Have you ever used SMF?

So would I!

Better said than done!

 

MyBB (as a forum script) has developed tremendously - I myself am not one to use free forum software scripts, but MyBB is the only one in that category that I actually like working with. Regardless of what script I'm dealing with, I always take a look at the administrative interface before examining anything else. While vBulletin and Invision Power Board are indeed the front-runners in my eyes, MyBB comes in as a close third.

Yes... it's that good.

 

SMF makes me think moldy food look pretty.

 

I have used smf several times on different projects. For the most part have been happy with smf - considering its free. Even though I suggest smf as a free forum solution, there are a lot of "little" things that I do not like about the software. Its not really one big thing, its more like a lot of little problems that should have been fixed a long time ago.

The navbar is a pain to edit. If you want to add a link to the navbar, you better be a top notch coder.

Some modifications do not install to all the templates. So sometimes you have to edit the template your using, or,,,,,

To install some modifications, you have to set the theme back to default. Install the modification, then set the theme back to the one you were using.

A lot of directories are not protected by a blank index.html file. This means that people can browse through your subfolders. And google will index those folders and images.

When I have posted questions about improving security in the SMF support forums, they have gone unasnwered.

No email notification when a critical exploit has been fixed.

Permissions can be confusing.

Admin control panel can be confusing.

No major changes to the software in 2 - 3 years.

But overall, smf serves its purpose.

 

Ouch! That's quite true, though.

 

It sounds like we have quite the SMF community here at AA!

 

Yes! We all love to hate SMF - we're in (almost) perfect sync.

 

I wouldn't say top notch... but some genius got it into their head that they should move this rather critical piece into the main codebase, rather than as a setting. WTF.

Supposedly, SMF 2 is supposed to have a hook system for templates. We'll see if Curve has it, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

Modding SMF without knowing php can be rather harrowing, I'm told.

Okay this is in part your fault or your host's.

I have been tempted to make one, but a lot of security is just general...

If I were vulnerable to that I would be quite pissed. At least it doesn't evaluate post text as executable code like phpBB does.

I actually really like them in 2.0, though in 1.x they could get seriously tedious.

2.0 has a search feature : ) More importantly though, SMF's admin control panel is functional and smooth - if you know what you are doing, you can get a great deal done very quickly.

I suspect the loss of its key coder had a lot to do with that : /

 

As for my own opinion of SMF, I'm a bit torn. When I first started Elliquiy, SMF was by far the best coded of the full-featured forums out there. It's ACL system is, by far, the best of all free community solutions I have tried and actually ran a large community on (Drupal, Joomla, SMF, phpBB, MyBB - BBPress coming soon, hopefully Vanilla and PunBB before the end of the year)

The theme system... needs work, to put it mildly. A lot of mods could trivially be options. I could do whatever I cared to with SMF, but how much time would I waste doing so? A dilemma.

It's faster than phpBB, and scales better than most other forum softwares, save Drupal and possibly Vanilla (haven't tested it enough). There is far more support for large community management, which to my knowledge does not exist with such skill anywhere else. I'll admit that's probably due to Ben, Phalloidium and I - but if the star users of your software don't help, you're probably doing something wrong.

 

I have used SMF before, But I have never really liked it that much. I don't like the looks, and it's not really that easy to use.

 

SMF was my first ever forum software that I used on a live site. I love how they have mods and custom themes. But it was very limited and didn't integrate well with my site.

 

I am currently using SMF. I could basically summarize that it is very easy and very stable. I had a couple of issues with the writable files, but that was fixed shortly. Overall a great engine to work with, especially if you don't do coding

 

Yes, I found it pretty useless though. phpBB3 is more better.

 

I tried it once a long time ago (probably many versions ago) and didn't like it.

 

Who would??


Ohh, that's right.. oopsies

 

That's not surprising - it's a horrid script.

 

Yes I use SMF and frankly find it the most straightforward easy to use software and I've taken them all for a spin except IPB.

To me, SMF is easy for end users, easy to admin, easy to modify and most importantly to me, it scales well and uses very little in terms of resources meaning I can continue to run my forum ad free as I only require one, not amazing, server.

I don't really understand why people find the template system so hard to be honest, it's vey basic PHP, mainly echo statements and the occasional bit of logic. Now call me strange, but I'd sooner see some very common bits of PHP than some weird propriotory system that I have to learn. I expect a lot of people the PHP and run a mile without even having a closer look.

I, unfortunately, have been tasked with running our customer support forum in work and it runs phpBB. I found that a pig to skin and even worse when it comes to basic things like tracking an IP, doing a hostname lookup on an IP, viewing that the custom profile fields entered prior to approving an account etc. All simple stuff in SMF (i.e. just view profile) but many clicks in phpBB. Suffice to say, that forum will end up running SMF when I get a few spare minutes to convert it and skin it.

 

I think that's the gist of it, though.

One, people don't always think to make a test theme, and if someone breaks the main theme, if they don't know how to code, they are largely paralyzed.

Two, theme changes don't propagate from the default theme. A bit structure like MyBB (an atrocious example, but a good model to look at for ideas) would be a drastic improvement. I'm always sort of torn about doing my own custom theme for Elliquiy because of the eventual need to do it over.

...moving the menu bar to a sensitive php file, rather than settings, in SMF 2 is not an improvement -_-

On the plus side, having had a more thorough look at vBulletin, SMF 2's permissions handling beats vB into the ground, too. I could not pull the sorts of stunts I do on Elliquiy using vB, MyBB, phpBB, BBPress, PunBB, Vanilla or Drupal. I've yet to check out IPB yet, we'lll see : )

 

Are you sure?

I have found vBulletin's permission system to be one of the most flexible. What are some of the things you're currently doing on SMF that you think vB can't do?

 

I have ... 45 membergroups. I still have more to add : ) 140 boards. Ditto.

A membergroup in SMF is sort of a combined rank and title (SMF doesn't bother with specific titles, justs lets you specify custom titles or lets you let your members specify them - for that, there's a badges mod).

I require member approval, and members on approval are given the Lord, Lady, or Liege status. For the boards they have access to by default, they all share the same permission set, but there is also a Lord's Only forum, a Lady's Only Forum, a Liege's Only Forum, etc. Likewise, the donor versions are Knight, Dame, and Champion respectively.

They all inherit permissions from the same profile - even though they have access to different boards. So rather than adjusting six profiles to make a permission change, I only adjust one.

Forum permission profiles are more interesting and far more useful, however. For example, I want the mentors (just a typical additional group) to have moderator permissions over their forum, and there are Lord Mentors, Lady Mentors, Liege Mentors - etc. They all inherit their permissions from one, remember, and all five of those forums use the same mentor board profile - I don't set the profile five times.

Similarly, in Ons and Offs forums, members are not allowed to reply to each other's threads - another profile. Role play requests have another profile to make sure newbies get directed to the Introduction forum... and so on and so forth : )

I wasn't able to find that sort of thing in the vB admin, but it did deny me from going to some places, like the scheduled tasks : /