WBB 4.0 beta1 May 30, 2013, 02:27:19 pm I just saw on wedge today, a note about the release of WBB 4.0 beta 1. Looks like it's free to use until November 2013. Posting to remember, that - time permitting -, an installation might be good to have for conversion/import purpose. Depending on your interest, you may also want to see what it's going on with this new major version.
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #1 – May 30, 2013, 02:50:48 pm I'm sure there should be a closing url bbc in there Yeah, it's interesting, I've picked up a copy so that I can review it but I'm not interested in it from a conversion standpoint, I've not use WBB and I just want to see whether there's anything useful or interesting in it. As you may have seen I've been looking at the different forums I have lying around, and WBB is on the list now
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #3 – May 31, 2013, 04:26:39 am QuoteI'm sure there should be a closing url bbc in there Hah, thanks. That's what you get when you don't read.Quote from: Arantor – May 30, 2013, 02:50:48 pmYeah, it's interesting, I've picked up a copy so that I can review it but I'm not interested in it from a conversion standpoint, I've not use WBB and I just want to see whether there's anything useful or interesting in it. As you may have seen I've been looking at the different forums I have lying around, and WBB is on the list now The forums visitations now-series is impressive, a very good and actually useful read for anyone - in particular as forum software developers. I found it interesting and relatively unique as approach, in the sense that the experimentation it presents is (of course) from your perspective as both developer of your own forum software, and momentary user/admin of another system.Too often other presentations on them interwebs are more biased or partial, or driven by "competitive" approaches. Or from the perspectives of a user/admin alone.It does help that they're very well written, too. As an aside, I can't help wondering how much time they require you to spend for the clear, targeted, presentation of all points of interest....I am still to get to reading IPB part 2
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #4 – May 31, 2013, 04:35:18 am Quote from: TE – May 30, 2013, 04:14:21 pmWill work on an importer soon Thank you for considering it! TestMonkey innocently thinks its users deserve better.
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #5 – May 31, 2013, 08:56:28 am Thanks The IPB review took about 5 hours in total to write up, MyBB about 2, vB 3.8 about 3 hours. Yeah, I'm not trying to review them for other customers, I'm trying to figure out why the fanbase likes them the way they do.vB 3.8 for all its faults (ACP and MCP are kinda ugly) is pretty much a one-stop shop for most people. Having reputation, calendar, gallery, social groups etc. in the core - may only be limited functionality but they're enough for most people IMHO - was its greatest strength, while things like the threaded mode is historically interesting but it suffered the same fate as all such implementations: it's just too complex and confusing for most people.MyBB is the wild card from my perspective. It has an absolutely militant hardcore within its fanbase who are quite happy to look down on SMF owners but usually cannot tell you what's better in MyBB than in SMF - and it isn't the ACP. SMF's ACP certainly isn't flawless, but I'd argue it's more logical than what MyBB (and others) do... I don't get this need to have a page that links to just other pages of settings. To me, grouping functionality together is much more logical.IPB, ultimately, is the workhorse. I got the impression that not many people had really seen an IPB install - either as a user or as an admin - while vB has been around long enough that people had at least seen it in some fashion. I can't help but admit that IPB is in a strong position right now just because it is in much the same position vB 3 was a few years ago: you can get all the stuff most people would want, as a suite, and it all just works seamlessly together. IPB suite is more expensive than vB suite if you get everything together, but I think most people won't get everything together, they'll get the parts they want.Interestingly, IP Suite 4 is making a colossal change that's worth bearing in mind. In 3.x, you have IP.Core and IP.Board as the base package, even the forum is architecturally considered to be a module on top of the core, but they're not entirely separate. With IP 4, though, they are actually making IP.Board architecturally independent of the core, so you could purchase IP.Core + IP.Blog and just run a blog (though, frankly, I think that is asking for trouble as a business point of view because IP.Blog doesn't have anything truly huge that WP doesn't do, but the point stands)I'll give the others a test drive soon, but I'm actually hoping to put off XF a bit while they get 1.2 to beta form - the changes coming in XF 1.2 are colossal.
