Non-english forums

So more generally you want the ability to filter "your recently updated threads" by subforum.

Wouldn't it be better at all to use exisitng forum software? Such softwares has a lots of different settings for users and mods.
And it isn't so hard anymore to implement such things like "@playername"

I like the small-scale version of this forum. No signatures (and other crap), you can get 10 posts on your screen instead of two...

Yeah small forums are fine and I like it as it is.
It was more like, when noone has time or so to add this function there are plenty of ready forums. :)

I like that our forum is so non-standard that bots don't even know how to spam it. I suppose ZKL based registration helps there too.

Yeah, but a subscribe entry for each forum section would be great. :-)

Sorry to interrupt the disinformation thread, but existing forum software can be configured to remove user registration (ie, handled externally) and extended to provide what is specific to this forum.

Preferring to develop a small in-house solution over an available and well refined software is a choice that can be made. No need to use dishonest arguments to justify that choice.

Btw for comparing "little in house solution" of ZK with integrating a well developed product, you only need to visit site of BA:
http://balancedannihilation.org/
BA has more players than ZK, nicer landing page and professional forum.
And the result? It's dead jim!
Forum is slow and devoid of activity, we are doing it right.

I said

quote: Preferring to develop a small in-house solution over an available and well refined software is a choice that can be made. No need to use dishonest arguments to justify that choice.

quote: Btw for comparing "little in house solution" of ZK with integrating a well developed product, you only need to visit site of BA:

Oh I see a "register" button. Requiring users to register is probably what is keeping users away. Is it because its impossible to use an external authentication db, or because the guy installing it didn't bother?

Do you have to develop your own parsing/formatting code just to avoid user registration? No... saying so is what I call a dishonest argument.

Now, I could go on and list what an available forum software can do that zk forum can't, but I would spend too much time doing so. If you prefer to ignore what other software are able to do, fine. I'll just consider this dishonest as well.

I remember that when you decided to ban me was because I made a demonstration of how easy it is to hack user accounts through this forum. If you point all the good things that this forum can do, don't forget that some parts are half-baked and exploitable. This is just a consequence of the classical 80/20 rule... write 80% of the features in 20% of the time. Then you call it done? Sorry but I disagree.

Again, I said "its a choice that can be made". You made it, because you estimated it was easier this way. Fine, its your choice. But don't imply that it would not be possible to do it in another way, don't dismiss what the problems of the current forum are, and don't ignore all the missing features that will need to be developed to be on par with other forums.

quote: Forum is slow and devoid of activity, we are doing it right.

To me, this is dishonest again. Considering that this site is not hosted on the same machine as zk forum, comparing the speed of it makes no sense at all. Host their forum on your server, then come back to discuss the speed of it.

And regarding the "we are doing it right"... yes, not requiring an additional user registration is how it should be done. But I already showed that this has nothing to do with rewriting a forum from scratch so this point it moot too.

quote: what the hell is your point?

Exactly what is in my first post in this thread. If something specific isn't clear, just ask!

2nd post was to reply to Licho.

quote: Do you want to improve this forum?

No thanks. Why? Because working on this forum is IMO a waste of time, because it is a specific solution to a general problem. Which means, all effort invested into this forum will only benefit a small number of users (zk players). The spring community doesn't even benefit from it. I'm sure BA isn't happy either with their forum being idle. ZK is in competition with other spring mods, and I admit I'm not comfortable with it. Its probably just me thinking that all spring games shouldn't waste effort fighting each other on infrastructure features such as forum software... while there are bigger "threats" out there (PA?), and really, people do not choose to play a game over another because of forum features...

As well, all effort invested into other open source forums can not be reused. Nested quotes? More extensive BBcode support (or another markup, who cares)? RSS feed? Email notifications? Thread subscription? Security? You want it? You'll have to spend time (that's the remaining 80% effort) to rewrite the whole thing even if that is available in another forum. Why? Because a choice has been made based on the (few) specific features of this forum which are:
- you can use @ prefix on battles and players
- authentication is using lobby server db
- it can display avatars (that users can't choose... do you think anybody cares?)
- threads can be attached to battles/planets

Its a choice.
I didn't like how Chesti's question/suggestion was dismissed and wanted to provide an alternative point of view. Do what you want with it.

quote: Do you think you know more about forum software than Licho does? If so, please provide evidence.

I decline. I provide arguments, you decide if they are good or not. Don't be afraid of divergent opinions, and don't judge the ideas based on the credentials of the people who present them.