Which Forum Software ?

Community TechTalk
21

Ref: http://www.webwizguide.com/bbs/default.asp

I tried their forums, at this time, there are 7 users (incl. guests). The forum loads about 10 seconds … On the bottom of the page states 1.xxx seconds to generate the page , whoopy. How long does it take their server to SEND the page? lol. No thanks. Although it may be a server issue .. I should try the software on these servers …

22

[QUOTE=Shannara]
Ref: http://www.webwizguide.com/bbs/default.asp
I tried their forums, at this time, there are 7 users (incl. guests). The forum loads about 10 seconds … On the bottom of the page states 1.xxx seconds to generate the page , whoopy. How long does it take their server to SEND the page? lol. No thanks.
[/QUOTE]

I would say that the issue is the bandwidth coming to your computer… WWG is one of the fastest loading forums out there, if not the fastest…

[QUOTE=Shannara]
Although it may be a server issue ..
I should try the software on these servers …

[/QUOTE]

BTW… WWG “is” hosted on Jodohost’s servers

23

Load times are very marginally under 2 secs for me here too, though I don’t think you it’s a bandwidth issue. I always assumed the page generated message was how long it actually took for the server to generate the page rather than for the clien to actually download the final page.

24

Hello,
I have now read about Snitz, WWF and Simple Machines.
Which is best if I
1 just want to start out by creating one or two forum topics and
2. I have low users

WWF looks cool, but that big graphic for the free version .. maybe I would have to pay.

SM looks nice

Snitz does not directly offer attachments, but they seem great too.

Suggestions!?

Thanks

25

[QUOTE=HunterThompson]
WWF looks cool, but that big graphic for the free version .. maybe I would have to pay.

[/QUOTE]

As far as I know WWF doesn’t need the graphic shown, its optional. The text link at the bottom of the page is mandatory for the free version.

26

jocald is right you can show the image or a text link at the bottom

there is a good support community on the Web Wiz site, from the admin ad moderators and also other members,

the cost is not much for what you get, alot of time has gone into that product and also all the help you get (note no offical support) - unless email suport at ?25 a year

27

OK… thanks guys.
But how does WWF stack up against Simple Machines and Snitz?

My issues are

  1. I want to KISS. I have low users and only need 2 to 3 forums to start.
  2. I would like it to look nice. I like the cool graphical buttons, but I don’t want it to add a lot of download time. I guess it should not be too slow.
  3. I would like to still be able to add in my advertisers on the right or left side of the forums. (if possible)
28

you can change the images to smaller sized , file sizes if you wish, by skinning..

also you have a header and footer include files that allow you to add content around the forum software , allowing you to add advertising

29

Also, would it be better to set up WWF on mySql or Access?

30

Does WWF now support MySQL? It only used to support MS SQL and Access. If it does work with MySQL you’ll find it faster and more scaleable than Access and you’ll find MSSQL best of all.

31

sorry.. I meant SQL Server.

32

I use WWF forums in my Soop Portal website (it’s built into Soop) and I think it’s great.

I’ve lately been experimenting with a few different forum apps just to get a feel for them.

I think Community Server is coming along very nicely.

33

[QUOTE=Padwah]
Does WWF now support MySQL? It only used to support MS SQL and Access. If it does work with MySQL you’ll find it faster and more scaleable than Access and you’ll find MSSQL best of all.
[/QUOTE]

So.. between SQL Server and Access…
Am I better off just starting with SQL to begin with?
Or if I used Access could I migrate my db over later? (I guess this would be painful.)

Thanks :]

34

You can easily migrate from Access to MSSQL with the WWF forums but if you have the ability to go straight for MSSQL then I would as it will save you trouble in the long run. Whilst Access is adequate for small forums when you start getting a large number of concurrent connections you’ll start hitting some problems with major slow down and then you have the hassle of migrating your forums from Access to MSSQL.

As a side note I’m currently working on my own ASP based forums that work on Access, MSSQL and MySQL. It doesn’t look like much yet but you can check it out here it’s XHTML compliant and fully customisable through CSS, also compliant. Will probably start proper testing in a week once the admin panel is finished :slight_smile:

Forgot to say that it looks pants at the moment as I haven’t bothered styling it up :smiley:

35

[QUOTE=Padwah]
You can easily migrate from Access to MSSQL with the WWF forums but if you have the ability to go straight for MSSQL then I would as it will save you trouble in the long run. Whilst Access is adequate for small forums when you start getting a large number of concurrent connections you’ll start hitting some problems with major slow down and then you have the hassle of migrating your forums from Access to MSSQL.

As a side note I’m currently working on my own ASP based forums that work on Access, MSSQL and MySQL. It doesn’t look like much yet but you can check it out here it’s XHTML compliant and fully customisable through CSS, also compliant. Will probably start proper testing in a week once the admin panel is finished :slight_smile:

Forgot to say that it looks pants at the moment as I haven’t bothered styling it up :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

Cool color scheme! I like it