CommunityServer... RIP!


  • ♿ (Parody)

    It's finally happened... looks like Community Server is no more. The product is now "Telligent Community" and there's not a free/express edition avaiable anymore; speaking with a sales rep at telligent confirmed that.

    So... I guess the long-term plan of "just stick with CS, it gets better every time" won't quite work anymore. This means we're back at the whole "what now" question.

    Any thoughts?



  • Reinvent the wheel: write your own forum software!

    Better idea: make an OMGWTF contest for writing terrible forum software, and use the entry that loses as the new forum software (since it should be the best one).



  • We could switch over to phpB---- BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH I couldn't finish that sentence, sorry.

    Seriously, I haven't worked with any forum software that I would consider to be flat out better.  Maybe you could take another product and force-feed a forum into it.  I'd love to see bugzilla twisted into forum software.  "My operating system?  I don't see how that's relevant to my post, so I'll say Opera"

    Maybe we could start a fund to pony up for a license.  And start a yearly begathon (complete with washed up TV actors) when they ask for your license renewal payment.  "Your generous donation ensures that for at least one year, this downtrodden community won't have to bitch about a brand new forum system."  This site has some pretty affluent followers.

    Maybe one of our members has some forum software he'd like to sell for cheap or free.  TDWTF would be a great way for a startup FOSS project to get off the ground (or be beat into it).



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Maybe we could start a fund to pony up for a license.

    I forcefully disagree.  The people who made this atrocity should not receive one dime.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @belgariontheking said:

    Maybe we could start a fund to pony up for a license.

    I forcefully disagree.  The people who made this atrocity should not receive one dime.

    I don't mind paying for a license... but I get the impression that getting a "Telligent Community" will run in the several thousands. They're now targeting big players like ESPN, etc., and I'd immagine their sales involve a lot of consultation about how to build, brand, manage, etc a community -- IOW it's a lot more than putting up a forum. We just want a forum to put up.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @belgariontheking said:
    Maybe we could start a fund to pony up for a license.
    I forcefully disagree.  The people who made this atrocity should not receive one dime.
    Fair enough, but I challenge you to tell me (us) what free(ish) forum software is out there that is actually better than CS.  Maybe give us a link to another site that is using said software.



  •  @belgariontheking said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    @belgariontheking said:
    Maybe we could start a fund to pony up for a license.
    I forcefully disagree.  The people who made this atrocity should not receive one dime.
    Fair enough, but I challenge you to tell me (us) what free(ish) forum software is out there that is actually better than CS.  Maybe give us a link to another site that is using said software.

      What features exactly make you feel that CS is better than everything else?

    If Alex wants to stick with something .NET, IdealBB.NET is supposedly pretty nice.   It's what Bungie uses.  It's not free, though.  Frankly, I'm not aware of a decent free forum written in .NET.  Most of them are written in PHP.



  • @bstorer said:

    What features exactly make you feel that CS is better than everything else?
    In no particular order:

    Being able to find someone's profile page without knowing their "user id number" or a post from them.

    The look and feel, really.  I know that's more about how alex has it set up, though.

    I like the way you can get a preview in a different tab on the same page, rather than having to click a preview button.   

    The simplicity of the icons for each thread/forum.  phpBB's icons are too busy, trying to convey too many things at once, and are also too big.  phpBB also allows you to identify your post/thread with its own special icon.  WTF is up with that?

    The simplicity of the screen on which you create a post.  No little "BBCode tutorial."  No list of smileys.  You don't get the entire thread, just TinyMCE and the post you're replying to.  Again, this might be something Alex did specifically.

    Alright fine, I'll admit it.  The only other forum software with which I have extended experience with is phpBB, and I could go on all day about how much this is better than phpBB, but that's really like comparing an apple to a turd.

    Finally, curse my company firewall.  It allows me to go to the bungie.net forums, but the CSS is in a different /path which is blocked, so it's just a list of hyperlinks.  Why /forums is allowed but /everythingelse is not, especially considering how useless it is without the /everythingelse, I may never know.  I'll have to check it out when the man lets me go home.


  • Garbage Person

     Ship me a copy of the database schema and software for the current version and I'll knock up a shameless clone in my copious free time.

