What forum version do I need?

by Spyros Kontis December 29th 2012, 9:29 am

Hello everyone,

In this post https://help.forumotion.com/t109631-changing-subscribers-age-limit-from-13-to-18#719350
slg sais that my forum is phpBB3 which does not allow some features. ( elksi.bigforumpro.com )

So I guess that means there are other versions of forumotion, phpBB2 or phpBB4 perhaps, ( I don`t know what
these terms mean ) that have more features.

My question is which version should I choose for a new forum that can cover most of the needs below:
1) the ability to accept many email addresses and send bulk invitations to all these people. I have a list of
16.000 emails legaly collected.
2) the ability to edit the text in the "write and send" a newsletter.
3) The ability to give access to other people to the control panel if I choose to make them admins.
4) Another problem I have with the existing one is that, if I create a subforum, it appears in the front page,
while it should be visible only if someone clicks on the main forum. I want the new forum to be able to do that.

The immediate priority is the feature no 1.

Thanks.

by Sanket December 29th 2012, 9:40 am

Nothing of it is version specific. Now, do you want to know whether those 4 things are possible or not?

by Kaizer Lee December 29th 2012, 10:52 am

PunBB I'd say if you'd like a bit more advance and editable template.

by Mike December 29th 2012, 3:57 pm

You can do what you've asked for on any forum version. The most reliable I find is PunBB.

by Spyros Kontis December 29th 2012, 5:52 pm

Sanket wrote:Nothing of it is version specific. Now, do you want to know whether those 4 things are possible or not?

Yes please. If they are possible in the forum I already have that would be great!

by Sanket December 30th 2012, 4:33 am

1) Sorry, there is no way to send an email invite to them other than sending it manually.
2) https://help.forumotion.com/t35099-how-to-send-a-newsletter
3) If you add them to the administrator group, they get access to the admin panel. But a selected few options are not visible to them, like deleting the forum & editing templates.
4) Display>structure & hierarchy
Split categories on Index: Medium
Save
See if that helps.

by PENSAR. January 1st 2013, 3:08 pm

As Rideem3 said, phpBB2 is very outdated. I would choose PunBB or phpBB3 [that u have]. Invision is pretty good too, but phpBB 2, no please. Note: You can't modify the templates on phpBB 3 and Invision! =]

by nextlevelgaming January 2nd 2013, 5:24 pm

phpbb2: the templates use mainly Tables (and with less selector classes and IDs to style)
1.Tables are usually more bytes of markup.
(Longer to download, and more bytes of traffic for the host.)
2.Tables usually prevent incremental rendering.
(Takes longer for the user to see anything on the page.)
3.Tables may require you to chop single, logical images into multiple ones.
(This makes redesigns total hell, and also increases page load time [more http requests and more total bytes].)
4.Tables break text copying on some browsers.
(That's annoying to the user.)
5.Tables prevent certain layouts from working within them (like height:100% for child elements of <td>).
(They limit what you can actually do in terms of layout.)
Once you know CSS, table-based layouts usually take more time to implement.
(A little effort up-front learning CSS pays off heavily in the end.)
6.Tables are semantically incorrect markup for layout.
(They describe the presentation, not the content.)
7. Um tables make life hell for those using screen readers.
(Not only do you get the other benefits of CSS, you're also helping out the blind/partially-sighted. This is a Good Thing.)
8.Tables lock you into the current design and make redesigns MUCH harder than semantic HTML+CSS.

Now phpbb2 is the oldest of boards it is still fairly popular, just stay away from it really honestly.

PunBB::Template editing, more up to date and was originally designed with speed and functionality in mind in 1997 (released in 1998) the name PunBB is actually from forum board users with their pun's lol.

PunBB still uses tables a lot less though and it is used correctly for hold data (member list, topic list, category list)

Now onto the ones I've never used but know of.

phpbb3::
No template editing, more update to date like Punbb but newer.
Complete CSS control
I can't tell you many of the "feature" comparison on this one really.

Invision::
Same as phpbb3 no template editing, the newest of the forumotion versions.
Complete CSS control
Features like the User Info Pop Up in the post as well as toggle categories are default on these boards.

Now keep in mind if you want template editing PunBB will be the best and really only option you should go with. If you are not to worried about template editing then ok go with Invision. I'm not sure on Rideem3 but I know he has a punbb site because he was the one who allured me to it, though point being, I edit my templates almost down to bare bones because I make my forums more into websites.

Well hope the information provided by everyone will help you decide your forum decision

by Spyros Kontis January 10th 2013, 9:14 pm

Just a moment, I am testing some of the answers, thanks for all the replies !

by Spyros Kontis January 10th 2013, 9:32 pm

Ok for all the rest.

But for question 2, when I choose "rich text with HTML" the +Html button
does not appear over the text field as the picture shows here
https://help.forumotion.com/t35099-how-to-send-a-newsletter

In any case, how do I edit the text, do buttons appear like when I post a message in the forum or do I have to write code myself like "[url]" or "[b]" ?