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Vanilla -> Not useful for large discussion communities (binary bonsai), possible to mod the concept?

sprockettsprockett New
edited February 2006 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
Hi, its sad to see that binary bonsai stopped using vanilla. What i dont get is what exactly was the problem with vanilla that caused the user experience to be worse off? Why does Vbulletins fixed forum/subforum system make it that much better for large forums? Why can't vanilla's categories solve this? Is it a problem inherent in CATEGORIES, or is it merely a display side problem? Would allowing CATEGORIES to have CHILD categories solve this problem?

Comments

  • LooZ^LooZ^
    I don't get it... One of the bigest polish forum (forum.gracza.pl) with 5mln posts have a really similary "idea" and it's ok for (almost) everyone..
  • ADMADM
    It was because of the amount of activity it got.. with all topics on one page it can get abit overwhelming.. though then that's where the categories come into play so personally I don't really see the big problem.
  • gigingergiginger New
    I used to lurk the binary bonsai forums but now I can't be bothered. I don't like that forum software.
  • AnthonyAnthony
    I think there should be a plugin that allows for the categories to be shown just like the regular vB forums. Maybe one day....
  • DeniedDenied New
    Binary Bonsai made a mistake, in my opinion.
  • ithcyithcy New
    THIS BETA SOFTWARE ISN'T DOING WHAT I WANT
    *condemns
  • aloiciousaloicious
    Apart from the 'World Service' section, the simple category display mechanism is working just fine at forums like http://forum.textpattern.com/
  • sprockettsprockett New
    Hmm so is it perhaps a display side problem? Would setting the default display to show posts grouped by category, instead of one mega list of all posts help the situation? I think it might...
  • ithcyithcy New
    i think that's contrary to the vanilla philosophy but i guess it can be made to look like whatever you want.
  • FLCFLC New
    BB did make a mistake in my opinion, but then I've been used to this kind of forum for the last 4 years dating back to o8, and I'd wager o8 was a damn sight busier than Binary Bonsai It's not for everyone, but they were using the 0.9.3 beta, big mistake
  • ADMADM
    edited February 2006
    Indeed.. I mean it goes without saying that Beta software will have problems.
  • markwilkinmarkwilkin
    Sprockett I'm pretty sure that Mark has mentioned this will be an option in 1.0, that you can have categories as the default front page. More than a few people have asked for that.
  • GMonkeyGMonkey
    I just started using vanilla for our new forums, and so far, it seems people are not use to the discussion page. So we hot linked to the categories page, to make that the front page for first time visitors. But most of the forums, except for the first one are only a week old. So I will keep an eye on them. The major problem right now, is there is now email notification of a new post for the admin or for people posting. So people know when something new is happening without having to keep checking the site.
  • 3stripe3stripe ✭✭
    I agree that a third kind of start page - recent posts seperated by category - is the way forward. For massive forums it could even have a live refresh.
  • lechlech ✭
    FLC, remember dreamless though? they were using it but it was so stripped down that it was somewhat of an actual joy to use. I think it's all really in terms of how you slice it down to display how you and your users like to see it.
  • FLCFLC New
    true that lech, double true!
This discussion has been closed.