Free Forums

[Miluette]

Any suggestions?

I know PHPBB is generally kind of terrible (it's the ezboard of self-installed PHP message boards, if I understand correctly), and I don't want to spend hours re-modding script just to have cool things that all forums should have.

I was thinking of setting one up on Invisionfree, but I'll see what you all suggest!

[Xepher]

I've been pretty happy with the SMF boards we're using right here. Links are at the bottom of every page, and to me it has all expected features built in. It is a bit of a pain to really mod though, but I've not had a need to do so either.

[Miluette]

Ohh, so these are free? Neat!
I hope they're easy to make skins for, too. I'm lazy for that but I probably will eventually.

Wow, I had to mod like half that stuff into phpbb back when I had it. XD (With the constant risk of pasting code into the wrong area because someone with very poor English skills writes bad directions on how to mod with their self-made code.)

A friend of mine bought a forum with like all these exact same features.

On a different note, I just tried installing wax poteto oekaki and the installer page came out like this:





Buh?

[Xepher]

Oekaki boards always seem to be some of the worst code (and instructions) I ever come across. Most of them are written by Japanese people, so the instructions and code comments are moonspeak to me (despite 2 years of college japanese) and most are pretty old code that's been passed along and hacked by several people over the years. The "wax poteto oekaki" you're trying is one of those. It used to just be Poteto, which was a spin-off hack from some older oekaki script.

Offhand, I have no idea what's causing your install problems. Is the text there but just invisible maybe? Try highlighting the page, could be grey-on-grey. Make sure you didn't miss any files you were supposed to upload, as I think that's the most likely cause.

[Miluette]

WaxPoteto is actually pretty reliable... I think. Or it was. ShiPainter is the horrible one.
I had an oekaki by the WaxPoteto people installed a few years back that I'd axed.

The text actually isn't there. I viewed the source, and there's nothing. I tried to install it by viewing source and looking at the names applied to the dropdowns and inputs (c_c;;`) but then I was taken to a 404 page. That's terrible. I dunno why that should happen.

It's probably very much their fault, because I tried to install another version oekaki of theirs before this one and the install page wouldn't load because of a php error. %D (Random too, I tried looking where it said the error was in the file and I couldn't see why)

The exact same thing's happening with one mod I just installed on the forum, too, though. It's weird. o__o

[Xepher]

I peeked at your install attempt, and found the problem. It's been brought up elsewhere too. It's the "short open tags" thing, mentioned here. http://xepher.net/forum/index.php?topic=636.0

The easy fix, mentioned at the bottom there, is to just put a directive in a .htaccess file to turn on short open flags. This can break stuff using XML though, but most people won't have that problem... just keep an eye out in case. Odds are there was a similar problem with that mod you mentioned.

Code: (~/public_html/.htaccess) [Select]

php_value short_open_tag 1

If it DOES cause a problem for anything else on your site, you can put the .htaccess file in the oekaki folder, and it would only apply to that, leaving the rest of the folders the way they were.

[Miluette]

Woo! The install works now. <3 The mod still shows up funny, without the text, but I think it's functional (and I know what goes where).

Oh yeah, one more thing. Apparently chat on oekaki takes up a lot of bandwith. I doubt I'll ever have that many people (if any) in there, but if I can fool with it I will for a time.



Ah, I've never seen this before...

[Xepher]

If I'm reading it correctly, that error is your computer having trouble connecting to the server. Most likely it's caused by java security restrictions on YOUR own computer. That would either be through the browser, the Sun JRE, or some security software like Norton Internet Security and such.

[Miluette]

Ah, I thought so. I had to restart Firefox to even get the thing to load. I wonder why.

With the new Firefox, my latest Java upgrade, and the fact that I haven't used Oekaki in forever, I have nooo idea what's going on. I'll fiddle with it tomorrow.

[Miluette]

Ah yeah, it works now. Hee, random Java not working. That's part of why I really don't like Java and avoid using it whenever I can. >_>

For some reason, welcome/activation emails from the forum (or oekaki, like I had a few years ago) don't seem to arrive to people who sign up, so I have to make joining automatic...

[Xepher]

For the email issue, see the thread about Automated Email Rules. The second point of mine has instructions for setting up scripts that don't directly support SMTP authentication. But make sure to read the main/first post so you know what you're getting into.

[Miluette]

Ahh, I see.

I've done a lot of digging around on this kind of forum since the other day, but I still haven't figured out how to make guests unable to post in certain forums but still see them.

[Xepher]

AFAIK, that's pretty much the default. Guests can't post on any forum here, but can read all of them. That may have been a setting or option I changed way back when I first installed things, but at the very least, I know it's there. There's also a really advanced permissions system based upon groups, where you can pretty much allow/deny ANY action for any group or user. You could, for example, allow only certain groups to post polls, while allowing everyone to post regular topics, or only let people vote in polls in a particular board if they're in a special "registered voters" group. Pretty much anything you can think of.

[Miluette]

Hmm... Well, I got two horrible unregistered spambot/spamposter posts within 24 hours of me setting up the forum, and that shouldn't have happened. I messed with the permissions before then, but guests can't see any of the forums I denied them access to. The Spambots headed for the open General Discussion board.

After that I took away guests' ability to post anywhere, but I don't really want that. Just certain boards. (I also changed the name of General Discussion, since that's the only board they posted in. >_>;')

[Xepher]

If you go to "Admin" (it'll ask for your password again, even if you're already logged in reguarly) then look on the left, you'll see a "members" section with a link to "permissions." Click that, and you'll be in "permissions by member group" Click the "settings" thing above the current groups, check "enable advanced by-board permissions", save it, then go to "permissions by board" and switch a board to "Local", then click the board title, which will let you modify the permissions of each group, specifically for that board (by clicking the "modify" link for each group.) And it's THERE that'll let you deny post ability for a specific board to a specific group like guests.