# New Forum Software - Guess who is the poster child for why things should change? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [February 5, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429 "2013-02-05T23:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/21 "2013-02-06T05:02:52Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > When you hit on the right solution, and the requirements don’t change, why “fix” it?.. > So what say the Dopers? Is there any compelling reason to upgrade now? Do you think this particular software offers any benefits over the crufty VBulletin we currently use? Any other thoughts or input? If it ain’t broken, fix it until it is. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/22 "2013-02-06T08:47:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Interesting-on his “about” page the second picture isn’t a screenshot of the board as it is today, it is actually a direct link to the board. Is he allowed to use a link to the SDMB to promote his project? I’ve already called the internet police, they should be here any minute. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/23 "2013-02-06T09:19:03Z")
I apologize for using SDMB as an example, but as I said in [http://www.discourse.org/faq/](http://www.discourse.org/faq/) > [@](#): > > **Should I switch to Discourse right now?** > > Probably not. > > 1. Discourse is brand new. Discourse is early beta software, and likely to remain so for many months. Please experiment with it, play with it, give us feedback, submit pull requests – but any consideration of fully adopting Discourse is for people and organizations who are eager to live on the bleeding and broken edge. > > 2. There is tremendous technical and sociological friction to change in any established community. Consider carefully whether your community is willing to adopt such a big change. Perhaps start a discussion about even the possibility of such a change well in advance. > > We believe Discourse currently makes the most sense for new discussion communities. In some rare cases communities may have a discussion platform that they intensely and actively dislike, to the point that they are willing to throw the whole thing away and start over. And I had to pick a _good_ forum to use as an example – SMDB is great content! ---
**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:** [February 6, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/24 "2013-02-06T16:06:39Z")
I have no complaints about how our forum _looks_. I sure would love an industrial-strength boolean search engine for this place, though. Please find all threads containing either posts by **AHunter3** or containing the text string “Designated Optional Signature at Bottom of Post” in which “copying” appears in the same post as either “dialog” or “limit”, the words either “Macintosh” or “MacOS” and the word “Windows” appears in the thread, and either of the words “serious” or “kidding” or the phrase “for real” appears, before the year 2004, in one of the forums “General Questions” + “BBQ Pit” + “IMHO” + “Great Debates”. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/25 "2013-02-06T17:53:05Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/26 "2013-02-06T19:01:29Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Go to the “[Try It](http://try.discourse.org/)” tab on tha site in the OP. > I’ve never seen a more fugly forum. If that’s what they think works well they can keep their dirty mitts off the SDMB. I could live with that but I like [Xenforo](http://xenforo.com/) much better. I would like avatars. I would like being able to “like” posts, alerts when someone quotes me or tags me and so on. And it’s only $140 for a basic license. But there’s a cleanliness to the basic Xenforo functionality that’s not present in Discourse’s trial page. Maybe it’s just how they have the trial board set up and it can be adjusted better. I don’t know. The current SD board is missing some functionality but Clean & Straightforward are still the most important features in web design and Discourse’s trial board doesn’t have it. ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/27 "2013-02-06T19:01:34Z")
I agree on the aesthetics of the test forum over on discourse – it’s terrible – but I totally agree with their goal of making better forum software with richer features. Just having some simple metadata like “this post is a reply to this other post” is a big win in terms of being able to present and/or search posts. Hopefully as they progress, they can develop some themes that present the forum in a more no-nonsense way like we have here. I like my forum appearance a bit stoic, so the other people in the coffee shop think I’m studying or doing work. 🙂 By the way, re: > [@elmwood](#): > > I don’t think it looks bad, but I see problems with the Ajax implementation. It could make the board more difficult to search if the only way to access older threads is to scroll and wait for more topic/thread titles to load. One interesting thing they point out on one of their pages is that the entire user interface is built on their API, so in theory this isn’t a technical limitation. You could, for example, write an interface that eschews all that annoying dynamic loading crap and simply presents forums in the way the SDMB does, as manually-paged lists of “N most recent” posts. The fact that everything is doable through the API actually makes it much more accessible, not less. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/28 "2013-02-06T19:42:35Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > I could live with that but I like [Xenforo](http://xenforo.com/) much better As do I, for much the same reasons on the front end, and I understand it’s much more efficient at the back end. The SDMB has a particular problem with searches; the Xenforo board I use doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/29 "2013-02-06T20:37:18Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > I have no complaints about how our forum _looks_. > > I sure would love an industrial-strength boolean search engine for this place, though. Yes. AND the ability to search for strings of any length, even short ones. There are tons of cases where I need to search for a two-or-three-letter acronym and the software omits it. “Oh yeah, now I remember, it’s crippled” is not the best thing anyone’s ever thought about software. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/30 "2013-02-06T20:56:44Z")
