Upgrade these forums?

[Mojko]

Hi guys.

I'm a developer programmer by trade and I would really like to see these forums to be upgraded to some up-to-date technology. Currently these forums use phpBB forum which is quite old and is lacking some modern features. As a part of my work I got experience with Discourse forums. It's a relatively new forum engine with very nice features for both users and moderators. It has also many log-in integrations like native Facebook login, Google+ login and generic single sign on capability. I personally integrated these forums into an independent website during my work and it's working very well.

It also offers a gradual level-up system for users by adding more forum functionality over time, also it supports all modern screen resolutions including mobile devices with smaller screens. There are many import tools available that allow to transition from older forum engines and most importantly it's free.

I really recommend checking this out and considering transition to this new forum engine.

[timmy1]

I like the fact that these are simple and don't have loads of features I don't need that make it more complex to use and slower on machines not optimised for hi-res graphics. Please don't upgrade - it works fine.

[Mojko]

I like the fact that these are simple and don't have loads of features I don't need that make it more complex to use and slower on machines not optimised for hi-res graphics. Please don't upgrade - it works fine.

I understand the anxiety from something new, but I can assure you that new forum engine doesn't mean it's overloaded with features or that is demanding on the client side. I would actually claim otherwise - since it uses latest technologies is should be even better performance-wise compared to the old one. Additionally, the features can be highly customized without hacking the native code so you can adjust the functionality to what is needed.

If I had to name one most important reason to transition it would be how these forum look on mobile devices. Nowadays, large part of users access web via mobile devices and that is the reason why it so important to have a website that supports these screen resolutions as well.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I'm also a member on the alternatehistory.com forum, which has a newer engine. That website lags enormously for me, which is somewhat annoying. Slitherine works fine as it is.

- BNC

[Mojko]

I'm also a member on the alternatehistory.com forum, which has a newer engine. That website lags enormously for me, which is somewhat annoying. Slitherine works fine as it is.

- BNC

Adding a non-related forum engine to the discussion isn't very helpful. I would be interested to hear your performance report on the actual forum engine I proposed earlier. Please try to visit these forums that I'm currently administering and let me know how is the performance on your side. Maybe I'm missing something, but there have been no performance complaints thus far and there are plenty of users there. That is why I proposed the upgrade.

https://forums.theaetherlight.com/

Just browse few pages as a guest (registration is not available on the forums).

[BiteNibbleChomp]

I'm also a member on the alternatehistory.com forum, which has a newer engine. That website lags enormously for me, which is somewhat annoying. Slitherine works fine as it is.

- BNC

Adding a non-related forum engine to the discussion isn't very helpful. I would be interested to hear your performance report on the actual forum engine I proposed earlier. Please try to visit these forums that I'm currently administering and let me know how is the performance on your side. Maybe I'm missing something, but there have been no performance complaints thus far and there are plenty of users there. That is why I proposed the upgrade.

https://forums.theaetherlight.com/

Just browse few pages as a guest (registration is not available on the forums).

Alright, I'll clarify a bit. When on AH, I sometimes have to click a dozen or more times to make it receive an input, such as clicking the Post Reply button. Hence, as a member and user of it, I am not 100% impressed with its performance. The performance as a member is quite important for a website, which is why I raised that concern. I simply wish to remind people that 'new' is not always 'even better performance-wise'.

The link you put up does work quite well, but I looked through the pages and many (nearly all) had less than 1000 views, and less than 200 replies. This tells me that it 'works well when less than a few hundred people use it', which is not necessarily the same as 'works well when a very large number of people use it'. Slitherine's use has gone down in the last couple of years, but I am quite sure the entire website receives more than 7 threads being posted to each day.

AH has about 22000 members, and Slitherine has over 80000. I could not find the statistics for your website, but judging by the quantity of posts, it is probably a lot less than these figures. And this is where my concern comes in - can your engine handle the volume of traffic that it would receive should it be used by this forum? I would be disappointed if we 'upgraded' and then things stopped working because Slitherine's hardware can't handle it.

However, it is up to Iain and the others to decide whether to adopt your idea, I am simply presenting some issues for consideration.

- BNC

[Mojko]

Just to clarify: Discourse forums is an Open source project and I do not participate in it in any way. I just used it in my work.

I understand your concern on huge number of users and I admit that the link I posted probably isn't the best example since there are not that many users there. On the Discourse project website there are plenty of links to major websites that use this forum engine and have much higher number of users / posts. For example this one here:

http://discourse.ubuntu.com/

If you are interested you may check all the links to major websites that use Discourse forum here:

http://www.discourse.org/faq/customers/

I also agree that new doesn't necessarily mean "better", however I have personal experience with Discourse forum engine and I can confirm that it is really good.

[BiteNibbleChomp]

If you reckon it can handle it, then I won't be worried if the admins do decide to upgrade. Equally, I will be happy staying with the current thing.

- BNC

[IainMcNeil]

We have no plans to move from PHP BB, though we do update to the latest version from time to time.

[timmy1]

You mean when JD isn't looking and you can sneak a fiver out of petty-cash...

[demyansk]

I would like to see an online chat to ask questions and maybe get quick answers opponents.