     

    Actually, I've always wondered what would happen if you sat an entire community down, said "I'm going to give you this crap off-the-shelf forum suite. There's a source control repository over there, and a bugtracker over here. Make all the customizations you want - the running version and database will be updated weekly.."

    This might actually be one of the only groups that wouldn't scatter immediately.


  • Garbage Person

    Having done a number of phpbb integrations...

     

     @belgariontheking said:

    Being able to find someone's profile page without knowing their "user id number" or a post from them.

    Off-the-shelf phpBB has this.

     @belgariontheking said:

    The look and feel, really.  I know that's more about how alex has it set up, though.

     Yeah. This exact look and feel is totally achievable in any other forum suite.

    @belgariontheking said:

    I like the way you can get a preview in a different tab on the same page, rather than having to click a preview button.  

    Not the easiest thing to implement but by no means impossible.

     @belgariontheking said:

    The simplicity of the icons for each thread/forum.  phpBB's icons are too busy, trying to convey too many things at once, and are also too big.  phpBB also allows you to identify your post/thread with its own special icon.  WTF is up with that?

    Swapping the icons is no problem. And the very first thing I do on most of my projects is ditch those stupid custom icons.

    @belgariontheking said:

    The simplicity of the screen on which you create a post.  No little "BBCode tutorial."  No list of smileys.  You don't get the entire thread, just TinyMCE and the post you're replying to.  Again, this might be something Alex did specifically.

     Again, not having those things is as simple as not including those in the template. It's also probably not hard to swap TinyMCE in place of phpbb's default editor.

    @belgariontheking said:

    Alright fine, I'll admit it.  The only other forum software with which I have extended experience with is phpBB, and I could go on all day about how much this is better than phpBB, but that's really like comparing an apple to a turd.

     Your other forum is obviously either horribly broken or horribly old.

     

    I have heard very good things about SMF/simplemachines before, though. Never worked with it, though.


  • Garbage Person

    @bstorer said:

    Frankly, I'm not aware of a decent free forum written in .NET.  Most of them are written in PHP.
    Well, on the plus side the code of most of these php forums is a horrifying WTF-clusterfuck. Can't be nearly as bad as CS, though. 


  • Garbage Person

    @belgariontheking said:

    I'd love to see bugzilla twisted into forum software.  "My operating system?  I don't see how that's relevant to my post, so I'll say Opera"
    I was about to go do it - and then I realized that I don't actually need to make any modifications. The initial report is the OP, the comments are the response, the tasklist is the index.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Weng said:

    @bstorer said:

    Frankly, I'm not aware of a decent free forum written in .NET.  Most of them are written in PHP.
    Well, on the plus side the code of most of these php forums is a horrifying WTF-clusterfuck. Can't be nearly as bad as CS, though. 

    Would reaaly like to stay in .NET... don't want to have to install stuff on server, etc... pplus I know .NET very well and can customize fairly easily. I'd rather not toy around with PHP.



  • Nooooooooooo

    I really hoped that you'll upgrade to CS 2009 SP1 or whatever was the latest version, so we can enjoy the latest and greatest bugs... And I think I've deleted my only copy of the source that I downloaded a while ago to get a sneak peek. 8=[


  • Garbage Person

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    Would reaaly like to stay in .NET... don't want to have to install stuff on server, etc... pplus I know .NET very well and can customize fairly easily. I'd rather not toy around with PHP.
    You'll either be buying one or writing your own then. .net is hideously underdeveloped in terms of prefab, free software.

     ... Note to self: Copious free time can possibly be used to fill a hole.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Weng said:

    You'll either be buying one or writing your own then. .net is hideously underdeveloped in terms of prefab, free software.

    Buying is fine, I just don't want to spend in the several thousands.... suggestions?



  • @Weng said:

     ... Note to self: Copious free time can possibly be used to fill a hole.

    I use my free time to fill your mom's hole.



  •  From what I remember CS (paid version) was availaile at the cheap end of things for only a few hunded dollars. More than likely Telligent Community is available at such a price range too to complete with SiteFinity/DNN/etc...

    To be honest CS was the best ASP.Net forum I've seen around (besides propriatary forums such as MS msdn/technet forums.


  • Garbage Person

     @morbiuswilters said:

    @Weng said:

     ... Note to self: Copious free time can possibly be used to fill a hole.

