Improved Forum Membership Categories.

[Stellaris]

I have recently been promoted from Zinc Member to Copper Member, presumably because I have now put up 100 posts.  However progression based on volume doesn't reward quality posting.  I also notice that these member categories jump around the periodic table pretty much at random. Going from Zinc to Copper is backwards in terms of atomic number, just for example.  I get the copper/silver/gold progression, but bronze is an alloy, what's it doing in there?  And who made plutonium the top category?  That stuff is toxic waste so toxic that it makes all other toxic waste look like orange juice.  And why do we only use metals?  Don't the halogens count?  The noble gases?

I think we should make full use of the periodic table for membership categories, and categories should be assigned by the quality of your postings, not the quantity.  I thus propose...

The Hydrogen member - for starting the most inflammatory threads
The Helium member - for the most bubble headed comments.
The Lithium member - for members who do the most to soothe your bipolar disorder
The Berylium member - for the most lightweight, yet toxic.
The Boron member - for the most boring (Bore-on!  Get it?  Snarf!)
The Carbon member - for the dirtiest.
The Nitrogen member - for those whose posts are everywhere but nobody notices.
The Oxygen member - for those who breathe life into the conversation
The Fluorine member - for the most corrosive.
The Neon member - for those who add retro flair (over 55s only)

I will let the general public continue with the elements in order.  However I do have to jump down to

The Radon member - for the person you'd least like to have in your basement for any length of time.

+1 (valence)

Paul

[Devil 505]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEZVZ-2k6Po

[Karnak]

The top category is not "Plutonium," it is "Radioactive."

[Stellaris]

My point exactly.  Radioactive isn't even an element, it's a property.  How does this make sense?

Sodium member - give everyone high blood pressure.
Magnesium member - the member who flares hot and burns brightly.
Aluminum member - flexible and versatile.
Silicon member - for those who constantly geek out over their hardware
Phosphorus member - ignites spontaneously
Sulfur member - I'll only say they need to change their diet.
Chlorine member - crappy pilots, but good at swimming pool maintenance.

[RedBull1]

You guys must be fun at parties..

[Babalonian]

You guys must be fun at parties..

    

[MrKrabs]

How about get a decent forum and get off this free forum hosting garbage first...

[Skuzzy]

How about get a decent forum and get off this free forum hosting garbage first...

Well. maybe because this "free forum" has the features we need to make it easy to do what we want for our customers.  I left the word "hosting" off as we (HTC) do host it.  I left the word "garbage" out, as it is irrelevant.

We used to have vBulletin, but it lacked the features we needed to do what we needed to do.  It still does.  SMF is not perfect, but none of them are.  They all have their own limitations and warts.

Tell me what forum software you think is so much better and I will be happy to look into it.

[Stellaris]

How about get a decent forum and get off this free forum hosting garbage first...

On careful consideration, definitely a helium comment.

[Skuzzy]

Oh, Stellaris, there is a certain amount of tongue and cheek in the choices for the posting levels.  They are not supposed to hold muster against any logical measure.

[MrKrabs]

"Not having a feature" by default or within close reach via plugins is a bit hard to believe with "vBulletin" but not entirely impossible. Compared to "free" forum software, vBulletin can be more flexiable, but that being said, you really are just paying for the brand name and a few more security options when it comes to the license.

SMF, "if you upgrade to v2.02", can be a nice streamlined board. There are plenty of options for security and to automatically whack spam-bots and live-spammers, but can lack user-side options. Can be quite flexible, but has a lack of "easy of use"

Personally I love MyBB. MyBB, being almost as flexible as "vBulletin", can be modified to nearly no end. MyBB has fairly good security and there are many more quality plugins out there for MyBB than SMF. But what I enjoy most is the Administrative panel, not as blocky as SMF and everything and anything can be right there! Even able to put personal administrative shortcuts to help you along.

More importantly, what feature(s) where you speaking of?

SMF 2.0.2 Demo:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=126&name=SMF

MyBB 1.6.8 Demo:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=118

[Skuzzy]

We are waiting for SMF 2.x to settle down and to see if all the plugins we use are going to be made available.  Switching our board to anything is going to be painful.

MyBB lacks some specific features we need for the user permission system.  SMF was the only board software we reviewed that allowed us to do everything we needed, right out of the box.

What makes it so bad compared to any other free solution?  You obviously have a strong feeling about it or you would not have called it "garbage".

SMF does a pretty good job of staying on top of the security issues.  I cannot complain about that.  Not sure what you are on about or why you hate SMF so much, and then recommend them.  You do realize our board is SMF?

[MrKrabs]

MyBB lacks some specific features we need for the user permission system.  SMF was the only board software we reviewed that allowed us to do everything we needed, right out of the box.

I'd love to know what features. MyBB's options for user-groups are vast, but its obviously something very specific.

SMF does a pretty good job of staying on top of the security issues.  I cannot complain about that.  Not sure what you are on about or why you hate SMF so much, and then recommend them.  You do realize our board is SMF?

It would have felt unfair to not talk about the 2.x SMF upgrade over the current 1.1.16. Especially if I'm going to talk about another CMS all together.

And then this is what sparked some of it.

I thought at first you were at the mercy of the "free forum hosting" but when it was merely displaying who created the current theme.

Many "free forum hosts" screw you out of the ability to access your database, whether it is to create a back-up, modify, or to merely take with you as you as you upgrade to a full-hosting plan or to your own server. I have seen it far too many times where the "owner" loses out on many options and realizes how limited a free-host is, and since they do not have a c-panel to use, they're stuck. This, pisses me off to no end...

But if you have a full-version of SMF I have to apologize in that regard...

And in a nutshell, the feeling of intangibility of SMF leaves me feeling that I'm missing out on something, especially when I'm trying to provide something for my users.

[Skuzzy]

We have always hosted and managed our forums.  Yes, the tag at the bottom has to do with who created the default theme we use.  However, we did change it quite a bit in order to meet our needs.

The only real issue I have with SMF is their search function.  It sucks.

But then again,keeping up real time search in a forum with over four million posts is a pain.  No one does that really well, but SMF takes it to new lows.

[Stellaris]

Hmmm, I was going for a tongue-in-cheek riff on the tongue-in-cheek posting level categories, but I think maybe I strayed too far on the obscure side of subtle.  Somehow we're into a real discussion of the forum software.  How did that happen?

Which I suppose self-nominates me for the Thulium membership.  (And if you don't get that reference, it's because Thulium is so obscure)