New DDF Forums

[YitzyS]

We have the manual system for that now. It should still work..

For most members. There are some who will be really shortchanged.

TIL that there's a guy on DDf with nearly 10,000 posts who I've never known existed.

@jack6941. I don't follow the Amazon board and literally had no idea he existed.

[srap]

Summary of my thoughts:

1. "If it ain't broke, why fix it"  (agree with Dan).  Save your energy for broken items and practical needs.

2.  MOST IMPORTANT:  we would lose the homogeneous, insular, family like benefit of being with "like" (yet definitely diversified) lantzmen!
Even though DDMS and DDF are both open to all, CMIIW, DDF seems to be an automatic filter for a group of like cultured members, whereas DDMS includes a much more open membership.  I get a different feeling when I read the names of the posters on DDMS, even though that is not necessarily a raya (as our beloved @cm knows).  This for me is a deal breaker.  Gone would be my safe haven, infiltrated by clueless outsiders.

3.  I get the feeling that combining the two platforms boils down to the main benefit of enhancing the sales of deals, but at the expense of taking away the beauty of #2 above

4.  Because I see DDMS as a much more public arena, I enjoy the anonymity offered which would now be taken away with a joint DDMS/DDF platform. (+1 @SomethingFishy)

[yelped]

I kind of agree with @Something Fishy. An example of a modern forum that has new, useful features is https://forum.leasehackr.com/.

Check it out.

[Suave]

I kind of agree with @Something Fishy. An example of a modern forum that has new, useful features is https://forum.leasehackr.com/.

Check it out.

They are using Discourse which is a completely different experience (plus it's pricey: https://www.discourse.org/pricing)

[Euclid]

They are using Discourse which is a completely different experience (plus it's pricey: https://www.discourse.org/pricing)

Isn't it open source?

[Lurker]

I like the feature on the current forum that allow me to see user info next to each post. I find that knowing how long someone's been a member, plus things like posts/likes/HT definitely changes how I view the content of the post. A lot of forums I've looked at either don't have those features, or make them harder to access/view.

[whYME]

Some more pros to moving to a WP based forums:

1. Cleaning up things that 99% of people don't use, just look at all this:



I think things like that scare off many new posters. Hyperlinking, italics, bold, should all work the same as microsoft word or gmail, no need to have some buttons like on SMF for it...

2. Integrate with DDMS would be huge, it would give a single website experience which would easily integrate great content from what is currently 2 sites.

3. Based on point 2, the deals section would be able to be optimized to get more views, have a real voting system, easier to scan for good deals, and not clog up the unread messages on DDF, as it'll be more sortable.

4. With it being easier to access from DDMS/a more user friendly format, that means more users joining, more information being added to wikis, more trip reports, yes more noobs initially, but I think people can realize with time noobs become very helpful users as well.

5. Integrating with comments on DDMS for usernames, so you can know/recognize who you are talking to on a DDMS post.

It's a long road, and I think @Suave can design an awesome WP forums that takes the best of what DDF SMF has to offer and simplify/add to it on WP.

I think the most helpful comments here would be what reasons people have for not or for moving, and what is their wish list for new features as well as features they do not want to change, i.e. we need wikis, we need all the image codes from BBCode to be integrated, etc.

I don't think any of these are arguments for or against SMF. These are features/changes you want. Once you decide exactly what you want then there's essentially a technical & cost question of if it makes more sense to make that work within the current system or start over from scratch with something else.

[Mikes@Micro]

Isn't it open source?

Haha

I like the feature on the current forum that allow me to see user info next to each post. I find that knowing how long someone's been a member, plus things like posts/likes/HT definitely changes how I view the content of the post. A lot of forums I've looked at either don't have those features, or make them harder to access/view.

+1 Love this too.
 Big advantage that it's on the side for a quick glance wheras all the other forums referenced above have it above each post which I find incredibly distracting

[Eb228]

I like the feature on the current forum that allow me to see user info next to each post. I find that knowing how long someone's been a member, plus things like posts/likes/HT definitely changes how I view the content of the post. A lot of forums I've looked at either don't have those features, or make them harder to access/view.

AKA racial profiling

[yeshivabucher]

AKA racial newbie profiling

FTFY

[mochjas]

So certain members ran out of different user names, and now instead of creating a new user name, we want to create a new forum??

[ushdadude]

i say change only if it makes adding pictures to posts easier

[yuneeq]

Definitely believe this forum should be moved, recently have been using a diff forum (nothing to with deals) and it leaves DDF in the dust feature wise.

Benefits of moving were previously mentioned by others, but I would like to second:

-Mobile formatted site (worth it for this alone)
-Image uploading
-Save drafts, better if it's autosave
-Better quoting
-Bookmark posts
-Link previews

[Dan]

Definitely believe this forum should be moved, recently have been using a diff forum (nothing to with deals) and it leaves DDF in the dust feature wise.

Benefits of moving were previously mentioned by others, but I would like to second:

-Mobile formatted site (worth it for this alone)
-Image uploading
-Save drafts, better if it's autosave
-Better quoting
-Bookmark posts
-Link previews

Link?

[moish]

I agree with SF on this one. However, I do wish there was a way to bookmark posts.

[ExGingi]

Link?

This is DDF where we don't spoonfeed. 

[Mikes@Micro]

I agree with SF on this one. However, I do wish there was a way to bookmark posts.

You can like it. Practice with that little button below

[moish]

You can like it. Practice with that little button below

How about if I don't like it but would like to find it easily in the future?

[Hjay]

I kind of agree with @Something Fishy. An example of a modern forum that has new, useful features is https://forum.leasehackr.com/.

Check it out.

Funny you give leasehackr as an example of a good forum. The first thing that came to my mind when I opened this thread was that I hope it doesn’t become like that. I don’t spend nearly as much time there but I feel like it’s very hard to find the specific info I’m looking for. On DDF the main topics are split well & its very easy to see all thread titles.

[S209]

Stay. For most of @Something Fishy reasons.