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Forum software upgrade?
Post 26 Jan 2021, 11:00 • #1 
Sport
Joined: 10/30/18
Posts: 75
Location: Gateway to Death Valley
Any talk of upgrading the software specifically the new posts / editing?

It's kind of hard to use, for me anyway, i.e. I had to Google how to embed text in a URL.

All other forums I'm on make it much easier to compose a post, dialog boxes pop up, file types are auto recognized (like YouTube), etc.

Heck a "like" button would be useful.

I wouldn't be surprised that some maybe many members here don't post because it's tedious especially on a mobile device.


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Post 26 Jan 2021, 18:49 • #2 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Staff discussions about software changes? To be blunt, no. I realize this format is not ideal for mobile devices. The forum software was designed for a desktop computer or laptop.

The forum was originally established on the ezBoard platform in the early 2000s. As I understand, we were a spinoff from the original Clark's board. In May 2005 ezBoard was hacked and the glass forum was wiped out. Flytackle restarted the forum in June 2005. I took over as the site owner in 2007. ezBoard turned into Yuku and the operating costs kept increasing. In late 2011 we moved the forum to our own server space. Our yearly costs dropped over tenfold and the system reliability and stability improved considerably.

Our format reflects our origin running on bulletin board software. We use phpBB ver. 3.0.14 open source software. The posts and images live in MYSQL data bases. There are roughly 1/3 of a million posts made by 7200+ forum members. Our server space also hosts the Ultralight Flyfishing forum running the same software. We chose phpBB software mainly because a functional migration path from Yuku existed. Admin had the skill the to perform the data base migrations. For what it is worth, our data base could not be transferred to Twitter or Facebook or similar social media platform.

Other bulletin board forum software exists, in particular vBulletin. To use it, we would have to migrate to a new software platform. vBulletin would give us improved posting/editing tools. I'm not sure how much improvement we would see on mobile devices. I will look into it. However, I don't have the database skills to do the migration.

I am not opposed to improving the site. We are an internet antique. We have followed this basic style and format for nearly a decade. In the interim, most forum members have switched to site access via mobile devices. If you have specific ideas or skills to help improve our site, please let me know, either through a PM or a post to this thread.


Tom


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Post 14 Feb 2021, 12:44 • #3 
Emeritus
Joined: 06/10/05
Posts: 612
Location: US-MI
I like it the way it is, but I am old school. I still use a desktop computer to access the site and use my phone to make phone calls.


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Post 14 Feb 2021, 14:38 • #4 
Guide
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 159
Location: US-Eastern KY
I've got to agree with Ribs. I operate the same way.


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Post 15 Feb 2021, 19:17 • #5 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/09/06
Posts: 2517
Location: US
ribs1 wrote:
I like it the way it is, but I am old school. I still use a desktop computer to access the site and use my phone to make phone calls.


Yes, me too. Good to see I am not alone in that sentiment.


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Post 15 Feb 2021, 19:31 • #6 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/16/05
Posts: 2537
Location: Georgia
I’m usually on a tablet, but no problems as is.


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Post 16 Feb 2021, 15:29 • #7 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/12/16
Posts: 4093
Location: USA-CO
I'm satisfied with things as they are. I too mostly work with a computer, but my iPhone seems to handle the software just fine.


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Post 16 Feb 2021, 16:24 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 06/19/14
Posts: 126
Location: Columbia, MO
Ditto. I am old fashion, too; I normally use a laptop.
steve


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Post 16 Feb 2021, 16:54 • #9 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/15/10
Posts: 589
Location: Elizabethtown & Germania, PA
I don't even know how one could read the forum on a phone. It's awfully tiny and if you "embiggen" it then you must scroll back and forth. Or am I missing something? I'm a bit of a Luddite.


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Post 16 Feb 2021, 18:49 • #10 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
It all depends on the phone*. My smart phone is old enough to be in third grade, so I have a very difficult time reading the forum with it. Posting from my phone is nearly impossible. Newer smart phones do a much better job due to the better displays and graphics processing.

My tablet shows the forum just fine. The tablet display is much larger and shows a more detailed image. I can post from it, but only easy stuff.

For image manipulation or posts with formatting, the desktop computer is easiest for me.


Tom

* Your eyesight may vary. I need reading glasses for all of this.


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