Hate to say it but i am thinking about jumping ship to vbulletin - stop me

tester13

@LincolLn
Can you provide a link as soon as you find it pretty stable.
As I am searching for pretty stable editor.

Btw, have you seen this version - http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/ask ?
I really want this editor, it is small clear, with instant preview.
And I love their approach to tags more (no bugs as in our plugin).
And three sorting options (I already made changes to Voting plugin).

Yeah, Vanilla gets many ideas from StackExchange.

Albert

Great work Lincoln!

I have big problem with CLeditor..

tester13

This is link to source that StackOverflow uses after some pretty changes, of course.
http://code.google.com/p/wmd-new/source/checkout
Their code on site is minified and obfuscated.

And markdown works with Vanilla without plugins, just one line in config.

Also like their slick editor sizing ability.

Shadowdare

Interesting.

jross

I'm not very happy with the upgrade from 1 to 2. At this point I may have to make my current vanilla1 board read only and start with a fresh vanilla 2 install, else move to another script. Inline images/attachments didn't move over - no transmogrifier so all previous censored cursewords are now visible - I don't see any whispers converted in some accounts - cleditor buggy and that's just a quick overview. I was also looking into ip.board - you can view a comparison of vbulletin - ip and vanilla here:
http://www.forum-software.org/forum-comparator/ipboard-vs-vanilla-vs-vbulletin4

I'm a big fan/supporter of vanilla, but until a few things get addressed - not sure what to do.

tester13

They will.
As for IPBoard it is different beast.
Completely.
I suggest you to look at XenForo if you need this type of forums, as their development pace is much faster and community interaction is better.

UnderDog

@jross, I see you've mentioned a few issues:

• Inline images/attachments didn't move over
  
• no transmogrifier so all previous censored cursewords are now visible
  
• I don't see any whispers converted in some accounts
  

Maybe the inline images problem can be solved quickly. I didn't see a forum thread about it, so I didn't know you had this problem

The transmogrifier (difficult word!) problem, you have a forum thread about that running, correct?

What are whispers? Are those private messages? Do you have a forum thread about that going?

The cursewords problem... I don't know how it should work, but maybe the transmogrifier obfuscates cursewords "on the fly". Let's look at that in your separate thread :-)

UnderDog

@Horton thank you for opening this thread. It's better to have open discomfort than being unconfortable and leaving silently. I see that you've been persuaded to stay with vanilla for now. Now it's up to Vanilla to keep you here.
Whatever you decide, please keep telling us what's wrong, so we might fix it.
If we don't fix it (or soon enough), you have a reason to leave.

UnderDog

Let's address some of these problems you're having:

There really is not a clear support model. Maybe that changed with V2

Working on it. vanillaforums.org not a business, although vanillaforums.com is a business as far as I know :-) The forums have their own support structure, meaning we're helping each other. I tried to step up as much as possible where I can and I see that other step up more often too :-)

I love what I have seen in V2 but every time I install I find bugs and Bonks. I want V2 but I need to know it is going to work.

We're working on the bonks too. I think there are less bonks though since ... say... early 2011 and I hope there will be less bonks with every release of Vanilla :-)

In late December I installed vanilla 2 a number of times. I migrated data from my production vanilla one site and I set up some new instances. In all cases I found a few bonks but more to the point I found functionality and performance to be lacking.

Every time you see functionality lacking, just mention it in the forums, or better yet... make a report on GitHub and then mention that report on the forums :-)
GitHub is the place where the bugs and feature requests are administrated, we're talking about the bugs and feature requests on the forums.
Mark and his guys are working really hard to make new exciting things for vanilla, but we have to give them some time to catch up :-)

I also suspect that I would have to learn PHP to make the basic template changes that I need. I think if you're a programmer and this is your hobby you take those kinds of things for granted.

Actually, the templating system that Vanilla uses (the reason I decided to help more) makes sure you don't need to learn PHP.