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #6 – June 04, 2013, 07:42:26 pm Quote from: Arantor – May 31, 2013, 08:56:28 amThe IPB review took about 5 hours in total to write up, MyBB about 2, vB 3.8 about 3 hours. Yeah, I'm not trying to review them for other customers, I'm trying to figure out why the fanbase likes them the way they do.Cool, that's a lot of time but less than I would have thought, considering the results.QuoteInterestingly, IP Suite 4 is making a colossal change that's worth bearing in mind. In 3.x, you have IP.Core and IP.Board as the base package, even the forum is architecturally considered to be a module on top of the core, but they're not entirely separate. With IP 4, though, they are actually making IP.Board architecturally independent of the core, so you could purchase IP.Core + IP.Blog and just run a blog (though, frankly, I think that is asking for trouble as a business point of view because IP.Blog doesn't have anything truly huge that WP doesn't do, but the point stands) I always considered this is pretty much the 'big picture' of how a forum with other web applications should be designed and work together. We all know this is the way SM/SMF should've taken for years.Unwillingly, this reminds me we must have wasted in politics and dramas at least 1 1/2-2 years. (in reality much more, depends what you look at).It's not an easy thought for me. But it is how it is, and part of our history. Sooner or later, one way or the other, the project had to be free to take the best path again, to focus on quality first and foremost, for the software path, for our users, for our personal growth - of the community around it. And thereby make the best forum available. Anyway. [/lost in thoughts, sorry]It will be interesting to see how it'll work for them. There are some significant architectural questions in the setup, if you go all the way to separate the core from application-specific code, but since this is proprietary, I'm not that interested; on the other hand, it stands that it will be interesting - for me - to know and brainstorm on the integration facilities for the end user, i.e. treat content as a [blog/article/etc]. QuoteI'll give the others a test drive soon, but I'm actually hoping to put off XF a bit while they get 1.2 to beta form - the changes coming in XF 1.2 are colossal.I haven't kept tabs on them, since like last year or so. They weren't in a good place. This is new to me, it will be worth giving it a test drive, I believe. Thanks.
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #7 – June 05, 2013, 12:06:19 am QuoteI always considered this is pretty much the 'big picture' of how a forum with other web applications should be designed and work together. We all know this is the way SM/SMF should've taken for years.There is resistance to it in our camp, btw. It'd really suck to turn a decent forum into a half-way CMS with the Best Forum Module For A CMS Evar.QuoteThis is new to me, it will be worth giving it a test drive, I believe. Thanks.They're running 1.2 on xenforo.com itself right now so you can try things like the new responsive theme and the new editor out. Some of it is pretty damn slick.
Re: WBB 4.0 beta1 Reply #8 – June 16, 2013, 12:14:05 pm Quote from: Arantor – June 05, 2013, 12:06:19 amQuoteI always considered this is pretty much the 'big picture' of how a forum with other web applications should be designed and work together. We all know this is the way SM/SMF should've taken for years.There is resistance to it in our camp, btw. It'd really suck to turn a decent forum into a half-way CMS with the Best Forum Module For A CMS Evar.I can relate partially, but I don't think that description is entirely suited. The current design has, broadly speaking, the 'core' in /sources (sources without sub-directories), the forum/admin in /controllers and /admin (which at their turn use most of subs, templates, lang). The addons on it should follow a similar structure, and be simply added to. They will use indeed both /sources and the forum /subs, first and foremost. (so the 'core' is executed, and some subs; which may or not be strictly related to forum, even with the features it has right now; they're just there. Thinking at the generic lists, menus, forms, or data validation. Conceptually they're 'core'-side. I don't intend to separate further for Elk 1.0, but they're clearly different than calendar or boards subs.)'core' != CMS. And, a forum is far more complex than a blog, we can already make a forum into a blog but not the other way around. Complexity or performance wise, some areas of forum are most challenging. I expect they're the basis, and the addons are added around them.The issue remains that it's a goal to be easy to reuse content, to mold it into the format required by other applications, without cruft and performance loss. That's probably where a core used by the forum reminds of a CMS. I think it shouldn't "become" a CMS, though, but the exact limits of the core side are an open question for the future.
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