AWS

Only time I used that was when I was an regular at the defunct Smokeys Security forum. It always seemed bulky and cumbersome to use.

I've always liked it. Ever since the days when it was first release. It looked and felt like vbulletin 1. It still has that same appeal.

I did an import to Discourse for a test site. I had to make phpBB my stopover. What I seen I liked. If I were to start another community with free software it would think about it of myBB.

AI is getting too smart. Scary feel to it. Sort of Terminator like.

That's looking good. Once it's in ready state if you want to it can installed as demo here.

My off topic forum has one. Works great to supplement the forum. On one of my tech sites has chat setup for staff. Some of the staff think it would be great for users too. That's I am hesitant about.

Welcome. Make yourself at home.

These are some tips for coding an addon for your favorite forum software: Understand the Forum Software: Familiarize yourself with the specific forum software you're targeting (e.g., phpBB, vBulletin, Discourse). Read the documentation to understand its architecture and plugin system. Set Up a Development Environment: Create a local development environment to test your addon without affecting a live forum. Use tools like XAMPP or Docker for PHP-based forums. Follow Best Practices: Adhere to coding standards and best practices for the language used (PHP, JavaScript, etc.). This ensures your code is clean, maintainable, and compatible with future updates. Use Hooks and APIs: Leverage hooks and APIs provided by the forum software to integrate your addon seamlessly. This minimizes conflicts with the core software and other addons. Plan Your Features: Clearly define the features and functionality of your addon. Create a roadmap or outline to guide your development process. Focus on User Experience: Ensure your addon is user-friendly. Consider the interface design and how users will interact with your addon. Test Thoroughly: Perform extensive testing to identify and fix bugs. Test in various scenarios to ensure compatibility with different themes and other addons. Document Your Code: Write clear documentation for your addon, including installation instructions, usage guidelines, and a changelog. This helps users understand and utilize your addon effectively. Stay Updated: Keep your addon updated with the latest version of the forum software to ensure compatibility and security. Engage with the Community: Join forums or communities related to the software to gather feedback, share your progress, and get support from other developers. Consider Security: Implement security best practices to protect against common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF. Version Control: Use version control systems like Git to track changes and collaborate if you're working with a team. By following these tips, you'll be better equipped to create a successful addon for forum software.

Once you decide to start a community you have to decide which forum software to use. Choosing the best forum software depends on your specific needs, such as ease of use, customization, and community features. Here are some popular options: Discourse: Modern and user-friendly, with features like real-time discussions, mobile support, and extensive plugins. phpBB: A classic, open-source forum software that is highly customizable and has a large community. Vanilla Forums: Offers both open-source and paid versions, known for its clean interface and integration options. Flarum: A lightweight and modern forum software that is easy to set up and customize. Simple Machines Forum (SMF): A robust and flexible option with a strong community and a wide range of modifications. MyBB: Free and open-source, it provides a good balance of features and ease of use. NodeBB: Built on Node.js, it offers real-time discussions and a modern interface, suitable for tech-savvy users. XenForo: A premium option known for its powerful features and excellent support, ideal for larger communities. Consider your requirements regarding scalability, features, and budget when choosing the right software for your forum. My personal favorite is xenForo. I do like Discourse and in the future I will create a forum using it.

Promoting a user to a forum moderator typically depends on several factors: Activity Level: The user should be active and engaged in the community, consistently participating in discussions. Knowledge and Expertise: They should have a good understanding of the forum's topics and rules, demonstrating expertise and reliability. Community Respect: The user should be respected by peers, showing they can communicate effectively and handle disagreements maturely. Problem-Solving Skills: They should exhibit the ability to resolve conflicts, mediate discussions, and maintain a positive atmosphere. Adherence to Rules: The user should consistently follow the forum rules themselves and encourage others to do the same. Willingness to Help: They should show a willingness to help others, answering questions and guiding new members. Time Commitment: The user should be willing to dedicate time to moderating duties, including monitoring posts and addressing issues as they arise. Recommendation from Current Moderators: Input from existing moderators can be valuable in assessing a candidate's suitability. If a user meets most or all of these criteria, it might be a good time to consider them for a moderator role.

