Forum Software Suggestions
Displaying 1-10 of 10
| Jul 30th 2011, 10:31 | |
WA3ZRMTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Don't know what software you guys are using for these forums; however, it would be nice to allow users to be notified via e-mail of new posts if they so desire. It would also be nice if members could establish their own groups or blogs within the forums. Another nice feature would be to allow users to edit their comments in HTML... although some of that functionality may already be built into the software... I noticed that the software allows for the use of the quote command. Advanced editing features would really be a great addition! Finally, is there a way to automatically add your signature? Almost every forum I belong to offer these features to their users. Bob DeMarco, WA3ZRM www.w3sgj.org |
| Jul 30th 2011, 10:45 | |
W1RFIAdminTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
The software is Cupcake, running under CakePHP. I don't know a lot about web software and programming so I can't offer much information about it. Thanks for creating the topic. There have been a few posts with suggestions for improvement scattered about the various topics, but it will be helpful to have them all in one place. 73, Ed Hare, W1RFI ARRL Lab Technical forums moderator |
| Jul 30th 2011, 10:54 | |
WA3ZRMTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
snip... Thanks for the quick reply. Any chance that it would be possible to use something like https://www.vbulletin.com/ ? If price is an issue, I know there are plenty of forum platforms in the public domain. You can check these out at http://sourceforge.net/ 73's Bob, WA3ZRM |
| Jul 30th 2011, 11:16 | |
w1rfiSuper Moderator Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I'm up early. :-) The Lab guys are working today, rebuilding the room we use for conducted-noise testing of products. With the costs of the ARRL web page, I don't think that cost is a major issue, at least not for forums software. I'm not involved with the decision on platforms, though. IIRC, Cupcake does support RSS feeds. See http://milesj.me/code/cakephp/forum. I'll defer on this one to the web folks, though. :-) 73. Ed Hare, W1RFI ARRL Lab Technical forums moderator |
| Jul 30th 2011, 11:24 | |
WA3ZRMTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I just took your advice and e-mailed my Division Director. I tried to PM you but I see the software is not set-up for this. I told Bill I feel sorry for you because you are going to be swamped once everyone realizes these forums exist ;) I really hope they change the forum software. I'm on a ton of forums and it's driving me crazy not being able to use some advanced features. Best 73's WA3ZRM |
| Jul 30th 2011, 11:30 | |
w1rfiSuper Moderator Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
You can say that to your Director, too, if you wish. :-) It's all the same to me. BTW, most of the bbcode functions do work here, so you can do some formatting, albeit the hard way. 73. Ed Hare, W1RFI ARRL Lab Technical forums moderator |
| Aug 4th 2011, 13:48 | |
W0RSBTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
The "Activity" column in the top-level forum index (the one that shows the names of the forums (fora?), not the lower-level list of posts in the individual forums) always shows "No latest activity to display." It would be nice if that was fixed so that we could see when the last post was made. It would be even nicer if the site kept track of when we last visited a forum and if there were new posts since then. |
| Aug 4th 2011, 14:40 | |
W1RFIAdminTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I've already rpported the Activity function not working as expected. At least on Vista, the cursor and up/down/side arrows work in rather unexpected ways. I don't know if Cupcake and CakePHP, the forums software, has the capability to keep track of what we've visited, but our web-content manager is looking at every post, to ferret out inappropriate thngs, so she'll see the suggestion. I think the word should be forii, but that is only to offset my belief that they are octopusses and not octopii. :-) 73, Ed Hare, W1RFI ARRL Lab Technical forums moderator |
| Aug 13th 2011, 11:02 | |
w1rfiSuper Moderator Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
I note that the Activtiy function now works and at least on the OS I'm using, the up/down arrows and cursor in the box used to create or edit posts seems to be working normally now. Some of the other suggestions will probably take a while to evaluate, as right now, the HQ staff is concentrating more on learning the ropes about forums in general. Some, especially me, are old denizens of the 'zed or even the old rec.radio.amateur groups. 73, Ed Hare, W1RFI ARRL Lab Technical forums moderator |
| Aug 23rd 2011, 01:06 | |
W0BTUTotal Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0 |
Another suggestion or two, if I may.... Among other things, I'm tired of constantly being automatically logged off of this forum. I've been logged into the qrz.com, eham.net, and amfone.net forums for many months. Frankly, How long before you dump this disgraceful forum software that you're using, and get something better? I don't mean to be the first one to say something negative here, but I think this needs to be addressed, and pronto. Please allow me to repeat what I stated previously: "Are there are a lot of features in this forum software that are currently disabled? If not, perhaps you should think about switching to something else (and sooner rather than later). Really. QRZ uses vBulletin, while eHam and AMfone use the free SimpleMachines forum software. Although people may debate which is best, the reality is that both are very widely used on the web and have features that are very much needed here indeed. (I wish I could have put the last few words in italics, but that's another story. :-) Although styled text, attachments, avatars, signatures, would be nice, they are not absolutely necessary. But here's just a couple of things that this forum BADLY needs: 1. The New Posts feature is OK for now, because there are so few threads. But when it gets more threads, it's going to be a LOT of work to search for unread posts. I use http://forums.qrz.com/search.php?do=getnew&contenttype=vBForum_Post and http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?action=unread several times a day, and think this site should work the same. 2. Subscriptions to threads. I know that's being looked into. Although some people prefer e-mail notifications, all that is REALLY needed is a page users can visit to see if there are any new posts to them. I use http://forums.qrz.com/subscription.php several times per day, and also think this site should work the same way. Unless those features --along with others-- are added to this forum, I guarantee you that many people are just not going to stick around, let alone take this forum seriously. Both QRZ and AMfone makes it VERY easy to find new posts (eHam less easy, but far easier than this forum) and I hope that the ARRL sees that as well. I am not complaining; I want this forum to succeed. Please take this as constructive criticism. Nor am I siding with a particular site; I use QRZ, eHam, and AMfone, and I enjoy them all. Why doesn't the ARRL ask for volunteers to assist? There are competent programmers that would fall all over themselves to join a group to improve the way this forum works." Thanks for listening. :-) 73, Mike www.w0btu.com |
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