Should We Move To A New Forum Platform?

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, I posted your own movie, converted to mp4.

Let's see if you see it correctly in InVision.

Interesting! Good find, Jeff. So the issue is with Chrome, not InVision.

[BigBrother-84]

Interesting! Good find, Jeff. So the issue is with Chrome, not InVision.

phpBB testing: I do not find how to create a new topic (outside of the general topics already listed there).

InVision testing: Is there a way to “pin” general topics, so a member’s new topic won’t go at the top of the list (similar to Nabble)?

[Gary Lewis]

phpBB testing: I do not find how to create a new topic (outside of the general topics already listed there).

InVision testing: Is there a way to “pin” general topics, so a member’s new topic won’t go at the top of the list (similar to Nabble)?

Jeff - In phpBB you should be able to start a new topic by selecting one of the existing forums.

For instance on the home page, the first page you get to when selecting Test Forums/phpBB Test Forum in the menu, it says "Forum" and then lists the forums I've created starting with New Members Start Here and ending with General Discussion. You can select any of those forums and then start a new discussion in it. But you may not be able to create new "forums" as you aren't an admin. I don't know, but you can tell me.

As for InVision, I don't see a way to pin things, although I could easily be missing it. But you can filter things by: recently updated; title; start date; most viewed; most replies; or custom. However, that doesn't mean that what you see is what I see.

So it looks like phpBB is very structured. You have a set of forums and post topics within them. And InVision doesn't look structured at all. But I've not set InVision up the way I have phpBB so I'm guessing that it could be structured as well. Maybe I need to take some time to structure InVision like phpBB is?

Your thoughts, please.

 

[BigBrother-84]

Jeff - In phpBB you should be able to start a new topic by selecting one of the existing forums.

For instance on the home page, the first page you get to when selecting Test Forums/phpBB Test Forum in the menu, it says "Forum" and then lists the forums I've created starting with New Members Start Here and ending with General Discussion. You can select any of those forums and then start a new discussion in it. But you may not be able to create new "forums" as you aren't an admin. I don't know, but you can tell me.

As for InVision, I don't see a way to pin things, although I could easily be missing it. But you can filter things by: recently updated; title; start date; most viewed; most replies; or custom. However, that doesn't mean that what you see is what I see.

So it looks like phpBB is very structured. You have a set of forums and post topics within them. And InVision doesn't look structured at all. But I've not set InVision up the way I have phpBB so I'm guessing that it could be structured as well. Maybe I need to take some time to structure InVision like phpBB is?

Your thoughts, please.

 

Gary, I am confused, sorry.

I propose to start with Nabble example, and maybe name things correctly.

In the picture below, Nabble titles things as «Sub-Forums» and «Topics» (red oval).

Correct me if I am wrong, am I ok understanding that there are three levels of publications:

1- Sub-Forums - green square (here all pinned, don’t know if they can be “lose”).

2- Pinned topics - blue square (by admin).

3- Members topics - yellow square (the more recent on top, pushing older publications down the list).

I personally find Nabble structure clear and easy to consult.

Entering the Forum in Nabble enables at a first glance to identify what’s new.

This structure seems the more efficient IMHO.

InVision is more “free for all”, all recent publications on top. It needs to be more structured.

phpBB is too rigid. Only «sub-forums», new things aren’t easy to identify, everything looks scattered. We need to visit each sub-forum to dig in and find new topics, or topics we are participating to or reading at.

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, I am confused, sorry.

I propose to start with Nabble example, and maybe name things correctly.

In the picture below, Nabble titles things as «Sub-Forums» and «Topics» (red oval).

Correct me if I am wrong, am I ok understanding that there are three levels of publications:

1- Sub-Forums - green square (here all pinned, don’t know if they can be “lose”).

2- Pinned topics - blue square (by admin).

3- Members topics - yellow square (the more recent on top, pushing older publications down the list).

I personally find Nabble structure clear and easy to consult.

Entering the Forum in Nabble enables at a first glance to identify what’s new.

This structure seems the more efficient IMHO.

InVision is more “free for all”, all recent publications on top. It needs to be more structured.

phpBB is too rigid. Only «sub-forums», new things aren’t easy to identify, everything looks scattered. We need to visit each sub-forum to dig in and find new topics, or topics we are participating to or reading at.

Jeff - I don't think your understanding of Nabble is exactly right. There really are only forums, sub-forums, and topics. Pinning just keeps things at the top of the list and has nothing to do with the structure.

Something with a folder icon is a forum and can have another forum within it, which would be a sub-forum. And forums can have topics within them, meaning threads.

BUT, don't get hung up on understanding Nabble as both InVision & phpBB are different from Nabble and from each other. And I'm struggling to understand them.

I don't know that it is phpBB's fault that it feels too rigid. That may be my fault for the way I've put it together. Ditto for inVision.

So what I'm trying to do at the moment is to structure both of them essentially the same way - the way we have Nabble structured. I'm pretty much there on phpBB, but the biggest difference to Nabble is that it doesn't appear that you can have topics/threads in the main section. So I created General Discussion for everything that doesn't fit in the forums above.

Does that make sense? What suggestions do you have?

Please remember that many of the issues you are seeing are not problems with the platform but the way I've implemented it. And since I don't have any experience with that platform I may well not have done a good job and need HELP!

[Gary Lewis]

Jeff - I don't think your understanding of Nabble is exactly right. There really are only forums, sub-forums, and topics. Pinning just keeps things at the top of the list and has nothing to do with the structure.

Something with a folder icon is a forum and can have another forum within it, which would be a sub-forum. And forums can have topics within them, meaning threads.

