13 Jul, 2007, Hades_Kane wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
I like these forums, so I'm considering something similar, and I know some things like phpBB have serious security issues…

What I'm thinking overall is just a small and simple forum setup specifically just for the immortals of my MUD, so that way we have an easier interface to discuss ideas and reply to one another in a more specific manner. I don't need anything super powerful or anything, just something that would work in a basic manner, be user friendly, secure, and allow password protection.

Anyone have any particular suggestions they think would work well for what I want?
13 Jul, 2007, Zeno wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
If you like these forums, you can use them. :)

http://www.quicksilverforums.com/
13 Jul, 2007, kiasyn wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
mudbytes uses qsfportal, qsfportal.com, with a few of our own modifcations.
13 Jul, 2007, Conner wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
Personally I use QSFP for my mud's forums as well as for my family site and it does a great job, as Kiasyn already pointed out, it's the same software that these forums are based on. I've also tried a few others and been an active member (as well as a moderator) on several others as well, and QSFP seems to me to be the best of choice in general. I know of a few other active QSFP sites that, like this one, help demonstrate a bit of the flexibility of this software if you want to see some different variations on it. Kayle's Malevolent Whispers, Samson's AFKMud & The FUSS Project, Kiasyn's Sandbox, Devenon's Homeworld, and Remcon's & Shira's Lands of Pabulum all use QSFP too… just to name the first few that come to mind.
13 Jul, 2007, Zeno wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
As for phpBB, the latest version has no vulnerabilities. It's secure.
13 Jul, 2007, Guest wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
phpBB has made that claim repeatedly, only to be slapped with a major vulnerability someone sat on for months and decided to publicize. So it's no more "secure" than anything else.

I don't claim QSF or QSFP are totally secure either. I can't know that with 100% certainty. And we have indeed had two confirmed security issues that needed to be fixed. But I'd say two in the entire release history of QSF is pretty damn good. Even the previous MercuryBoard codebase this all originated from only had a small number of issues, all but one of which had been fixed by the time version 1.1.4 came along. Compared to the number of reports phpBB, SMF, and others have, I'd say the track record is excellent.

Besides all that, QSF is actually pretty easy to modify once you get down to it. The QSF Portal software could technically be seen as a huge mod of QSF. And some of the things we added here at MudBytes are just larger mods to QSFP. QSF is also about the most user friendly system I've tried. And I've been through phpBB, SMF, Ikonboard, Invisionboard ( free version ) and Phorum. This is the only one of the bunch I found easy enough to understand and then tweak to my liking. And I didn't know jack about PHP at the time.
13 Jul, 2007, mann_jess wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
As mentioned, there's QSF.

As well, you might look into SMF, which is very similar to phpBB except that it seems to be more secure.

Then there's Joomla, which is a CMS which can be integrated with a number of other forums…. which I only mention because it can come with a forum, and it seems to be the most popular CMS out there (probably in part due to its lax license).

Anyway, take a look here to see a full list of available forums.

Best of Luck,
-Jess
14 Jul, 2007, Vladaar wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
If you do choose QSFportal

Just realize, that some people will have issues if they use internet explorer. For us, many people who use Internet Explorer, cant do anything on the forums except in Guest mode, even if they are made moderators. For some reason Internet Explorer, fails to understand some things that Firefox does.

I don't know if Quick silver forums has this problem or not.

Vladaar
15 Jul, 2007, Brinson wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
Phpbb is the most used forum software- its going to have the most exposed vulnerabilities. However, these "vulnerabilities" are usually fixed very quickly. No software or script is 100% secure. You find me a software that's been running 6 months with zero reported bugs…and I'll show you a bunch of dishonest developers.

I'm a fan of phpbb…and their new version (phpbb3) is very nice. Very feature rich, a HUGE community of developers…a shitload of styles…plenty of mods..

It is, however, a bit bloated and complicated. Intergrating it into a website would be freakin' hard. Major modifications to the way the forum works would be difficult. But you make a sacrifice for the vast amount of features available in phpbb.
15 Jul, 2007, Guest wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Vladaar said:
If you do choose QSFportal

Just realize, that some people will have issues if they use internet explorer. For us, many people who use Internet Explorer, cant do anything on the forums except in Guest mode, even if they are made moderators. For some reason Internet Explorer, fails to understand some things that Firefox does.

I don't know if Quicksilver Forums has this problem or not.


Vlad,

The problems you describe are usually the result of incorrect cookie domain settings and will affect Firefox users just as much if you don't do it right. Other than that, IE only has a strange issue with the navigation menu that's not fatal. Making such a huge sweeping generalization about the software isn't very appreciated when the problem has been discussed several times now.

Brinson,

Just because phpbb is the most used forum software doesn't even begin to make it the best. I think it sucks precisely for the fact that it's bloated, poorly organized, and impossible to integrate. Not to mention that it's full of holes. And God forbid you should need help cause the support staff are a bunch of rude bastards. And the feature set of phpbb is only just now catching up to what most other packages have had for years, including MercuryBoard and QSF.
28 Jul, 2007, fleft wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
PunBB is solid, although it lacks a lot of commonly expected features (private messaging). I'd still recommend it.
28 Jul, 2007, Caius wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
I can recommend punBB too. It's small, fast, and standards compliant.

While it's true that it lacks the bells and whistles you'll find on other forum software, most of these features are available through various easy to install mods.
23 Aug, 2007, Orignaux wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
phpBB is nice I suppose but….. Though I've ran it before and some people got viruses off of just going to the dang forum so that got closed down quickly. Still have yet to find something that satisfies me. Invision Free Boards are decent…. features on them aren't the best though but if you know css you can make a totally customized layout.
23 Aug, 2007, Guest wrote in the 14th comment:
Votes: 0
Quote
Still have yet to find something that satisfies me.


