72 replies to this topic

[Vekseid]

SMF's theme system is simply a mess. 2.0 is actually a step backwards in some ways. It is faster, to be sure, getting faster and scaling better, but a lot of the structure remains from the Yabb SE days.

It's partly a matter of purging that, honestly. Certain needs no longer exist and are even counterproductive now.

[Sunsettommy]

That is amazing that they have not improved on one of their weaknesses.

I find it stunning that with a good package manager set up they have,only to be limited to a certain theme that downloads work best in.That they did not consider that people may prefer other themes to install a lot of nice mods in,is amazing.

I am planning to download myBB and see what it can do,maybe transfer SMF into it? I hate to do it because SMF is a good forum software,but I have no idea how to clean up the few messes that are still there at my small forum.I do not know how to make the changes in the codes to make it work in other themes,therefore the reason why I am looking around at other forum software.I am even looking at UBB.threads and see that it appears quite good.But they want a bucket load of money for it and I think that is a big mistake on their part.

myBB has features that are better and more advanced than SMF such as Hyperlink set up.That is why I am looking at it.

[Sunsettommy]

FullMetalBabe said:

Because by the time SMF 2.0 is out maybe MyBB 1.6 might be out, hell, MyBB 2.0! 10x better.

I might wait for myBB 1.6 to come out before I switch to it.

I have been browsing through the myBB demo and find it appealing.Unfortunately it is based on the old 1.2 version.

Does anyone have the 1.4 demo version?

[FullMetalBabe]

Sunsettommy said:

I might wait for myBB 1.6 to come out before I switch to it.

I have been browsing through the myBB demo and find it appealing.

There are many thing you can do with MyBB to make it look 'awesome'.

[alex@]

I'm using nothing but SMF. Tried a few of the other free forum softwares, like phpBB etc. Didn't like them.
My approach was that I was a completely newbie to forum software. SMF was a walk in the park to learn.

I'm member in quite a few forums around the internet using VB, phpBB, Lithium, SMF and other software. I guess when you get used to a forum software, the other ones looks and functions odd to you.
But I was part of many forums even before starting using SMF and I was always very confused as a user. Maybe it's because I'm not the type of person that wants to deal with a lot of reading to start using a forum software. Things should be simple and effective.
SMF 2 has a lot of new features, mainly moderation- and control features for the admins. The admin center has been completely restructured and is very easy to use.

Modifications are now even more easy to install, as they can be installed in all themes where the parsing does not fail. And yes, it can fail in some cases where the author of the theme has made huge changes to his theme. But you have to remember this is because SMF lets themers modify their themes a lot more than what would be possible with a lot of other forum softwares.

Unfortunately there are quite a few statements here regarding SMF1 as well as SMF 2 in this board that are not quite true. This must be because people didn't use time enough on the software.
People are also comparing the old SMF1 version that has quite a few years on it's back. Or people are comparing the look of SMF 2 betas and RC's that still has the old 'Core' look.
From SMF 2 RC2 and forward, the old themes will be gone, and a new theme called Curve will be the default theme.

You can see a preview here: http://www.adminaddi.../smf2-rc2-4463/

[Static_]

Sunsettommy said:

Does anyone have the 1.4 demo version?

MyBB version 1.4.9 Demo - OpenSourceCMS

[Sunsettommy]

StaticAge said:

MyBB version 1.4.9 Demo - OpenSourceCMS

LOL,

I just found it and then read a comment,and came back here to post it,to then find your helpful post.

Thank you for the help.

[Vekseid]

alex@ said:

I'm using nothing but SMF. Tried a few of the other free forum softwares, like phpBB etc. Didn't like them.
My approach was that I was a completely newbie to forum software. SMF was a walk in the park to learn.

I'm member in quite a few forums around the internet using VB, phpBB, Lithium, SMF and other software. I guess when you get used to a forum software, the other ones looks and functions odd to you.
But I was part of many forums even before starting using SMF and I was always very confused as a user. Maybe it's because I'm not the type of person that wants to deal with a lot of reading to start using a forum software. Things should be simple and effective.
SMF 2 has a lot of new features, mainly moderation- and control features for the admins. The admin center has been completely restructured and is very easy to use.