    I use my free time to fill your mom's hole.

    That's... interesting considering my mom is finely pulverized bone ash bits sitting in a box on my dad's mantle.


  • @Weng said:

     @morbiuswilters said:

    @Weng said:

    ... Note to self: Copious free time can possibly be used to fill a hole.

    I use my free time to fill your mom's hole.

    That's... interesting considering my mom is finely pulverized bone ash bits sitting in a box on my dad's mantle.

    Kinky!



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Being able to find someone's profile page without knowing their "user id number" or a post from them.
    I'll grant that this is a nice feature.@belgariontheking said:
    The look and feel, really.  I know that's more about how alex has it set up, though.
      Well, even the default CS is much better than all the hideous phpBB clones.  But a lot of them now are skinnable.@belgariontheking said:
    I like the way you can get a preview in a different tab on the same page, rather than having to click a preview button.
      I find the preview pane to frequently be extremely slow, though.  I'd prefer a live preview.  Embrace the Ajax!

      @belgariontheking said:

    The simplicity of the icons for each thread/forum.  phpBB's icons are too busy, trying to convey too many things at once, and are also too big.  phpBB also allows you to identify your post/thread with its own special icon.  WTF is up with that?
    A lot of these "features" can be disabled, but to be honest, I don't really pay attention to the icons, other than to see if it's grayed out or not.@belgariontheking said:
    The simplicity of the screen on which you create a post.  No little "BBCode tutorial."  No list of smileys.  You don't get the entire thread, just TinyMCE and the post you're replying to.  Again, this might be something Alex did specifically.
    WYSIWYG 4eva.  Any of them that just insert the BBCode can DIAF, unless they have a live preview.  Most of them allow disabling crap like smileys, which I'd say is a must.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    Would reaaly like to stay in .NET... don't want to have to install stuff on server, etc... pplus I know .NET very well and can customize fairly easily. I'd rather not toy around with PHP.
    As far as I know, other than Ideal, you've got:

    Neither appears to support SQL Server, but both support MySQL.

    The other possiblity is to just fork CS.  I'm not sure what their license is, though, or if you even have the source.


  •  I'm suffering DailyWTF withdrawal.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    @Weng said:

    @bstorer said:

    Frankly, I'm not aware of a decent free forum written in .NET.  Most of them are written in PHP.
    Well, on the plus side the code of most of these php forums is a horrifying WTF-clusterfuck. Can't be nearly as bad as CS, though. 

    Would reaaly like to stay in .NET... don't want to have to install stuff on server, etc... pplus I know .NET very well and can customize fairly easily. I'd rather not toy around with PHP.

    I tend to prefer .net forum software myself.  Might have to do with the fact that I'm a .net dev.  I can look around and evaluate a bunch of the .net forum suites since I can create unlimited subdomains through my host (mosso).  If you want some subdomains and sqlserver db's to toy around in to help decide let me know. 

     I also like the idea of creating one as a group effort.  Would probably be a fun experiment.  although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.

     Basically if theres anyway I can help out I am more than happy to do so :)  just let me know what you need.



  • @galgorah said:

     

     I also like the idea of creating one as a group effort.  Would probably be a fun experiment.  although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.

    Think of all the advantages in designing our own software:

    • A forum devoted entirely to WTFs in our own piece of software
    • All references to XKCD could be automatically replaced with MFD
    • Allow post numbers to be optionally have 0-based or 1-based indexes
    • Although written in .NET, run it on Mono because M$ is a convicted monopolist
    • Instead of appending one's signature to posts, have the signature automatically added as a tag.  That's how they get used anyway.
    The possibilities are endless!


  • @bstorer said:

    @galgorah said:

     

     I also like the idea of creating one as a group effort.  Would probably be a fun experiment.  although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.

    Think of all the advantages in designing our own software:

    • A forum devoted entirely to WTFs in our own piece of software
    • All references to XKCD could be automatically replaced with MFD
    • Allow post numbers to be optionally have 0-based or 1-based indexes
    • Although written in .NET, run it on Mono because M$ is a convicted monopolist
    • Instead of appending one's signature to posts, have the signature automatically added as a tag.  That's how they get used anyway.
    The possibilities are endless!
    Hence why I suggested that it could be a fun project. It would either turn out as amazingly good or absolute fail.  I'm not actually sure which.