You should honestly check out Quicksilver Forums then if you haven't yet. The comparison with phpbb is night and day.
23 Aug, 2007, Hades_Kane wrote in the 15th comment:
Votes: 0
I still have yet to decide on a forum, but I am thinking that whatever I go with I will have hosted another a different server than my MUD, just incase…

After the recent server move and subsequent issues for a week or two with only being able to connect through the IP as I sorted domain issues out, it would have been nice to have had another place everyone would have known they could have gone to in order to get a reliable update. I don't collect email addresses, so contact that way would have been out of the question as well.
23 Aug, 2007, tphegley wrote in the 16th comment:
Votes: 0
Hey Hades, just download a couple and install them and see what you like. I went with QSFP simply because I like the way that smaugmuds.org is set up. Once I downloaded it and actually figured out how to use it, it was simply easy to use. It's very easy to modify to your hearts content.

You can check out my site at www.legendsofold.com

yes it looks like smaugmuds.org (three columns instead of two though) but I liked that layout. I like having everything right there in front plus the ability to add new features and mods quickly and efficiently.

ALSO…heh. Samson and the gang at QSFP are there to answer any questions you might have pretty quickly.
23 Aug, 2007, Conner wrote in the 17th comment:
Votes: 0
Orignaux said:
Invision Free Boards are decent…. features on them aren't the best though but if you know css you can make a totally customized layout.

Invision Free boards are actually very nice in many ways, but if you use them make sure you plan to stay with them forever or restart completely clean when you move because otherwise they cease to be free and become rather expensive. :sad:

Samson said:
Quote
Still have yet to find something that satisfies me.


You should honestly check out Quicksilver Forums then if you haven't yet. The comparison with phpbb is night and day.

I'll second this one emphatically. :biggrin:

Hades_Kane said:
I still have yet to decide on a forum, but I am thinking that whatever I go with I will have hosted another a different server than my MUD, just incase…

After the recent server move and subsequent issues for a week or two with only being able to connect through the IP as I sorted domain issues out, it would have been nice to have had another place everyone would have known they could have gone to in order to get a reliable update. I don't collect email addresses, so contact that way would have been out of the question as well.

It sucks to have to go through that sort of ordeal, but in general, it's usually easier for your players if the forums are at the same domain as the game they play.. maybe if you get your forums set up on a different host you could have a DNS alias created to point to the forums from your game's host? (Just a thought of something that might be worth looking into at least.)

tphegley said:
Hey Hades, just download a couple and install them and see what you like. I went with QSFP simply because I like the way that smaugmuds.org is set up. Once I downloaded it and actually figured out how to use it, it was simply easy to use. It's very easy to modify to your hearts content.

Actually, this is how I decided too, I tried several out behind closed doors and ended up with invisionfree for awhile and then finally ended up with QSFP.

tphegley said:
ALSO…heh. Samson and the gang at QSFP are there to answer any questions you might have pretty quickly.

We do try to help everyone we can with stuff we can help with.. Tphegley, I'd have jumped in there to help you out too, but Samson already had it covered before I could get to it. :wink:
24 Aug, 2007, Guest wrote in the 18th comment:
Votes: 0
Hades_Kane said:
I still have yet to decide on a forum, but I am thinking that whatever I go with I will have hosted another a different server than my MUD, just incase…

After the recent server move and subsequent issues for a week or two with only being able to connect through the IP as I sorted domain issues out, it would have been nice to have had another place everyone would have known they could have gone to in order to get a reliable update. I don't collect email addresses, so contact that way would have been out of the question as well.


Conner said:
It sucks to have to go through that sort of ordeal, but in general, it's usually easier for your players if the forums are at the same domain as the game they play.. maybe if you get your forums set up on a different host you could have a DNS alias created to point to the forums from your game's host? (Just a thought of something that might be worth looking into at least.)


The forums can occupy the same domain and be on totally different servers and IPs. I already do this with qsfportal.com - the main site is on one host while I keep the SVN repository on my own server. As long as where the domain is administered lets you add subdomains, you're golden.


And one thing to keep in mind. QSFP is designed with the intent of being more of a "complete" community site. If all you really want is the forums, it's better to just install the QSF core.
24 Aug, 2007, Conner wrote in the 19th comment:
Votes: 0
Samson said:
The forums can occupy the same domain and be on totally different servers and IPs. I already do this with qsfportal.com - the main site is on one host while I keep the SVN repository on my own server. As long as where the domain is administered lets you add subdomains, you're golden.

Isn't that done through DNS pointers/aliasing?

Samson said:
QSFP is designed with the intent of being more of a "complete" community site.

Then it still needs a group event calendar. :tongue: :wink: :lol:
24 Aug, 2007, Guest wrote in the 20th comment:
Votes: 0
No. DNS is just translating names into IPs. Once you've established a name server, that directs queries to the proper locations based on the data you assign. It's all very straightforward. qsfportal.com and www.qsfportal.com point to one IP - the www part is a CNAME alias for the main domain but it doesn't have to be. Then you have svn.qsfportal.com which leads out to a whole other machine and isn't an alias of any sort.

*poke poke* If QSFP still needs that, I'm all in favor of seeing someone write one and submit it to the project as a module. :)

Way I see it is the two biggest mods for it would be a calendar and a photo gallery. With the articles code being a strong 3rd. After that who knows, but I've got thoughts kicking around about writing a simple bug tracker up like Bugzilla only without the steroids.
0.0/25