Seems pretty unlikely since I don't think he's a member here yet, and as KaVir pointed out earlier, none of us has the legal right to repost someone else's post to another forum… :wink:

I would have thought you'd suggest that they steal it! *kof* *snicker* *splurgh*

I worked on the TMC forum code, fixed a few bugs and added a couple features for Icculus a few months back. It's a home grown Perl application. It's rather simple and straightforward. I myself prefer simple. I think stars, smilies, counts, karma, buttons and graphics are just plain distracting and unneccesary. Anyway you can't please everyone, and it's folly to try to please me. I can't even please me. I uploaded some forum code here to the web category and I'm not at all pleased by it. I'm working on rewrite. ;-)

I've written reviews for most of the forum software available before. I'm a total forum addict, and a total derailer, too, if you haven't figured that out yet. I can jump posts straight off their tracks and lead them into forests.

QSFs look is very remenent of older boards, too. The style is consideribly diferent than most other boards. Not really sure how to explain it. The word "flat" comes to mind for some reason, its because of the way the bars are. very different from phpbb or yabb or SMF which are almost identical in GUI. Hell, there are dozens of forum scripts with BB in the name that all seem identical in interface.

QSF, I must say, loads very fast and from what I've seen of it is much easier to modify/skin than other forums. Phpbb is very hard to modify without messing up the appearance in the more complicated modules and having to rescript them. I think QSF is more for intergration than phpbb. Phpbb does not intergrate into a site very well. Its usually a stand alone forum. Sorry if I seem overbearing on this subject, but I'm a seriously considering starting a free forum hosting company pretty soon, one without ads or at least with consideribly less. Might setup ads only until I break even for the month, then shut them off. Also considering trying to get sponsors and putting ads only on the main site for big websites and doing the thing where keywords for sponsors show up highlighted with links to the site. I figure that's the better than posts that are secretly ads by the system and adsense on the site like most hosts.

i don't think you should judge software based on its default skin.

Its not the exact functions I dislike. Main problem with it is the inability to see all the forums at once. I don't like that drop down menu.

It's my opinion that the terms "trolls and flamers" are 95% of the time code words for "I'm a net pussy and just can't stand it when someone posts something I disagree with". The worst part of TMC is the constant sniveling complainers. I'd trade each one of them for 10 Lockes. ;-)

I'd have to agree, that really seems a poor way to judge a forum software.



Again, I see this as a matter of personal preference. I far prefer the more standard forum layout as well, but it is only a personal preference. I'm not the admin for TMC so it's really not my decision.

Done deal, you can have all the Lockes that you can eat, I won't stand in your way at all. :wink:

Well, in this case I was in fact referring to the other 5% like Locke, and they are in fact unusually common on TMC. Disagreement isn't the issue. It's not actually that hard to identify a genuine forum troll.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "flat" but I guess you mean the blocky utility buttons usually created with fancy graphics? The reason behind those was for functionality. Not looks. If you dig into the templates and CSS you'll find that those buttons are constructed in such a way that they are all translatable by language. So you don't end up with a board whose control buttons are all in English when your users all speak Italian. It was a very clever way to handle the problem when Geoff came up with it. Otherwise you'd have to do like a lot of other forums that make the effort and get someone with graphic talent to create buttons in each language you support.

QSF is definitely much easier to skin and modify than any other forum package I've seen. It's part of why I decided to help develop it after the parent Mercuryboard stopped development. However, QSF was never actually intended for integration the way we've done here. It did take a minor amount of code adjustment to make it possible. Along with the creation of a few modlets to create the sidebar boxes on the homepage. But I have to assume that the adjustments made were nothing compared to the hackjob that would be needed in phpbb.

As Samson stated the buttons are made for a multi-language board. However, we at MB don't believe in multi-language mostly because we don't know other languages (aside from the programming kind.) So, in that case, we could move buttons to more 3D graphic like buttons, except none of us really have this magical artistic ability one hears so much about.

Ya… there is no site integration here. This site is pretty much all QSF. We've written a lot of custom code for it, and modified it slightly, but I wouldn't call it integration. More like an extention of the QS Forums.


QSF is the first Forum software I've ever worked with at the code/script level and I would definitely not call it simple. I've written a couple forums in C/C++ with a text based interface and those where simple! This is a whole new beast :P

Download IPB and tell me QSF is not simple. :tongue:

I hate IPB, that wasn't an endorsement. But it is complex scripting. Vbulletin is also complex, but only on the backend, frontend GUI is really simple.

Its not just buttons, but I think that's why the rest of the forum is done that way, to fit the buttons. I might download SQF and see if its possible to build a more graphic intense skin just for fun.

Compared to bloat bags like IPB and vB, sure, it's simple. But I like simple. I also like readable, flexible, logical, and efficient. And free. Of all of the forum codes I've had the opportunity to try, QSF ( and Mercuryboard before it ) are by far the cleanest code you're ever going to find.

And there are already a number of more graphically intensive skins if that's what you want from it. If you're looking for something to experiment with, install the 1.3.1 release and then grab the Black Gold, and Terminal Frost skins for an example of what can be done with enough effort and graphical talent.