  • @bstorer said:

    Instead of appending one's signature to posts, have the signature automatically added as a tag.  That's how they get used anyway.

    This reminds me: the only feature I care about is a tag cloud.  If it doesn't have a tag cloud, what is the point?



  • @bstorer said:

    Well, even the default CS is much better than all the hideous phpBB clones.  But a lot of them now are skinnable.
    Maybe there was a joke here and it went "Whoosh" but...

     



    Forbidden

    You don't have permission to access /screenshots/screen_46_1.png on this server.

     





  • @galgorah said:

    @bstorer said:
    @galgorah said:
    I also like the idea of creating one as a group effort.  Would probably be a fun experiment.  although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.
    Think of all the advantages in designing our own software:

    • A forum devoted entirely to WTFs in our own piece of software
    • All references to XKCD could be automatically replaced with MFD
    • Allow post numbers to be optionally have 0-based or 1-based indexes
    • Although written in .NET, run it on Mono because M$ is a convicted monopolist
    • Instead of appending one's signature to posts, have the signature automatically added as a tag.  That's how they get used anyway.
    The possibilities are endless!
    Hence why I suggested that it could be a fun project. It would either turn out as amazingly good or absolute fail.  I'm not actually sure which.
    Don't forget! All responses should be formatted as a mix between DIVs and TABLEs, just for good measure... CSS? Well, we'll use it somewhere...


  • @drachenstern said:

    Maybe there was a joke here and it went "Whoosh" but...
    @drachenstern said:

    Forbidden

    You don't have permission to access /screenshots/screen_46_1.png on this server.

    apparently pesto has hotlinking disabled.




  • Garbage Person

    @galgorah said:

    although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.
     

    Plan? Organize? This is the 21st century, man! Agile development! Pick a couple of features and just GO!

    No, really. That organizational strategy would work for a project like this (assuming the managementware is in place and actually used).

    If anyone is seriously interested in just kind of running with this (whether or not it actually gets used here) let me know - I can even take the lead on the whole thing (lord knows it'd give me an excuse not to actually do any real work)



  • I would love to see this get off the ground.

    I'm pretty useless at .Net and/or Coctothorpe (last time I typed "int" to actually define a type was last year), but my HTML and CSS are next to none.



  • @dhromed said:

    I would love to see this get off the ground.

    I'm pretty useless at .Net and/or Coctothorpe (last time I typed "int" to actually define a type was last year), but my HTML and CSS are next to none.

    I call dibs on being arrogant, verbally abusive middle management that contributes nothing and only holds everyone back with my unreasonable demands and paranoid withholding of information.



  • I say we go back to using mailinglists. Its obvious forums have failed and we all need to go back to good old mailinglists. Also I wonder when september will end.



  • @Weng said:

    @galgorah said:

    although It would take a lot of work just to organize, etc.  Could be a fun Community project down the road.
     

    Plan? Organize? This is the 21st century, man! Agile development! Pick a couple of features and just GO!

    No, really. That organizational strategy would work for a project like this (assuming the managementware is in place and actually used).

    If anyone is seriously interested in just kind of running with this (whether or not it actually gets used here) let me know - I can even take the lead on the whole thing (lord knows it'd give me an excuse not to actually do any real work)

    Like I said before I'm up for it.  I'm using visual studio 2008 these days.  I'm not sure what everyone else is using.  If you want to set the managementware count me in.  Maybe we can get alex to set up a project forum for it, if there is enough interest.  I got bored over the weekend and started designing a database for this actually in sql server 2008.  I can provide said db hosting and web space for testing. perhaps something like dev.wtfprojects.com or something.

     Web host using:

     iis 7
    .net 3.5
    sql server 2008 or 2005

    and I have 500gb bandwidth a month and 50 gb disk space.  (I use about half of that for photography)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @bstorer said:

    IdealBB.NET is supposedly pretty nice.   It's what Bungie uses.  It's not free, though. 

    The price looks great on this... thoughts on features, etc?

    I doubt data migration will be feasible though...



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    @bstorer said:
    IdealBB.NET is supposedly pretty nice.   It's what Bungie uses.  It's not free, though. 

    The price looks great on this... thoughts on features, etc?

    I doubt data migration will be feasible though...