I dunno if this has ever been discussed here before, but couldn’t we just have avatars and animated smilies? ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/31 "2013-02-06T21:04:06Z")
I would love to see what the new makeover of the dope will be like. Oh and **Colibri** , maybe you could reconsider going to the warnings and infractions system me and Little Memo were talking about, with the new forum software. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/32 "2013-02-06T21:09:01Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > I would love to see what the new makeover of the dope will be like. Oh and **Colibri** , maybe you could reconsider going to the warnings and infractions system me and Little Memo were talking about, with the new forum software. New makeover? Did I miss an official announcement or something? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/33 "2013-02-06T21:48:49Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > I would love to see what the new makeover of the dope will be like. Oh and **Colibri** , maybe you could reconsider going to the warnings and infractions system me and Little Memo were talking about, with the new forum software. Let’s take a vote: In Favor: 2 Opposed: The entire internet ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/34 "2013-02-06T22:22:33Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > I would love to see what the new makeover of the dope will be like. Oh and **Colibri** , maybe you could reconsider going to the warnings and infractions system me and Little Memo were talking about, with the new forum software. To the best of my knowledge there is no “makeover” scheduled at the present time. This is all speculative and theoretical and should not be taken as anything more than speculation unless and until you see an actual announcement from management on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/35 "2013-02-06T22:29:53Z")
Short of **codinghorror** himself volunteering to port over the entire database to Discourse on his own time and dime (or anyone else volunteering to port over everything to another system), the SDMB software ain’t gonna change. I don’t wanna know the frankenbuild the SDMB currently is. And I think most Dopers don’t understand just how much money it would cost to change the system. Unless we can get **Rand Rover** to dedicate half a year’s salary to the cause 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/36 "2013-02-06T22:48:25Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > I don’t think it looks bad, but I see problems with the Ajax implementation. It could make the board more difficult to search if the only way to access older threads is to scroll and wait for more topic/thread titles to load. > > [It’s not really](http://ezrahub.com/) [that original](http://vanillaforums.org/discussions), though. Yeah, it’s even a little bit Fark-y. Some of the design goals are quite laudable though (if not necessarily novel in all contexts) - log in with existing credentials, users-become-moderators based on reputation (although that could snowball in the wrong direction). Not all forums exist for the same purposes, however. I don’t see a lot of the features of Discourse being very relevant here, for example, if for no other reason than not every organisation is necessarily actively seeking to add every possible bell and whistle, or any. But choice is great, so it’s a great thing that Discourse is there, and available for people to choose. Market forces and all that - let’s see what comes out on top. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/37 "2013-02-07T02:30:05Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > New makeover? Did I miss an official announcement or something? Why do you fear Discourse? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/38 "2013-02-07T03:21:38Z")
> [@Beastly\_Rotter](#): > > Why do you fear Discourse? When did you take up amateur psychology? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/39 "2013-02-07T04:29:48Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Some of the design goals are quite laudable though (if not necessarily novel in all contexts) - log in with existing credentials I assume by “log in with existing credentials” you mean something like “logging in to Facebook logs you into the SDMB”? And would that be optional–could people still create separate accounts for each of the different Internet communities they participate in? 'Cause personally I don’t want everything I do on the Internet linked to everything else I do on the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429/40 "2013-02-07T05:08:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When did you take up amateur psychology? When did you stop? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-forum-software-guess-who-is-the-poster-child-for-why-things-should-change/649429.md?page=3)