Modifications are now even more easy to install, as they can be installed in all themes where the parsing does not fail. And yes, it can fail in some cases where the author of the theme has made huge changes to his theme. But you have to remember this is because SMF lets themers modify their themes a lot more than what would be possible with a lot of other forum softwares.

Unfortunately there are quite a few statements here regarding SMF1 as well as SMF 2 in this board that are not quite true. This must be because people didn't use time enough on the software.
People are also comparing the old SMF1 version that has quite a few years on it's back. Or people are comparing the look of SMF 2 betas and RC's that still has the old 'Core' look.
From SMF 2 RC2 and forward, the old themes will be gone, and a new theme called Curve will be the default theme.

You can see a preview here: http://www.adminaddi.../smf2-rc2-4463/

Yeah, that was a big one when I queried about converting to vBulletin. Most found it hard to use.

[Oldiesmann]

Sunsettommy said:

Kevin writes:

I am learning about this very problem,and they never bother to make that known.Now I have small errors in various places,that needs to be fixed,but I am a newbie and have no idea how to do that.

Now that any NEW themes I want to add,will have to be modified to accept ALL of the downloaded mods,to plug into.That is a problem because the default theme is ordinary,and naturally I want to use nicer themes in it's place.

The smilies group is bad,the hyperlink button is primitive and the convoluted theme problem.It seems that parts of SMF is like looking at a forum from 1998,old and clunky looking.I am amazed that SMF has not upgraded the Hyperlink button and improved the smiles after all these years.

Now I am looking at myBB as a replacement of SMF,that has become a disappointment over time.Maybe their 2.0 version might make a difference,but I am wondering if it is worth the wait?

SMF 2.0 will allow you to attempt to install the mods in other themes as well. However, it is impossible for us to set it up so that a mod will automatically work on every theme. In addition, the amount of editing you have to do to make a mod work in another theme depends both on the theme you're using and the mod itself.

I do agree that the default smileys are ugly. I personally recommend the "Alive" smiley set.

[Bendo]

Vekseid said:

SMF's theme system is simply a mess.

Each to their own really, to me it's simple and easy to use with no having to faff about learning some silly custom themeing code, I have to maintain our company forum in work and I dread updates as it's phpBB and theme updates are a pain in the backside.

If I set it up, it certainly wouldn't be phpBB but I don't have time to convert it. Mind you, the amount of time I waste attempting to manage users, I probably could have done it 7 times over now.

[Vekseid]

Bendo said:

Each to their own really, to me it's simple and easy to use with no having to faff about learning some silly custom themeing code, I have to maintain our company forum in work and I dread updates as it's phpBB and theme updates are a pain in the backside.

If I set it up, it certainly wouldn't be phpBB but I don't have time to convert it. Mind you, the amount of time I waste attempting to manage users, I probably could have done it 7 times over now.

Some of it is still in subs-post, and the menu bar is now defined in subs, rather than in the database like it should be.

I want to convince the SMF team to look into how Drupal does it, really.

[Sunsettommy]

Oldiesmann:

Quote

SMF 2.0 will allow you to attempt to install the mods in other themes as well. However, it is impossible for us to set it up so that a mod will automatically work on every theme.

That is nice to know.

I never thought it would work in ALL other themes,but golly the Default theme is bad! I went to Babylon theme (that came with the SMF software) which is nicer,but already learned that some of the preferred mods fails to work in it,but does fine in the Default Core theme.Seems silly to me since SMF MADE those three themes that came with the 1.1 SMF version.Surely the mods SHOULD have worked in ALL those three themes?

[alex@]

Blame the modders, not SMF.

Other software uses hooks (or whatever they are called) where the modder can put code. SMF doesn't use hooks, but let authors edit (almost) any code as they like. This is a lot more powerfull than using hooks. And it makes the forum run a lot smoother. The con is that mods can have troubles installing in all themes.
But if a mod doesn't install in all themes, it's often just a matter of tweaking or edit the code manually. Not optimal in any case, but you can always get *any* mod to run with a theme.