# Any chance of a forum software upgrade? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 24, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444 "2015-04-24T15:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/61 "2015-04-25T21:24:51Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > Good analogy. Of course, it opposes your rather stupid argument, but hey… > > With an e-Book, I can change the font size, the background color, the…whatever the spacing between paragraphs is called and make my reading _a better experience_. With a dead-tree book, I’m stuck with whatever font/formatting the publisher chose and if it’s hard to read with my eyesight, or in a given lighting condition, oh well. > > Ditto with forum software.\* What terrifies you so much about other people having different skin choices with which to view the board? > > \*Note, I realize there will be no upgrades: Ed said so and explained why. Your argument, on the other hand, is so dumb it has to be rebutted. I disagree Fenris. I use a Kindle and I like it. But the dead tree book is better for working with non-fiction, given current technology. _Searching_ through an efile is nice. But flipping back and forth between different sections is more difficult, at least for me. For light fiction, you don’t have to flip back and forth. For that dead tree has a slight resolution advantage for me and a storage and compactness disadvantage. There’s also the worry that Amazon might decide to stop giving you free storage and your purchases might magically disappear in 20 years. I could go on. But no, paper books aren’t obsolete and this issue isn’t a slam dunk. I guess I agree that extensibility is an advantage, but I see it as slight and mixed with regards to this forum. But mostly I got caught up in a book/ereader hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/62 "2015-04-25T21:58:35Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > What terrifies you so much about other people having different skin choices with which to view the board? “Terrifies me”? Not a damn thing. However, none of the original discussion was about e-book-like customizing the display. It was about adding features now common in other communication\* apps, which I vehemently oppose because they would add nothing of substance to the basic mission of a forum, and anyone who can’t function without little helper features like Likes is pretty much in the wrong place. I see no need to clutter up and water down the essential purpose of the forum to make a few oooh-shiny types happy. Your very challenge has the seeds of the mistake in it: this is not an e-book for your reading convenience. It’s an increasingly rare style of platform for exchange and discourse, without limits of space, time, length or the votes of other viewers. While I’d agree it could use some polishing and updating in spots, it does not need to ape social media functionality or appeal, or be reconfigured because some think the header text is not quite the right shade of pink. - Not that most other forms of exchange on the webz really count as communication unless all your thoughts fit into 140 characters and are only of value as long as they’re on top of the pile. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/63 "2015-04-26T14:29:36Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > vBulletin does what we want for the type of community we have here, and upgrades to the next big version are fraught with problems. These problems aren’t necessarily huge or unmanageable, but we barely have tech support. > > Moving over to some other system would be even worse. And what would be the gain? We don’t like plugins, we don’t want avatars, we’re not big on gameification, we see no reason to modify the UI, and we have Tapatalk to handle mobile. There’s really not that much of an upside. We, we, we… You got a mouse in your pocket? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/64 "2015-04-26T15:54:04Z")
Yeh, who’s this “we”? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/65 "2015-04-26T16:11:35Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I know it’s a bit inconvenient but searching via Google is pretty good. Nope. Google doesn’t search _anything_ “pretty good”. Better than the Dope’s internal search, sure, but mediocre at best, and worsening as they keep messing with it. I wish I had a magic spell that would graft the old Alta Vista Advanced Search front end onto Google’s immense searchable-data repository. True freehand boolean with (as far as I could ever tell) infinite levels of nesting of your clauses. And verbatim results. No returning pages that don’t freaking match what you put. (I’m ignoring the annoying Alta Vista ads that they would shove into their search results & I’m well aware that Alta Vista screwed their own pooches… but that Advanced Search was just beautiful in its simplicity and power) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/66 "2015-04-26T16:18:04Z")
The only add’l features I’d appreciate aside from an industrial-strength search engine would be a built-in “smart” vanity search, one that brings you every mention of your name plus every direct reply to something you posted within a specified time frame (1 week etc). Google doesn’t do vanity searches worth a damn and the built-in search isn’t very good at them either. Hmm, I’m still discussing searches, I guess. And I wish Facebook would switch to vBulletin, I detest its behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/67 "2015-04-26T16:56:39Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > We, we, we… You got a mouse in your pocket? There’s at least two of us, and I don’t get the idea Little Ed is big on FaceTwit enhancements… ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/68 "2015-04-26T16:58:02Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > And I wish Facebook would switch to vBulletin, I detest its behavior. Facebook isn’t a forum, as much as it’s shoehorned in fifth-rate conversation-like features. Frankly, I don’t know what Facebook is, besides the useless knockoff Swiss Army Knife or Shopmaster of the internet. ETA: Got it. It’s what Kirby Vacuums moved on to in the e-age. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/69 "2015-04-26T17:46:35Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Facebook isn’t a forum, as much as it’s shoehorned in fifth-rate conversation-like features. > > Frankly, I don’t know what Facebook is, besides the useless knockoff Swiss Army Knife or Shopmaster of the internet. > > ETA: Got it. It’s what Kirby Vacuums moved on to in the e-age. Seriously? While plenty despise Facebook for various reasons, I’ll tell you why it became so popular: It enabled individual, common people to tent-pole and personalize a place for themselves, on the otherwise faceless internet, and interact and share with others; and did it better than MySpace. It’s very useful. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/70 "2015-04-26T18:22:29Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > It enabled individual, common people to tent-pole and personalize a place for themselves, on the otherwise faceless internet, and interact and share with others; and did it better than MySpace. > > It’s very useful. These two sentences are largely contradictory, IMVHO, and do nothing to give me any impression that FB is an asset to civilization. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/71 "2015-04-26T18:50:21Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > There’s at least two of us, and I don’t get the idea Little Ed is big on FaceTwit enhancements… Three! And more! See my link post for discussion. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/72 "2015-04-26T19:05:06Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > These two sentences are largely contradictory, IMVHO, and do nothing to give me any impression that FB is an asset to civilization. Seeing that 1/7th of the world’s entire population actively use it _daily_, you might want to check your world-view. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/73 "2015-04-26T19:21:18Z")
He’d lose his hipster-cred. Seriously, software upgrades, “Like” buttons and avatars don’t automatically equal a bunch of sparkles and flashing gifs. I mean, if you don’t want all that stuff, fine. But don’t act like any add-ons will make this place look like a tween-girl’s bedroom, or that goatsec is going to pop-up any moment. This isn’t 1998. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/74 "2015-04-26T21:06:43Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Seeing that 1/7th of the world’s entire population actively use it _daily_, you might want to check your world-view. What, seriously? You’re going to argue that because millions do it, it’s a good thing? It’s a “hey look at me platform” for a user base that’s 99% people no one would ever look at for any reason. 15 nanoseconds of fame. Interactive gossip magazine. 21st century substitute for anything like real interaction with other people… but I’ll admit it’s one hell of a simulation program. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/75 "2015-04-26T21:07:58Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > We, we, we… You got a mouse in your pocket? Some of us pay enough attention to others to figure out the general zeitgeist. I believe you moderate another board that has things the way you like–and even it’s still running vBulletin 3. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/76 "2015-04-26T22:34:30Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > What, seriously? You’re going to argue that because millions do it, it’s a good thing? > > It’s a “hey look at me platform” for a user base that’s 99% people no one would ever look at for any reason. 15 nanoseconds of fame. Interactive gossip magazine. 21st century substitute for anything like real interaction with other people… but I’ll admit it’s one hell of a simulation program. I didn’t say it was bad or good. I said it was useful. So since billions of users find value in it, it’s exceptionally useful for its intended purpose (which I don’t think you quite grasp, and self-admittedly so). Might want to take it a notch or three down on the hyperbole. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/77 "2015-04-26T23:08:08Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Some of us pay enough attention to others to figure out the general zeitgeist. I believe you moderate another board that has things the way you like–and even it’s still running vBulletin 3. For myself, it’s not the MB software used, so much as it is the disabling of some of the opt-in features; yes, like avatars. There are some of us, believe it or not, who find them a much better way to identify posters. Your visual memory operates on a completely different (and in this case, more efficiently) level than language or written memory. It becomes their “face” so to speak. Right now, it’s like mingling at a party, where everyone is wearing the same mask, so you constantly have to go by their name-tag to try to remember who said what in a conversation. In my experience, it’s tedious and inferior to the built-in vB method of using avatars, and ridiculous to disable them. Yet, the gnashing of teeth goes on… ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/78 "2015-04-27T00:54:47Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Yet, the gnashing of teeth goes on… …From both sides. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/79 "2015-04-27T01:34:53Z")
Yes, the side that says “It’s a feature I would find useful, but would\* have to enable for myself with no change to anyone else’s experience” and the side that says “Someone is looking at the board in a way I don’t approve of _ever though it in no way impacts how I view the board unless I take the time to enable it manually for myself_.” One side in favor of fair freedom of choice, one which wishes to control all the viewing of others. Two sides, not both alike in dignity, On fair SDMB, where we lay our scene, From ancient avatar grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. —Fenris Shakespeare 😃 \*assuming that the “on switch” was toggled by Jerry or whoever ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444/80 "2015-04-27T06:50:30Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Some of us pay enough attention to others to figure out the general zeitgeist. I believe you moderate another board that has things the way you like–and even it’s still running vBulletin 3. Sorry, it just sounded too much like you were speaking for the board in an official capacity. Yes, the board I moderate still runs vB3, but there is a world of difference in how it’s used. **cmyk** provides a wonderful example below. I bet the GOML types here if allowed to use avatars for a month or so wouldn’t go back. (And please don’t drag out the old scare-mongering tactic of threats of Vertigo gifs or goatses.) > [@cmyk](#): > > For myself, it’s not the MB software used, so much as it is the disabling of some of the opt-in features; yes, like avatars. > > There are some of us, believe it or not, who find them a much better way to identify posters. Your visual memory operates on a completely different (and in this case, more efficiently) level than language or written memory. > > It becomes their “face” so to speak. Right now, it’s like mingling at a party, where everyone is wearing the same mask, so you constantly have to go by their name-tag to try to remember who said what in a conversation. In my experience, it’s tedious and inferior to the built-in vB method of using avatars, and ridiculous to disable them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-chance-of-a-forum-software-upgrade/718444.md?page=5)