oct of last year to your request here placed March of this year, to now Sept of this year and I echo the same request...

"Time for new forum software? ...Embedding video is an old hat by now..."

CR4 should add pole functionality too. But embedding video technology on a technology discussion site design for and used by technological professionals like maintenance and engineers, should have occurred by now. Or at least you 'HUSH' and others should get a reply by CR4, a date when embedding video capabilities is expected, something.

If you are determined to keep this, at least fix some glaring problems.

The worst iz the post # link thing, wutevr you call it, the box that has a list of the posts in a topic. Completely redundant and worthless. All it duz iz make the paje longer, and it appearz to stop working when there are too many posts. (Take a look at the Trisecting an Angle topic)

Its been quite a while since I looked in on CR4.

I'm on a Chromebook now and it seems to work OK with this forum.

Do you actually work on the software for this, Savvy?