BUT, don't get hung up on understanding Nabble as both InVision & phpBB are different from Nabble and from each other. And I'm struggling to understand them.

I don't know that it is phpBB's fault that it feels too rigid. That may be my fault for the way I've put it together. Ditto for inVision.

So what I'm trying to do at the moment is to structure both of them essentially the same way - the way we have Nabble structured. I'm pretty much there on phpBB, but the biggest difference to Nabble is that it doesn't appear that you can have topics/threads in the main section. So I created General Discussion for everything that doesn't fit in the forums above.

Does that make sense? What suggestions do you have?

Please remember that many of the issues you are seeing are not problems with the platform but the way I've implemented it. And since I don't have any experience with that platform I may well not have done a good job and need HELP!

I've made some progress wrapping my head around how InVision works. Still not quite there, but this page on the InVision Community has helped. It says:

Before you begin, it is important to know the difference in the various types available.

Categories - Containers in which you would place forums. Every forum must be within a category of some description.

Discussions - A forum built for classic topics

Questions - A question and answer type forum, where users can vote up/down the answers to those questions

Redirect - This would place a link in place of a forum location, which can link to any location of your choosing.

I've not played with Questions or Redirects yet, but have done quite a bit with Categories & Discussions. Turns out that Categories are what I'd call a folder that will hold Discussions. You cannot start a thread in a Category but you can in a Discussion.

The issue is that Discussions must be in a Category. Given that I've set up an overarching Category called Bullnose Forum and within it I've added things we recognize, like NMSH, Projects, etc. But since you can't start a thread in a Category you cannot post directly in Bullnose Forum. Given that I've created a Discussion called General Discussions which houses WHYDTYTT as well as all other threads.

Does that make sense? I'm really struggling to figure this out, so please tell me if it should be done differently.

And, by the way, you can pin topics. WHYDTYTT is pinned to the top of General Discussions.

[BigBrother-84]

I'm pretty much there on phpBB, but the biggest difference to Nabble is that it doesn't appear that you can have topics/threads in the main section.

Ok, I now understand why my first impression is that phpBB is more rigid and a bit “cold”.

So I created General Discussion for everything that doesn't fit in the forums above.

Does that make sense? What suggestions do you have?

That’s a bypass, we can certainly deal with it. But I’ll search if there’s a way to have members topics on the main page. Who knows.

About the Platforms Comparison Chart, I would add in the « Ought To Have» section:

When navigating in a thread, ability to directly jump to a specific page number.

 

[Gary Lewis]

I'm pretty much there on phpBB, but the biggest difference to Nabble is that it doesn't appear that you can have topics/threads in the main section.

Ok, I now understand why my first impression is that phpBB is more rigid and a bit “cold”.

So I created General Discussion for everything that doesn't fit in the forums above.

Does that make sense? What suggestions do you have?

That’s a bypass, we can certainly deal with it. But I’ll search if there’s a way to have members topics on the main page. Who knows.

About the Platforms Comparison Chart, I would add in the « Ought To Have» section:

When navigating in a thread, ability to directly jump to a specific page number.

Ok, we have "When navigating in a thread, ability to directly jump to a specific page number" in the comparison. But please tell me how you want each rated.

And the General Discussion thing is in InVision also. Appears to be across both platforms if I'm not missing something.

[BigBrother-84]

Ok, we have "When navigating in a thread, ability to directly jump to a specific page number" in the comparison. But please tell me how you want each rated.

Well, I suppose it’s 100% or zero.

It’s possible, or it’s not.

For this feature, Nabble gets zero. We can’t jump to a page which number isn’t displayed.

Not sure for the other platforms.

I’ll have to test.

And the General Discussion thing is in InVision also. Appears to be across both platforms if I'm not missing something.

Yep, I did see that.

But I’ll have to play around and look how it works.

Question: Is there a way to see if we read or not the most recent interaction that have occurred in a thread? I mean similar than the blue vs purple in Nabble?

For the moment, seems that we only have the date in InVision (and phoBB if I’m right) no way to see if I have read or not.

If so, there’s a certain loss of time to go back to a thread in order to verify if we already read it or not.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, we have "When navigating in a thread, ability to directly jump to a specific page number" in the comparison. But please tell me how you want each rated.

Well, I suppose it’s 100% or zero.

It’s possible, or it’s not.

For this feature, Nabble gets zero. We can’t jump to a page which number isn’t displayed.

Not sure for the other platforms.

I’ll have to test.

And the General Discussion thing is in InVision also. Appears to be across both platforms if I'm not missing something.

Yep, I did see that.

But I’ll have to play around and look how it works.

Question: Is there a way to see if we read or not the most recent interaction that have occurred in a thread? I mean similar than the blue vs purple in Nabble?

For the moment, seems that we only have the date in InVision (and phoBB if I’m right) no way to see if I have read or not.

If so, there’s a certain loss of time to go back to a thread in order to verify if we already read it or not.

Jeff - If I understand what you mean by "We can’t jump to a page which number isn’t displayed", this issue is that there are 368 #'s to display and not enough real estate on the page to do it with. So Nabble shows you seven pages around the page you are on, three pages ahead of and three pages behind.

I don't know of a better approach, but I agree it isn't ideal. Maybe the problem is with the guy that wrote so much?

Don't know how either phpBB or InVision handle that as we obviously don't have that many pages to test. But both of them do show the pages. In fact on desktops InVision shows you a list of page numbers when you hover over the thread so you can pick where to start.

And the InVision post/page limit was set at 25 so I took it down to 10 so we could have more pages.

As for the notifications that someone has posted, it is hard to tell with so few of posts. Maybe you and I need to post more on both platforms?