The fact that you can mix PHP with HTML and that it's used in Vanilla is an example of how to use it, but some of the users have made effors to make sure that templates only contain HTML and some special Smarty Tags, no PHP.

I was thinking about commercial versions of software so I could make a phone call to support person and get help. That is really the one thing that I don't like about vanilla. Open source depends on the communities. That's great unless I need the right answer & I needed quickly.

As I see if you have a problem with vanilla you want to drop the problem with a support person and let him fix it, because you pay money for the support contract.

That can be a solution, but what if you can post the problem on the forum (a problem that other users might have too) and after a few extra questions and screenshots, the problem gets resolved, the documentation gets updated and more than 1 user gets helped? Doesn't that count for something?

I'll do an install this weekend and migrate my current form over to look at it. Nothing would make me happier than to find that I'm wrong and I can stay here and get what I need.

Just post your problems here and we'll find a way to fix them.

GateKeaper

This is link to source that StackOverflow uses after some pretty changes, of course.
http://code.google.com/p/wmd-new/source/checkout
Their code on site is minified and obfuscated.

And markdown works with Vanilla without plugins, just one line in config.

Also like their slick editor sizing ability.

Looks nice to have that one at my forum.

Can you tell me the line i need to place in the config file ?

jross

@underdog
Transmogrifier thread:
http://www.vanillaforums.org/discussion/14976/transmogrifier-for-vanilla2s

Images thread:
http://www.vanillaforums.org/discussion/14975/attachmentsinline-images-when-importing-from-vanilla-1-to-vanilla-2s

I didn't start a thread about my whispers issue yet,

Horton

@Underdog

You certainly put in a lot of time replying to my issues. I very much appreciate that. I spent the last three days poking around with vanilla 2. I feel pretty good about my current installation. Getting rid of CLEditor resolved most of my problems.

In terms of support, I'm not made out of money but my website generates enough income that I would rather occasionally pay someone to get me out of trouble then fight with it myself. I work in IT but I do not really program. My knowledge of HTML is rudimentary. You stated above that I can purchase support from vanilla. The listed pricing under “support and maintenance” looks to be extravagant for me. (Mark, if you read this, I hope you make millions of dollars - I just can't afford to contribute very much)

I do not see any bonks in my current install. I also find the performance to be excellent. That is very encouraging.

I have posted a few things on GritHub. I think that is a very smart development environment.

As far as the templates go, maybe it is easier than I think. I'm afraid it's going to require more skills that I have and or would consume far too many hours to come up to speed. Web design is not my hobby. Maybe next weekend I'll block out a day to see if I get my head around it.

Using the currently available embed theme, I find the tabs "Activity", "Inbox" and "Username" to be confusing and unintuitive. I understand the idea of “Activity” is to be a Facebook like social something. I don't like it and I think it will confuse my users. I think if I could remove "Activity" I would be much happier with that portion of the product.

Additionally when somebody answers a user's question, the user gets the little red flag. That flag does not seem to clear until the user goes into “Notifications” and clicks on that discussion reminder. The fact that the red flag does not clear if the user goes straight to the thread from the discussions menu is goofy. This may seem like a small detail but my business model depends on making my website as easy to use as possible. If I confuse my users, I will lose some of them.

The theme on this vanillaforums.org (this page) forum largely solves this concern because it does not add the red flags to my “username” menu and “Activities” is not a primary menu choice. Perhaps my solution is about the theme not about the garden design.

There are a lot of things about vanilla2 to that I like.

Bookmarks
my discussions
tabs for notifications, discussions and comments
announcements
categories menu to the right
inbox
statistics
everything inside the dashboard
statistics
authentication
the embed tool is super critical to the future of my site!

Shadowdare

Do you prefer Vanilla over all of the other forum software out there now that you've given it more time?

Horton

Well. How do I answer that? I love V1 and for now it does its job very well for me. My site is growing at a scary pace.

