Your Help Needed - Evalutating NEW Forum Software

[Nifty]

In theory, the 301 redirects will work as long as I keep them in place and own the site... which will be for at least another 10 years.

Basically I'll make it hard for anybody that comes here looking for Nifty Printer related stuff to not be redirected automatically to the new URL.

 

[websnail]

websnail & PeterBJ: We've created and tested an automatic 301 redirect script that we'd run here and then redirect all links, bookmarks, etc. from topics, individual posts, and even users to the new domain. It's actually pretty amazing how seamlessly the tests have been working!

Excellent... Anything else would have been a rather spectacular "own goal" (as we Brits call it) and not good... :/


On the topic of names... Can I recommend that if anyone has any really good ones, you PM Rob (nifty-stuff) direct rather than posting in public forum. From experience, domain squatters will leap on potential names and start offering them at silly prices given half a chance.

As an aside, it's almost a shame I took printerpotty already... Somehow I think it would have worked rather well... particularly when describing half the membership

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I can suggest further that Rob shut them down by not negotiating or paying ransom under any circumstances. Thus, the domain squatters will (hopefully) just be wasting their own money.

Furthermore, if anyone has printed a good one here, you can still go back and delete it from the forum.

Another thing to watch out for: avoid checking with Web sites to see if a name is available. I have heard of domain squatters running their own web sites to catch inquiries.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

For those with the XP/IE8 issues, I'm still on XP myself but it really really is starting to become nonfunctional at this point. I really hope to be able to get a few used Win7 machines soon (8 is a nightmare). I think 7 will become the new XP in that it takes forever to go away. If you want it to look like XP, use Classic Shell. Unfortunately Classic Shell can't fix everything wrong with 8, but it does make it usable rather than nails on a chalkboard annoying. For now, if you're on XP you really do need to move to Firefox. I'm not a fan of Google so I don't use Chrome, but it's also fine as a browser. If anything, newer BB software will run even slower on IE8 than the current one.

Depending on the new BB software, I would like to see it not mark posts/threads read until the user chooses to do so. I have seen huge boards like the T Shirt Forums never mark posts as read until you choose to do so, but another board that's really big but not massive marks all threads read whenever you log out, close your browser, or spend too long reading. It's busy enough that you have to struggle to catch up with new posts before you run out of time, or you won't be able to get back to where you left off when it triggers "mark all posts read". The forum owner never did respond to why it was set that way but I always figured it had to do with either processor use or drive space to "save your sessions" since it's stored in the board and not in your cookies.

 

[Nifty]

Great point about IE8! I'm still on XP, but I run the newest versions of FireFox and Chrome which, IMO, are way better browsers. It's hard for web developers to have to decide between:

1) use the newest technology to make their sites do cool stuff, but often causes issues for older browsers
2) have a low common denominator and either leave out new features or have to duplicate development costs for support of new and old

I found this article about developers and IE very interesting: http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/01/bootstrapped-startup-saves-over-100k-by-dropping-ie/

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I don't really agree with the final method in that website: Give a message that IE probably won't work right. But don't outright block the site from IE users. People may be on work/friends/relatives/whatever computers that they're not allowed to mess with.

As much as I don't like Google, GMail still runs on IE8. It's slow even on a fast computer, and it nags you to upgrade to Chrome all the time, but it still lets you use it, bugs and all. I can't stand sites like DeviantArt that not only block IE8, but block anything that's not the current release of all web browsers. Let the user choose whether to at least look at the site first, don't make it all-or-nothing.

 

[fotofreek]

I don't really agree with the final method in that website: Give a message that IE probably won't work right. But don't outright block the site from IE users. People may be on work/friends/relatives/whatever computers that they're not allowed to mess with.

As much as I don't like Google, GMail still runs on IE8. It's slow even on a fast computer, and it nags you to upgrade to Chrome all the time, but it still lets you use it, bugs and all. I can't stand sites like DeviantArt that not only block IE8, but block anything that's not the current release of all web browsers. Let the user choose whether to at least look at the site first, don't make it all-or-nothing.

I agree - I've gone to one site that absolutely won't run on IE unless it is the latest version --- which won't install on XP. For better or worse, there are many people still on XP (inclucing me!) I do have GOOGle Chrome installed - I failed to uncheck its installation when upgrading other software, but it is no my default browser. I've also avoided getting involved with any of the social media and don't need the links to them that I see on so many sites.

We should not set up the forum that blocks or doesn't run on IE, in my estimation.

 

[PeterBJ]

I agree with Fenrir Enterprises and fotofreek that IE8 users should not be excluded, but given the advice that their browser may not work properly, and a list of recommended browsers should be given. I think there is no reason to spend time and money to make the forum software totally compatible with IE8.

One thing I particularly like with this forum is that guests can see everything; to participate in the discussions you will of course have to sign up or log in. There are other forums that do not allow guests to see links, I think that policy is annoying and not the proper way of getting new members, so I hope the guest friendly policy will also be applied to the new forum.

I had been reading the nifty-stuff forum for years, before joining. I joined the forum when I saw questions about resetting an Epson printer and CD printing with Canon printers, that nobody had answered and that I knew the answers to.

 

[The Hat]

I think this idea of making the new Nifty site run some if not all of the old browsers is not a good idea at all and totally unnecessary regarding IE8 anyway, just leave the current Nifty-Stuff forum open for a while along side the new one to allow the members to convert over.

Yes I know I can hear the cries from all the old guys saying why the hell not, well I'll tell you why not, with-in six months support for XP is been withdrawn and that will be that. (Dead Bang)

If anyone continues to use XP after that time while browsing then their troubles will be many not been able to access the Nifty forum will be the least of their troubles, and I dont know if that infected computer could be used to gain access to the Nifty site itself.

XP has been the longest running O/S from Microsoft of any previous O/S and its had its day in the sun, and anybody currently using it today will have to find a better alternative soon or suffer the consequences.

Change is never welcome but if its gradual, then just like life itself it will grow on you.

The XP O/S will be torn apart in days if not hours by the huge malware army thats just waiting to feast on the bones of this old Microsoft O/S and they will big time. (God save the King)

I run XP myself on two computers for accessing software to update and convert old documents to newer versions but would never ever consider allowing these computers free access to the internet, it would render them useless in no time..

 

[websnail]

*ahem*...

I've just been back through the thread to discover where the concern about browser support has come from and realised this may be taking on a momentum of its own that perhaps isn't warranted?

To summarise a few things.

1. I don't think Rob has suggested that there won't be support for earlier browsers.

2. Checking the Xforo site it seems that the forum code and CSS is designed to degrade gracefully so that earlier browser versions will still be supported but may not display things quite the way those using more up-to-date browsers will.

3. The issue of "read/unread posts" is a forum functionality issue and probably down to a setting in the admin backend, as well as one in your own personal account settings.


Most of the browser compatibility issues tend to come down to CSS formatting making things look "weird" rather than breaking anything and because nifty-stuff isn't a porfolio site (like the one in Robs earlier link about rejecting Internet Explorer) it's like comparing chalk and cheese.

Overall it'd be disingenuous to start blocking browsers and I think that's covered, but if someone has discovered something wrong with the demo forum that is specifically related to browser compatibility I'm sure the developers for Xenforo and/or Rob would be all over it to resolve.

Just a thought as we seem to be going off on a tangent here...