fools the lot of them!

mbenney

D'oh. My client didn't like vanilla =( Oh well, thier loss! Can anyone suggest an alternative? Nice and simple, easy to customise and working nicely at fairly thin page widths? Thanks =) Matt

Mark

http://punbb.org/ And here's an example of a customized version: http://www.haveamint.com/forum/

mbenney

Thanks Mark, that looks interesting. The needs for the site are real simple, anyone know how much of a headache taking functionality out would be? For example losing the 'last post' colum from the thread view screen?

Mark

I haven't tried altering the layout personally. I guess it depends if you're a programmer or not. I don't imagine removing columns from a table would be that tough for even novice programmers.

It's too bad about Vanilla, though. The new themes would have allowed you lots of flexibility. Bad timing, I guess.

leason

Matthew from Flashkit??? ;) How you doing mate? Would help more if you told us what specifically, if anything, your client did not like about Vanilla. Would help us give you better suggestions. -Lee

mbenney

Yes, its me. Hello. Stupid woman just wouldn't give it a chance =( She just said it confused her and wanted something more familiar. I'm noicivey programmer managed to play with vanilla a bit http://www.brunelskydiving.com/forum/index.php

Bergamot

Interesting that Inman chose punbb for the HaveAMint forums, considering that he clearly is aware of Vanilla.

Mark

Damn, Matt. That looks pretty good, too

... and yeah bergamot. Interesting indeed. Maybe things will change when 1 comes out ...

NickE

He says punBB was easier to install... http://www.haveamint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=29#p209

Bergamot

Psh.

The idea that Shaun Inman, god of all things web, would have a hard time installing Vanilla is laughable.

"Easier to theme, back in the middle of 2005" is more likely.

Minisweeper

That is a hint confusing. The css complaint is valid enough i suppose before it was all tidied up (not that i understand any of it but it seems to have been quite a gripe for some people) But as for installation, even before we had an install script it was hardly difficult, and with it its a 2 minute job. Back then he couldnt even have got the beta by mistake...

Look on the bright side though, atleast he picked a decent competitor. He could have had phpBB up there.

Mark

I have no hard feelings at all. I've looked at the punbb code and that is one great product.

3stripe

Yup... I have a more depressing story... I persuaded a mate to install Vanilla for his new forum - after a few weeks he got back to me and said "Nah don't like it, gonna use phpBB instead, it looks nicer and it's easier to use" Jesus wept.

Mark

Hehehe - it takes all kinds

ithcy

someone needs to make a vanilla theme that's super gimmicked-out and tacky, with lots of bevels and imitation metal gradients everywhere. add 1000 useless extensions, and package it as a phpbb replacement.

Bergamot

ithcy: kind of like this?

ithcy

my eyes!

*blocks comment

ithcy

you know, i'll never get that 0.3 second back.

c-unit

Actually just theme it to match any of the sites on - http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/dailysucker/ Maybe a friendly comforting voice like on this page too - http://www.tipany.com/terry/testingtoday.html

shauninman

The idea that Shaun would have a hard time installing Vanilla is laughable.

At the time PunBB was easier to "setup," not just install. That encompasses everything from installation (there were file permission issues, possibly because I'm running PHP as an Apache module not as-CGI) to styling to modifying the generated HTML. Vanilla is a great forum but when I was looking for a forum for haveamint.com it wasn't that well-documented, making customization beyond simple color and layout changes difficult.

Bergamot

Woah, now that was a power I never knew I had...