V2 ofers some new stuff that would change the way I run my site. Embed is a HUGE deal for me. V2 also looks to require that I increase my admin skills to get it up and going. I am at a point where I need my site to look more professional. There is only so much of me and my wife likes to see me every once in a while :-)

As an example of my problem, I have some javascript that does my banners for me in V1 w/ nuggets. I can not get it to work in Pockets & do not have the skills to fit it. (Might be easy) No banners - not $.

So I guess the issue is that I am not a programmer and sometimes I feel like a commercial product "should" deal with this kind of thing for the price.

Shadowdare

I'm sure you can get V2 running smoothly and I'm sure your community will love it. I've been thinking though, Vanilla has all the main features a community needs out of the box but people just have a hard time transitioning to it from the common look of other forum software and that integration with things like WordPress and so on aren't really needed.

I mean, the layout is different, and there's obviously less focus on the categories with all homepage views. Users are more involved with discussions rather than figuring out what BBCode does, worrying about signatures getting in the way, and all those nonessential things. At least there's a profile wall.

What Vanilla can do right now can most likely be done in other major forum software with a easy custom plugin. So, it all depends on what your community needs and its expandability effects on the forum software. Only thing you would have to worry about is making it easy for people to figure out Vanilla.

Shadowdare

I have been thinking about many forum software lately, especially Vanilla and MyBB. @Horton, have you've tried MyBB yet? Vanilla is more focused on discussions out of the box because of the design and fluidity of posting. MyBB and many other forum software can be like that too since many of the unimportant features that cause users to stray away from having more posting time can be disabled. A latest posts box can be developed easily as well. The common "table design and layout" of a common forum can be made to look as fluid as Vanilla's default theme is as well. It seems that everything works the same way, but there are only a few differences enough to make the decision of a forum harder.

It's just that many other forum software have more features out of the box and plugins that are very useful and can help provide the community better than Vanilla. On the other hand, Vanilla also provides unique something of its own so it's a tough battle when choosing a forum.

n4is3n

I hold big forum (about 13.000+) members... and i using MyBB.
But, now i'm fall in love with Vanilla... coz it simple, cool and very nice... just too simple maybe, ;-P

@horton
what is your problem? its very easy to install vanilla... only two steps, and you are done... :-/

UnderDog

what is your problem? its very easy to install vanilla... only two steps, and you are done... :-/

Horton's problem isn't installing vanilla version 2.x but to convert from vanilla version 1.x to 2.x and after that getting his theme and his banners working. The deepest problem is getting the banners to work.

Adrian

@Horton I got banners working and I promise its really not that hard. It depends how crazy you want to get, but you could even incorporate something like Openx. All it takes is a couple of lines of code. In my view, this community is very helpful, so I am sure we can help you work your way thru it...

Horton

I am staying with vanilla and I am working towards migrating to vanilla two. I would like to end this thread. If an admin wants to close it that would be great.

When I started this thread I was to totally frustrated but did not know that the problem was CLEditor. I pretty much had it in my head that vanilla two was not yet ready for prime time. Since I have turned off the editor plug-in I have no performance or functionality issues.

My real problem is that I am neither IT illiterate nor a programmer. I can fumble around in HTML or CSS and make some tweaks. I really do not have the skills to make my forum look the way I want.

The core of my website is Joomla My site works the way I want and I have never considered editing a single line of code. I was able to browse dozens if not hundreds of themes and plug-ins to find the look and feel that I wanted for my website. I paid something like $50 for the theme/template that I'm using. I understand that the vanilla form community is much smaller but as long as a hobby (or above) level of programming is required for customization, commercial products will have a strong appeal.

I am going to attempt to do the customization I need. I will detail out the changes I require and ask for advice in separate threads.

In closing I only have one misgiving about the functionality of vanilla two. I do not feel that the “activity, notifications, discussions and comments” functionality is as intuitive as it could be. I consider confusion of my users to be a very bad thing. Perhaps this complaint is a nitpick but it bugs me.