Poll for forum frontend

[cyberorg]

Here are the arguements for and against the use of commercial software:

http://www.ubaight.com/pipermail/compcomm/2007-April/000121.html

You might want to leave your reasons to chose one over the other as a comment below.

The same poll is also running on berylz forum, in case you want to go there and vote too:

http://forum.beryl-project.org/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=6008

[lowfi]

just by looking at how the two alternatives are presented, i know what the outcome will be. :D
anyway, i would only use closed source apps if i absolutely had to.

happy *discussing* ;)

[delfick]

i say yes for one arguement in the mailing list

use opensource forum software until the userbase is that large that we need vbulletin, which would be able to handle the larger base with ease

i.e. save money by not spending on stuff we don't really need yet (want is different to need :D)

[JonB]

To be honest, I think it should ultimately be up to the admins as they have to do all the work on the system (unless the cost is too prohibitive for the budget). As long as the forums stay up, the backup procedures are in place in case of a foobar, I as a user don't care too much about the forum interface - search, link, quote, submit, etc is all I am looking for. :)

[karmapolice]

I say vBulletin.

I know a lot of people will say that phpBB just because it is open source and they are against any form of closed source software but I've managed a few boards and the best one by far is vBulletin. You can do a lot of things that phpBB can only do with mods. From the admin point of view vBulletin is also better, I love it :P .

I don't agree that first use phpBB and then vBulletin because sometimes it is a pain migrating the DB, etc.

[imnotpc]

I'm not too fond of this version of phpbb, but I like phpbb3 better. I would still select vBulletin mainly because it has a tool that can be used to merge the two existing forums into one. In theory we could "prune" each forum of stuff we didn't care about and then use this tool to merge the parts we want to keep. This may be possible with phpbb3, but as far as I know there's no tool and I think we'd have to do it manually.

Personally, I think those who will be merging and managing the new forum should be deciding. I created a mailing list for the "Web Team" to use. Anyone interested can join here: http://rock3d.org/mailman/listinfo/web

[wfarr]

This poll is inherently worded in a way intended to slant users into voting for PHPBB.

It is quite simply a farce and little more.


Furthermore, I agree that the WEB Team, those folks who actually have the background and knowledge to make an educated choice, ought to be the deciding factor here.

[kamui]

Same vote and same justification as the one i gave on the beryl forum: http://forum.beryl-project.org/viewtopic.php?p=32408#p32408

[amgeex]

I took the liberty to edit the text about phpBB. It was presented in such a way to make users think that using phpBB is the best, and vBulletin is not. We have to be unbiased here people. And don't give me any shit about it please!

[PaK]

Why in this poll there is only phpBB ? Is realy everybody didn't heard about SMF ? http://www.simplemachines.org/ Its free, its better than phpBB, its almost as good as IPB and vBulletin! It have strong community and big modules/plugins/themes database. It have create plugin managment. And its free as i mentioned before!

[amgeex]

I agree with that, lets add SMF! :twisted:

[karmapolice]

Too late, people have already voted.

SMF is better than phpBB but even with the 3 options I prefer vBulletin.

The poll was biased since it was posted. :evil:

[RYX]

I installed and tested SMF - it is really nice and has many (and I really mean MANY) options. Though I find it highly insecure that the admin-area offers direct access to database-configuration and other unnecessary security risks.

Maybe the biggest disadvantage of both, SMF and VBulletin, is that we have to create new themes from scratch and create a matching wiki-skin to not make a huge step back when it comes to project-identity and style ...

[wfarr]

I installed and tested SMF - it is really nice and has many (and I really mean MANY) options. Though I find it highly insecure that the admin-area offers direct access to database-configuration and other unnecessary security risks.

Maybe the biggest disadvantage of both, SMF and VBulletin, is that we have to create new themes from scratch and create a matching wiki-skin to not make a huge step back when it comes to project-identity and style ...

We can convert the existing theme for the forums to vBulletin rather readily.

[cyberorg]

I took the liberty to edit the text about phpBB. It was presented in such a way to make users think that using phpBB is the best, and vBulletin is not. We have to be unbiased here people. And don't give me any shit about it please!

I consider this a censorship, it was not biased in favor of anyone, just the people pimping use of commercial application and imposing software we do not need "this is better for you" thought it was biased against it. I find this censorship and promoting commercial application on open source forum quite appalling

If anyone felt that it was biased, they could have easily gone ahead and created another poll on commercial software's website where people biased against open source software could have voted.

My point it simple, and have been echoed by many, use commercial software only if the alternatives are just unworkable, or causes major inconvinince to its users.

[wfarr]

I took the liberty to edit the text about phpBB. It was presented in such a way to make users think that using phpBB is the best, and vBulletin is not. We have to be unbiased here people. And don't give me any shit about it please!

I consider this a censorship, it was not biased in favor of anyone

Uh, it was. If "software we've been useing for so long and has worked so well for us in the past" isn't condoning one vote over the other, I don't know what is.

If anyone felt that it was biased, they could have easily gone ahead and created another poll on commercial software's website where people biased against open source software could have voted.

You're missing the point. It wasn't the people voting that made it unbiased - it was the poll's wording.

My point it simple, and have been echoed by many, use commercial software only if the alternatives are just unworkable, or causes major inconvinince to its users.

You should choose the software that best fits your needs without regard for politics. There are some people who support open-source software that I recommend should stay on Windows. Why? Because, with the type of things they do on their computer, they would be forced into predominantly using Windows anyway. Telling them to dual boot would've been silly because they'd rarely boot up into their Linux installation. Does this make them a terrible person? Of course not! Their children have to eat _something_, and last I checked, a good-paying job was one of the few ways to do provide that food.

[amgeex]

And... What he ^^ said... Anyway phpBB seems to be winning. :roll:

[imnotpc]

Both phpbb3 and vBulletin are very good packages, but ultimately the decision came down to a single feature that only vB had. The forums are really the heart of each online community. One of the most important parts of our agreement to reunite, was the understanding that the forums would be "merged". There is no tool or existing method to import multiple forums into a new phpbb3 forum. Only vB supports importing from multiple forums, so in the end vB was the only option. Anyone interested in working on the new forum should join the Web Team mailing list. http://rock3d.org/mailman/listinfo/web.

Jeff