This thread is for the general discussion of the link Free PC Help Forum. Please add to the discussion here.

I go back and forth on this. On a couple of my sites I have chat enabled. The chat works well on those sites and compliments the forum well. The sites I use chat software on are an off topic forum and a computer help forum. I have used it on other sites and on those the chat took over. Everyone went to posting in the chat instead of the fourm. What's your thoughts?

Admins use this forum to talk amongst yourselves.

Generating content for your site can be approached in various effective ways. Here are some of the best methods: Blog Posts: Write informative articles or guides related to your niche. Use SEO techniques to optimize for search engines. User-Generated Content: Encourage your audience to submit their own content, such as reviews, testimonials, or stories. Visual Content: Create infographics, videos, or slideshows to convey information in a visually appealing way. Podcasts: Start a podcast series discussing topics relevant to your audience. Social Media Integration: Share content from your social media platforms and engage with your audience to generate discussions. Email Newsletters: Send regular updates or curated content to your subscribers to keep them engaged. Webinars and Live Events: Host webinars or live Q&A sessions to provide value and interact with your audience in real-time. Surveys and Polls: Conduct surveys to understand what your audience wants and create content based on their feedback. Collaborations: Partner with influencers or other brands to create joint content that reaches a wider audience. Content Repurposing: Take existing content and adapt it into different formats (e.g., turning a blog post into a video). These are all great tips and by combining these strategies, you can create diverse and engaging content that resonates with your audience and enhances your site’s visibility.

This is a forum for people that have visited forums. This forum is for the newbie that doesn't own a forum to ask questions and discuss what they see if good/bad about the modern forum communities. No admin experience necessary.

Howdy and welcome. I daddle in Wordpress and xenForo code. Nice to meet you cap.

I am in the path of hurricane Milton. Directly in it in fact. This, according to my neighbors who lived here all their lives, said it is a once a century storm for the ages. The Tampa area hasn't been hit directly in over 100 years. There still is a slight chance it goes to the south. Saying that since I host my sites on servers on my home network there might be some downtime. The last hurricane which went up the Gulf knocked power out for almost a week. I am unsure what a direct hit will do. In any case my wife and I are prepping for the storm and once we have everything locked down and secure we are heading north to our other home. I do have backup power generators and battery backups on the server. That will keep servers up. The internet however will go down. In the case the sites do go down as soon as I can I will update everyone what is going on.

Site is upgraded to xenforo 2.3.3 along with a new style. If you find any bugs please post them in the Feedback forum.

Yep I remeber those. Weird how much eveything advanced.

Discourse 3.3.2 Stable Release Discourse strongly recommends that all sites follow the default tests-passed branch of Discourse. The “stable” branch is more focused on lack of change than lack of bugs - all releases, including those on tests-passed and beta are production ready. Security Updates This release includes fixes for these security issues reported by our community and HackerOne. DoS by the absence of restrictions on replies to posts (CVE-2024-43789) Bypass of email address validation via encoded email addresses (CVE-2024-45051) Prevent topic list filtering by hidden tags for unauthorized users (CVE-2024-45297) XSS via chat excerpts when CSP disabled (CVE-2024-47772) Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests (CVE-2024-47773) 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic

Discourse 3.3.2 Stable Release Discourse strongly recommends that all sites follow the default tests-passed branch of Discourse. The “stable” branch is more focused on lack of change than lack of bugs - all releases, including those on tests-passed and beta are production ready. Security Updates This release includes fixes for these security issues reported by our community and HackerOne. DoS by the absence of restrictions on replies to posts (CVE-2024-43789) Bypass of email address validation via encoded email addresses (CVE-2024-45051) Prevent topic list filtering by hidden tags for unauthorized users (CVE-2024-45297) XSS via chat excerpts when CSP disabled (CVE-2024-47772) Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests (CVE-2024-47773) 1 post - 1 participant Read full topic View the full article

