Starting a technical forum - Near to landing on a Vanilla - Advice

mbjvfx

Hi There,

I am in need of setting up a forum for technical, code and and hardware development forum. I have narrowed down between using vanilla and phpbb3. I personally much prefer the look, feel and features, ease of use of vanilla, though phpbb3 has a much great user base. For these reason alone I am prone to go with vanilla.

But, I wanted to see if I could get some feedback about more specific usage in the context of code and hardware development and how well vanilla will do in this context.

1) code tags. We will be needing to post large of amount of code in snippets. Are there specific code tag funcitons, is this an add-on? Are there any recommendations on setting up vanilla specifically for this use?

2) image uploads, pasting images, etc. We will be needing to easily post image snippets. What features are most used for this? Is there a simple copy past feature that would allow users to take a screenshot and paste it into thread? I see that this editor only has "image url" as an option to insert a picture. Are there more options?

3) attaching files. We will be needing to attach and upload project files.

4) Other? Do you have other suggestions for optimally setting up Vanilla for such usage as described?

Any further sell points that bring up relative to vanilla's strengths relative to phpbb?

Thanks for you guidance.

hgtonight

Welcome to the community!

1. You can use any type of syntax highlighter you want. There are plugins for geshi and Google pretty print.
2. Image upload plugin. Adds a button to the button bar.
3. File Upload is a bundled plugin. Let's users upload attachments.
4. I personally prefer using the markdown input formatter.

peregrine

if you know php and a bit about MVC. you will love vanilla. It is also a great tool for improving your css, php, jquery, skills, writing your own plugins, themes, applications, etc.

• you can see the various add-ons (plugins, themes, applications, and locales) here.

http://vanillaforums.org/addons

• there is a wiki here: http://vanillawiki.homebrewforums.net/index.php/Main_Page

• there are docs here: http://vanillaforums.org/docs

• and tutorials here: http://vanillaforums.org/categories/tutorials

and a few other links:

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/23483/advice-for-all-those-just-starting-out-with-vanilla

• when-asking-a-question
  http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/25115/how-to-how-can-a-new-user-better-help-the-community-

• troubleshooting tips:
  http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/20231/how-to-become-somewhat-adept-at-modifying-vanilla-to-meet-your-needs-for-free

• and this just in case....

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/25403/spam-attack-how-to-deal-with-spammers

• theme docs

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/19915/deploying-a-new-forum-and-adding-a-theme-for-everyone

http://vanillaforums.org/docs/themequickstart

http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/24813/how-to-go-about-editing-the-default-theme

• annotated theme
  http://vanillaforums.org/addon/annotated_css-theme:

mbjvfx

Hi @hgtonight @peregrine. Wanted to follow up with a big thanks for the thorough responses. Well on my way to having a sweet forum thanks to you guys!