First, since I come to this subforum only to complain, I would like to mention that overall I like this forum :)

So, once this done time for complains/questions. My question is, are the bugs being fixed? I mean like basic ones, like reply and quoting someone. It's been years now.. Has no one reported these bugs and no one knows these exist? Or these are known but there are no plans for fixes?

I'm talking about simple and basic things, easy to replicate, it's hard (yet possible) to think no one before me reported these.

Like this one: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/672155-flow-in-an-asymmetric-game/#entry5258094 (it's from a Selective Quote option when the original poster has ENTERs between lines (these multiply)). And more.

I find it surprising that the forum is so shabby from the technical point of view. Like compare http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php and their AWESOME quoting system (not to mention lack of bugs). Can't we really do anything to improve it and to bring the forum software up to some minimal standards? It's been years already, it's not some temporary situation cause by recent changes... And I'm not talking about any fancy stuff but really basic ones.

Or, if that's not possible, maybe throw out the current software and install some premade one?

Nexusmods forum also uses IP.Board and I never had an issue posting there : /

frob is correct: a lot of the issues are with the underlying software and unfortunately seem to fall in to a low priority for Invision.

We also have an extremely limited amount of developer time available and can't really afford to pay for additional help.


I can't promise if or when anything will come of it, but I've actually started a project in my spare time to rewrite the whole thing based on a lower level framework rather than a prepackaged forum software so that we can receive updates to basic functionality (the supposed advantage of Invision) but have a properly customised site that meets or needs and can actually be tweaked as we see fit.

As it is, we're currently stuck with a post editor that's horribly unsuitable and buggy, some other known but relatively minor bugs, and a LOT of usability issues. I generally think that our community is amazing, but the site software is pretty poor.

Unfortunately doing a full rewrite in 20-60 minutes roughly 5 days per week (sometimes less) is VERY slow going, and even then there's no guarantee the site's owners will be on board with it.


In the meantime, please do keep reporting problems and we'll pass on everything to Invision (they do fix some of it eventually) and fix what we can.


Thanks for your patience, and sorry for all of the issues.

frob is correct: a lot of the issues are with the underlying software and unfortunately seem to fall in to a low priority for Invision.
We also have an extremely limited amount of developer time available and can't really afford to pay for additional help.
I can't promise if or when anything will come of it, but I've actually started a project in my spare time to rewrite the whole thing based on a lower level framework rather than a prepackaged forum software so that we can receive updates to basic functionality (the supposed advantage of Invision) but have a properly customised site that meets or needs and can actually be tweaked as we see fit.
As it is, we're currently stuck with a post editor that's horribly unsuitable and buggy, some other known but relatively minor bugs, and a LOT of usability issues. I generally think that our community is amazing, but the site software is pretty poor.
Unfortunately doing a full rewrite in 20-60 minutes roughly 5 days per week (sometimes less) is VERY slow going, and even then there's no guarantee the site's owners will be on board with it.
In the meantime, please do keep reporting problems and we'll pass on everything to Invision (they do fix some of it eventually) and fix what we can.
Thanks for your patience, and sorry for all of the issues.

If you can get the site owners on board 100%, I'd love to help. Web development of big systems and sites is my bread and butter and I'm sure I could help out if you're interested...

I'll need at least a basic working proof of concept first, but I'll definitely keep that in mind, thanks.

If the owners are on board with it I actually think going open source so the community can contribute fixes and improvements might be a good idea; we often get offers of help, but frequently haven't been able to take advantage because of the current setup.

This is what the current version is like:
https://community.invisionpower.com/

Ew, just Ew. And I still can't turn the mobile theme off :(

So... it's not a hobby made software? It's actually a professional grade software? And it has these basic bugs? Really, in such case I find the whole Invision company unreliable and untrustworthy, they could not even deliever up to par with the free software...

Questions:

- how strongly is the current forum integrated with the rest of the site (dev journals, etc)? Is it reasonably feasible to replace the forum software with some other one?

- what are the reasons of not using existing free software (like phpBB, machines forum, etc)? Couldn't these handle the traffic volume? Because "paid one being better & more polished & bug free" has proven incorrect.

Moving to radically different site setups also can be very jarring to a community.. people get used to a certain look and feel I guess.

Yes, very true. The white background, blue and the shade of the blue (don't dare to change the shade of the blue, we are used to it and we will riot if you do :D) and the post button must be black/dark greyish and the font size (very important!) and the font type/family. Also, we want to still have this blue star next to topics you posted on. All these can be done via trivial custom theme :)

People are used to the look & feel and colours, not to the technicalities inside (especially if these technicalities are broken).

how strongly is the current forum integrated with the rest of the site (dev journals, etc)? Is it reasonably feasible to replace the forum software with some other one?

The whole thing is Invision software with some customisations added here and there, and it's one big tangle of tight integration. If you were starting from scratch it would be possible (not necessarily easy) to pick and choose components whilst interoperating with other software, but with a big active site it would be a lot of work to switch.

Is it reasonably feasible to replace the forum software with some other one?

It would be a lot of work that we have minimal resources to carry out, and would also take substantial effort to minimise breaking of existing content. When upgrading from the previous custom software to Invision it took days (during which the site had to be completely offline) to migrate the database and do some minor translation of the format, and we still ended up with posts older than that difficult to read and unable to properly be edited. Given how integrated the whole Invision package is it would also probably be best to either move the whole site to a new platform or none of it rather than just parts.

what are the reasons of not using existing free software (like phpBB, machines forum, etc)?

Mike will know more about this, but I know when we initially moved to Invision it seemed like a very good match for our needs, and I believe the availability of proper support also played a role.

Obviously it hasn't turned out as suitable as it originally seemed, but at this point it will take major work to move away from it.

You can probably tell that I'm definitely in favour of making the effort to move away from Invision if and when we're able to do so, but it's not my decision to make, and with such a large site it's not a decision to be made lightly -- if we do put in the effort but don't move to the correct platform it would very likely mean the site going under.