Hi bugsmi0, I have to agree Vanilla's choice of using CSS was a great one. One could theme Vanilla so much easily compared to SMF.
Hmmm... I never thought that it was addictive to the discussions in Vanilla, and it turns out it is. I would come back just to see what kind of new discussiosn there are. You can't get this in SMF, where you would have to go into each category and see a reply/topic to that category. In vanilla, you see everything, every reply/topic in every category, whih may urge readers to click and read.
bugsmio has highlighted a key feature of what makes Vanilla distinctive. Apart from its inherent css (which will appeal to admins), it's the discussion-centric nature of Vanilla that truly makes it stand out from nearly all other forums. As already said, having to wade into each category to find new posts favours the category over the discussion.
I was wondering about why I suddenly started liking Vanilla: I thought I'd become enlightened, but maybe the discussion-addiction has kicked in!
By the way I'm not knocking SMF. If I were to choose an alternative forum software it would be in my top three due to its robustness, support, security and easy upgradability. But Vanilla offers something else too, and does it extremely well.
---delete--> at first I thought the smf import was wacking out my Vanilla but that's not the problem, its a vanilla safari ajax issue perhaps still testing ;-)
I have made the decision to shift my smf forum and make it into a vanilla forum.
It sure means a big step for me as I'm now integrating it with wordpress. and they are both working perfectly.
(well just one bug currently, if you're registering thorugh vanilla, you will only get a contributor role in wordpress. If you register through wordpress, you willget an author role. Either way, it works!)
this links don't point to files anymore it takes you to fron page of a blog. Is it possible to get any link updates or alternative download locations? That would be great thx
I have to say, I hate all forum software. I always have found them contrary to the natural process of conversation.
Then comes Vanilla.
My forum has been buzzing with great conversation ever since. Every time I have to go over to another community (usually vBullatin) I shudder with disgust. Those guys have no idea what they are doing.
Long live vanilla!
SMF is very good for what it is (massive feature packed beast), but so is Vanilla. Vanilla is more of an "a la carte" environment. It starts you out with the basics, and you can pick up what you need via extensions. So out of the box Vanilla has a ton less bloat, and functions very well. It's a lean, mean, fighting machine.
Until recently, I was one of the lead dev's for a project that was very heavily centered on SMF. I had to depart due to my schedule, and some other personal reasons, but since then I've been missing the interaction and production environment. After having lurked around Vanilla since late last spring, I finally got into it more. The more I work with it, the more I love it.
I suppose you could add custom links using Side Panel and make them point to custom pages with Page Manager. Depending of your needs, it should do the trick.
Just change a few things in library\Vanilla\Vanilla.Functions.php from lines 14 to 34 as Wallphone suggested here. I replaced the whole chunk with his code and the comas disappeared.
<quote>
thanks Ø :)
Converting begins...
SMF forum which will be converted: http://www.e-participacija.si/forum_EU/
Can someone give me piece of advice how to make similar left menu navigation?
</quote>
Looks like he didn't manage to convert it?
Hi!
Lately, I've tried to convert SMF to Vanilla. Script works, ofcourse (thx Steve!), but i have some probs with polish characters (like ą,ć,ę,ł,ń,ó,ź,ż). They are being converted to "??". How to solve this problem?
Regards,
Peter :)
That's quite a problem. Have a look at this discussion, it should help you understanding this issue. The patch can be found here, hoping you're running on MySQL 4.1 or higher.
Well, I've no idea why you get this error, but it probably comes from several changes in Vanilla's install since the 1.0.1 version. I'm not skilled enough in PHP & MySQL to investigate further. However, I can provide my patched 1.0.1 version.
You'll find it here. Try to make a fresh intall then upgrade to the 1.0.3 version. I'm not sure it will work but it should help.
Comments
Hmmm... I never thought that it was addictive to the discussions in Vanilla, and it turns out it is. I would come back just to see what kind of new discussiosn there are. You can't get this in SMF, where you would have to go into each category and see a reply/topic to that category. In vanilla, you see everything, every reply/topic in every category, whih may urge readers to click and read.
do we do this after we import our SMF data or before
It sure means a big step for me as I'm now integrating it with wordpress. and they are both working perfectly.
(well just one bug currently, if you're registering thorugh vanilla, you will only get a contributor role in wordpress. If you register through wordpress, you willget an author role. Either way, it works!)
Forums: www.consolewatcher.com/forums
Wordpress: www.consolewatcher.com (or www.consolewatcher.com/wp-register.php if you wanna register from wordpress)
this links don't point to files anymore
Is it possible to get any link updates or alternative download locations?
That would be great
thx
The conversion script:
http://cz.kicks-ass.net/smf-to-v.tar.gz
SMF Password Hash Extension
http://cz.kicks-ass.net/SMFPasswordHash.tar.gz
Converting begins...
SMF forum which will be converted: http://www.e-participacija.si/forum_EU/
Can someone give me piece of advice how to make similar left menu navigation?
- less bandwidth usage
- less overhead/load
- less "bloat"
SMF is very good for what it is (massive feature packed beast), but so is Vanilla. Vanilla is more of an "a la carte" environment. It starts you out with the basics, and you can pick up what you need via extensions. So out of the box Vanilla has a ton less bloat, and functions very well. It's a lean, mean, fighting machine.Until recently, I was one of the lead dev's for a project that was very heavily centered on SMF. I had to depart due to my schedule, and some other personal reasons, but since then I've been missing the interaction and production environment. After having lurked around Vanilla since late last spring, I finally got into it more. The more I work with it, the more I love it.
You'll find it here. Try to make a fresh intall then upgrade to the 1.0.3 version. I'm not sure it will work but it should help.