Very true!

I'd like to restart my cooking forum or maybe even make it a blog. Either way I'd like to do it just keep everything I've posted somewhere accessible.

@Oldiesmann - I forgot all about your Archie forum until now. LOL

Quote from: Oldiesmann on Mar 19, 2025, 12:39 AMstarting a forum is so hard these days in the world of short attention spans and social media.

Yes I 100% agree with that

It's always been standard practice to not add new features in "point" releases (releases made after the initial "final" release). That's not a new thing at all. Adding new features in between major releases also creates a ton of confusion and makes maintaining the code harder (since you then have to turn around and add that same new feature to the development branch, ensuring it works the same in both versions and handling any necessary data upgrades). I think there have been some exceptions in the past, but that's generally how it's always been.

I'm still trying to keep my Archie forum alive at this point. It did really well, even after I had to start over due to a hard drive crash (the RAID array failed on the physical server that my VPS was on; I didn't have any backups because my hosting plan was supposed to include nightly backups; host didn't have any backups because they said the feature somehow didn't get enabled on my account - at that point I found a new host), but has all but died now because I got busy with life and didn't have a chance to keep up with it. I've got more time now and want to try to keep it going, so we'll see what happens there. I've made a few posts recently, upgraded all the mods and switched galleries (originally had Arantor's Levertine Gallery, but switched to SMF Gallery Pro since LevGal isn't developed anymore and was broken due to MySQL strict mode), so hopefully I can revive interest in it.

Every so often I get the urge to try starting a new forum, but I never know where to start and starting a forum is so hard these days in the world of short attention spans and social media.

The main thing is use what you like and what feels good for you and your needs.

@Oldiesmann a project I had was a fan site for an indie band; it never really took off, but my main site is also one, but not for a band or musician. It's a sports team, but I am considering bringing past failed projects to SMF (now the more I am getting used to TinyPortal).

I posted recently on a webmasters forum about how I am using SMF, and I regret it.

I don't think it's mediocre; the learning curve is a lot easier than most alternatives, and it's a shame that several people mentioned having moved to using Discourse. TinyPortal does have a learning curve, as I think you need to know how to code, or at least understand much of it to make things work, but as a portal, it's powerful. Pushing it beyond that, it does make a nice CMS and by far elevates SMF.

WordPress was my intended aim for the site, but rjen and the TinyPortal team have won me over. I really wish I could support the project more, including SMF. I am considering the charter option with SMF, and I wish TP had a similar option.

Quote from: Oldiesmann on Mar 18, 2025, 12:09 AMThere are still a bunch of open issues for 2.1 on GitHub but I have no idea if anything else is planned for 2.1.5 or not. I wish I knew what was taking so long at this point.

Someone said on the SMF forum that there wouldn't be any new features, just fixes. I assume if this is right the focus is on SMF 3.0 but there is room for improvements between that and now.

So far, I haven't encountered any bugs with SMF 2.1.4 but I am still settings things up at this stage.

I do like how nonbloated SMF 2.1 is and how quickly pages load.

I got started with SMF through YaBB SE, which I discovered after visiting the website for a band whose CD I had just purchased. I liked YaBB SE because it was different - it had more fun bbcode options than phpBB and it wasn't something that everyone else was using (at the time there were only a handful of forum systems out there - phpBB was the big one of course, then YaBB SE and IPB. On the premium side of things there was vBulletin and UBB/UBB.Threads but vB was the only popular one). I eventually set up a forum on boardnation so I could play around with YaBB SE. Eventually I decided to set up my own site because of the limitations of boardnation (free hosted forum - limits as to what modifications you could install and such), so I set up a fan site for a band I liked (not the same one that introduced me to YaBB SE). I followed the development of YaBB SE and was one of the ones who migrated to SMF when it became available. I've stuck with SMF all this time because I like the price, the community and the features.

There are still a bunch of open issues for 2.1 on GitHub but I have no idea if anything else is planned for 2.1.5 or not. I wish I knew what was taking so long at this point.

Quote from: Oldiesmann on Mar 12, 2025, 09:31 PMThe closest I can find is the Social Profile mod from SMFPacks.com, but it's not free.

Thanks, I did see this. There are a few others on the SMF mod site, but none are marked for 2.1.4 - depending on how my site does, I might take a closer look this one.

I do use the menu mod from SMFPacks.