    I don't see any tags, nor a tag cloud...


    I say fail... ;-)

     

    But honestly, Alex, it's your site, we just chew up your bandwidth. You decide. I'm all for starting YaBB.NET (or whatever other name sounds more fitting... WTFbb.NET sounds pretty good, but yabbdotnet seems to roll off the tongue better than whatifbeebeedotnet, and it'ld be kinda funny, but at the very least, it'll quit deleting two characters when we hit back once!!~~!~!!!eleven!111)



  •  Simple machines forum? ([url]http://kevan.org/rubicon/forums/[/url] uses this)?


  • Garbage Person

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    I doubt data migration will be feasible though...
    Data migration is ALWAYS feasible. This is, after all,just a forum.

    ..... Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it? It takes some real madness to screw up a forum's database schema beyond the point of simple portability.



  • @Weng said:

    Data migration is ALWAYS feasible. This is, after all,just a forum.

    ..... Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it? It takes some real madness to screw up a forum's database schema beyond the point of simple portability.

    +1


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Weng said:

    Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it?

    Well, it's not *that* bad... but, I meant feasible from a time perspective. I'd ballpark a 20-40 hour project. Maybe more.

     



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    @Weng said:

    Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it?

    Well, it's not *that* bad... but, I meant feasible from a time perspective. I'd ballpark a 20-40 hour project. Maybe more.

    so it gets done over a weekend.  easy enough.  also is it sad that I am moving tomorow and yet have not done much packing due to speccing out and writing basic forum software as a result of this thread?



  • @galgorah said:

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:
    @Weng said:
    Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it?
    Well, it's not *that* bad... but, I meant feasible from a time perspective. I'd ballpark a 20-40 hour project. Maybe more.
    so it gets done over a weekend.  easy enough.  also is it sad that I am moving tomorow and yet have not done much packing due to speccing out and writing basic forum software as a result of this thread?
    It's not sad. You're just a programmer.



  • @Welbog said:

    @galgorah said:

    @Alex Papadimoulis said:
    @Weng said:
    Community Server can't be THAT bad, can it?
    Well, it's not *that* bad... but, I meant feasible from a time perspective. I'd ballpark a 20-40 hour project. Maybe more.
    so it gets done over a weekend.  easy enough.  also is it sad that I am moving tomorow and yet have not done much packing due to speccing out and writing basic forum software as a result of this thread?
    It's not sad. You're just a programmer.

    Packing everything I own up is still going to suck tonight though.  But hey at least I'll have forum software and a jacuzzi!

  • ♿ (Parody)

    @morbiuswilters said:

    This reminds me: the only feature I care about is a tag cloud.  If it doesn't have a tag cloud, what is the point?
    Tag clouds are good, but we need to have good search capabilities.  I know a guy...



  • @boomzilla said:

    @morbiuswilters said:

    This reminds me: the only feature I care about is a tag cloud.  If it doesn't have a tag cloud, what is the point?
    Tag clouds are good, but we need to have good search capabilities.  I know a guy...

    Is he your mother's friend's brother's roommate's nephew's dog's cousin's owner's 50 year old proffesor's 19 year old girlfriend's brother in law? 

  • ♿ (Parody)

    @galgorah said:

    @boomzilla said:
    Tag clouds are good, but we need to have good search capabilities.  I know a guy...

    Is he your mother's friend's brother's roommate's nephew's dog's cousin's owner's 50 year old proffesor's 19 year old girlfriend's brother in law? 
    I sure hope not.  He's more of an online acquaintance.  He's a bit of a whiz at VB, and his code is usually documented with flowcharts, so you can tell what's going on.


  • @boomzilla said:

    He's a bit of a whiz at VB
      "Whiz" in this instance meaning "expelled urine".



  • @boomzilla said:

    @galgorah said:

    @boomzilla said:
    Tag clouds are good, but we need to have good search capabilities.  I know a guy...

    Is he your mother's friend's brother's roommate's nephew's dog's cousin's owner's 50 year old proffesor's 19 year old girlfriend's brother in law? 
    I sure hope not.  He's more of an online acquaintance.  He's a bit of a whiz at VB, and his code is usually documented with flowcharts, so you can tell what's going on.

     Isn't he that same guy from canada that has proof of aliens ? I don't put much stock in his "flowcharts"


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