New features in 3.4.0.beta2 Better pageview metrics with the new site traffic report We’ve added a new “site traffic” report on the admin dashboard that highlights pageviews from users and hides traffic from crawlers and other sources like bots by default. This now give you a far more accurate gauge of traffic to your site from logged in members to anonymous visitors. Learn more… Ability to watch chat threads You can now choose to get notified of all replies to a chat thread by watching the thread. People who are watching a thread will see a green indicator on the chat icon when there are new unread messages, an item in their list of notifications, along with other helpful indicators in the channel list and on the thread itself in the channel where it resides. Ability to add multiple groups as moderators for a category We’ve added the ability to configure multiple groups as moderators for a given category. Learn more… New setting to exclude groups from /about page Sites can now hide particular users from the admins and moderators section on the /about page by adding them to a group included in the “about page hidden groups” site setting. This allows sites to better highlight which admins are active in the community by hiding admins who are primarily assisting in a more technical role. Learn more… New location for AI helper in the composer The AI helper has been moved to the composer toolbar, for greater consistency with other composer options and to avoid interrupting a user’s writing and editing experience. Option to use full names in chat direct message titles In chat direct message channel titles, full names are now used instead of usernames for sites that have configured the existing preferences to do so elsewhere. Where a full name is unavailable, titles will still fall back to using the username Learn more… Ability to dismiss admin notices Admins can now dismiss notices shown on the admin dashboard. As we’ve begun to surface more minor problems here that deserve some attention, we’ve also discovered a need to allow admins to dismiss things that they may not be able to address right away. Security Updates This release includes fixes for these security issues reported by our community and HackerOne. DoS by the absence of restrictions on replies to posts (CVE-2024-43789) Bypass of email address validation via encoded email addresses (CVE-2024-45051) Prevent topic list filtering by hidden tags for unauthorized users (CVE-2024-45297) XSS via chat excerpts when CSP disabled (CVE-2024-47772) Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests (CVE-2024-47773) 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic

New features in 3.4.0.beta2 Better pageview metrics with the new site traffic report We’ve added a new “site traffic” report on the admin dashboard that highlights pageviews from users and hides traffic from crawlers and other sources like bots by default. This now give you a far more accurate gauge of traffic to your site from logged in members anonymous visitors. Learn more… Ability to watch chat threads You can now choose to get notified of all replies to a chat thread by watching the thread. People who are watching a thread will see a green indicator on the chat icon when there are new unread messages, an item in their list of notifications, along with other helpful indicators in the channel list and on the thread itself in the channel where it resides. Ability to add multiple groups as moderators for a category We’ve added the ability to configure multiple groups as moderators for a given category. Learn more… New setting to exclude groups from /about page Sites can now hide particular users from the admins and moderators section on the /about page by adding them to a group included in the “about page hidden groups” site setting. This allows sites to better highlight which admins are active in the community by hiding admins who are primarily assisting in a more technical role. Learn more… New location for AI helper in the composer The AI helper has been moved to the composer toolbar, for greater consistency with other composer options and to avoid interrupting a user’s writing and editing experience. Option to use full names in chat direct message titles In chat direct message channel titles, full names are now used instead of usernames for sites that have configured the existing preferences to do so elsewhere. Where a full name is unavailable, titles will still fall back to using the username Learn more… Ability to dismiss admin notices Admins can now dismiss notices shown on the admin dashboard. As we’ve begun to surface more minor problems here that deserve some attention, we’ve also discovered a need to allow admins to dismiss things that they may not be able to address right away. Security Updates This release includes fixes for these security issues reported by our community and HackerOne. DoS by the absence of restrictions on replies to posts (CVE-2024-43789) Bypass of email address validation via encoded email addresses (CVE-2024-45051) Prevent topic list filtering by hidden tags for unauthorized users (CVE-2024-45297) XSS via chat excerpts when CSP disabled (CVE-2024-47772) Anonymous cache poisoning via XHR requests (CVE-2024-47773) 2 posts - 2 participants Read full topic View the full article

Yea I know it just got back. Can't be helped. I will be updating the xenforo from 1.5.14 to 2.3.3. Backups will be made first. When I start the backup I'll close the site. If everything goes well It should only be done a couple hours. See you all on the other side.

It's planned. Once the upgrade is done I'll send out an email.