Webforum alternatives?

[Q]

So, as quite a few of you are knowing, this community is built on a rather rusty foundation: vBulletin 3. Despite vBulletin 3 being no longer supported since 2012 (http://www.revleft.com/vb/vbulletin-5-coming-t176407/index.html), version 4 having been released in late 2009 (with us having bought a license for it as a community) and version 5 being the currently sold product (http://www.vbulletin.com/)... We're still at 3.8 and no upgrade is coming soon.

But developments haven't been sitting idle and communities anno 2015 often have a different dynamic than traditional webforums offer. A popular example would be Reddit (http://www.reddit.com). So maybe we should be asking a more fundamental question nowadays: Should we even bother upgrading this old cruft or jump ship and start something radically new? We don't necessarily have to start a set of subreddits to suit our needs, we could host our own Reddit-like solution, like this one (http://www.telesc.pe/).

Or maybe there are even other ideas about what a community should look like. Should we keep the forum-based model? And if so, should we keep with vBulletin? Or are there much better solutions that give comrades a better way to discuss, organise and form a distinct community?

If we move away from the forum-model, which could be done as it is labour-intensive, it shouldn't make things more labour-intensive, so it should avoid spam, be self-moderated and be easy to use and find stuff in.

Do share your thoughts on the possible future course of our community :)

[Creative Destruction]

Having a reddit type situation would seem to be extremely unwieldy, considering the multitude of topics that the forum currently covers. I think a forum style is still better; but why not shift it over to something open source and free, like phpBB or something?

[Q]

Having a reddit type situation would seem to be extremely unwieldy, considering the multitude of topics that the forum currently covers.
I certainly agree that this would be an issue that would occur when just jumping on the main reddit infrastructure, thus resulting in the need to start multiple subreddits, which might be overdoing things. When having a self-hosted solution, like the Telescope example I linked to in the OP, we could however simply use categories as an analog to our current subforums.


I think a forum style is still better; but why not shift it over to something open source and free, like phpBB or something?
Actually, Revleft started out on phpBB but we moved to vBulletin due to scaling issues if I remember correctly. Overall though I agree with the emphasis on using open source solutions.

[Sewer Socialist]

It would also be annoying to have shitty userbase of reddit coming over to play.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

I like the forum model myself, so I'd like to see it kept and upgraded if possible.

[BIXX]

Anyone got examples of what VB 5 looks like? What about VB 4?

[#FF0000]

Maybe it's just nostalgia but I'm partial to the old "forum" style -- even though it's kind of a dinosaur these days. I'd be interested in seeing, though, what each of these alternatives might look like?

[Futility Personified]

Considering the amount of topics that can be active at any one time on here, plus the style in general, i'd prefer if it was kept as a forum of some kind. I'm guessing we'd need a pledge drive or something for the dough to upgrade?

[Invader Zim]

Like #FF0000 (http://www.revleft.com/vb/member.php?u=14710), I rather like what we have - its functional, works and I think pretty easy on the eye.

[Q]

Anyone got examples of what VB 5 looks like? What about VB 4?
You could have a look at the vBulletin website (http://www.vbulletin.com), where the features of both are explained.


I'm guessing we'd need a pledge drive or something for the dough to upgrade?
That's an interesting proposition. Maybe we could let an external party upgrade Revleft. In the past we have had several external technicians have a look to fix problems. If this costs an x amount of money, we could start collecting for it.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

The problem with online communities like reddit is the voting system. This leads mostly to inoffensive content and memes ending up on top/frontpage. It also leads to a lot of nerd-machismo and a lot of one-upmanship in more serious discussions, something which our forum is already plagued by but at least here it doesn't affect the visibility of the content.

[Creative Destruction]

Well, the reddit thing; since we'd be hosting our own reddit style templates, does that mean that it won't be connected to the main reddit system... or is it and would that enable shithead redditors be able to come and pollute the board?

[Q]

Well, the reddit thing; since we'd be hosting our own reddit style templates, does that mean that it won't be connected to the main reddit system... or is it and would that enable shithead redditors be able to come and pollute the board?
Being self-hosted, it would be completely its own thing. The only comparison would be that it would function more or less the same. But BIABA has some useful remarks about that.

Anyway, Iwasn't intending this to be a vBulletin versus Reddit thread, but more generally to think about alternative ways to organise our community.

[Creative Destruction]

I'll put it this way; if Revleft converted to a reddit-style template, I'd still use it. It would take a little getting used to, but I would get over it. One of my other concerns about it, though, is that when you go into a long thread, it's not usually a continuous conversation. Someone replies to the main post and it starts its own branch and what tends to happen is that the comments get hidden automatically, it seems. It can be counter-intuitive if you're not used to the platform.

Also, would these forums be archived, for historical purposes, or would they just be nuked?

[Q]

I'll put it this way; if Revleft converted to a reddit-style template, I'd still use it. It would take a little getting used to, but I would get over it. One of my other concerns about it, though, is that when you go into a long thread, it's not usually a continuous conversation. Someone replies to the main post and it starts its own branch and what tends to happen is that the comments get hidden automatically, it seems. It can be counter-intuitive if you're not used to the platform.
Something worth consideration and open for improvement. In my preliminary research I saw one such solution in Discourse (http://www.discourse.org/), which is available as an open source product. They have a feature to "reply as a linked topic", which sounds like something you're talking about.


Also, would these forums be archived, for historical purposes, or would they just be nuked?
Well, initially we should investigate importing the archives to the new platform. But if that isn't possible, it should surely be archived. Nuking it would erase 15 years of history, which is just unacceptable.

[PhoenixAsh]

I have no idea what the alternatives are. I don't really like the Reddit format and I like things old fashioned and tidy. I agree with FF and IZ their arguments on this.

But as said...I have no idea about forum infrastructure. So if there is an upgrade that will add new features and possibilities I would like to see some proposals and cost-benefit analysis templates so we could start to weigh pro's and cons and find out what we need to cough up...and if that is worth the hassle...because this works for me.

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

RevLeft is not really a "community", it's a site whose main appeal lies in the forum. People come here for political discussion. The existing forum software serves that purpose adequately (and I don't think Reddit-style solutions do), even if things like button graphics disappearing happen from time to time. I think that, if the site is to be changed, it should be changed by working out the kinks in what we already have and getting rid of some rarely-used features.

That's my two cents.

[consuming negativity]

a revleft imageboard would be great but since it won't happen just upgrade the forums and get a new theme

it feels like i'm back in 1998 every time i come here

[BIXX]

I like the theme.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

A reddit-style system would make it really difficult to continue high quality discussion. I have always felt (as a very occasional browser of reddit) that it's difficult to really categorise and focus on the issues you want.

I like the forum model. But pls can we update the software? This shit is killing me with its bugs.

[Sharia Lawn]

What happened to this? (From last year):


There is unfortunately a glitch with the calculation of the active subscriptions, sometimes subscriptions are counted twice and therefore the displayed amount is too high. I'm working on it.

Board software upgrade (vb4) coming soon...