TMSWiki:Forum Comparisons/Details

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Summary Table

Category XenForo Invision Power Woltlab
Facebook Integration Can Sign in with facebook account and comes with FB button Yes Uses an Extension
Tagging No; has great Search and prefix: People can select prefixes that has the same affect as IP.board and the search feature is very comparable to the keyword function Yes: the thread poster can choose the keywords and can make a keyword a prefix Yes: It comes standard
Inviting Yes: Some people may dislike the profile pop-up? Yes: May be a little too professional Yes
Community Yes: Have the option to Like a thread: this is similar to FB, but does not correspond to a FB account. This is very similar to the "Is this helpful" function on the wetpaint site Yes Can't like posts
Accessible Audio Captcha Option Audio Captcha Option Example
Profile Pages Two Clicks to Story: When clicking on avatar a box pops up then must click on the Profile Page link to go to Profile Page. Then click on Information tab to see story Yes after adjustment: Could include an About Me or Biography section, where people could write their Success Stories. This would show up in the center of the page and be one of the first things people see when the go to a person's profile page Yes: It comes standard
Mobile Skin Upcoming: Currently does not have this, however it is planned to be part of XF's next release which is slated to come out in the 2nd quarter of 2012 Yes: It currently has a Mobile Theme that can be used on smart phones, however the user must click the "Use Mobile Theme" option before it works. There is a chance first time users may not know about this or see this option Not Standard: It has a few add-ons but they use a third party app that users would have to download on their phones and would have to pay for the app.
Mediawiki Integration Has add-on: Allows people to use one account on both sites. It will also put recent wiki changes in the forums recent activity feed. Has one sign in function and can make wiki Talk Page go to a forum thread
Recent Activity Feed Through add-on: XenPorto add-on allows for a feed listing the most recent threads/activity in the forum to be placed on the landing page Recent Topics: has a list of most recent threads in right sidebar, but includes only the title Possible through an add-on: we may need to develop this ourselves
Privacy (AGE) Standard posts age on profile page, but we make default hide the age or have no age limit Standard Does not ask for age upon registration
Quoting Single Multiple Multiple

General Information about specific software packages

Forum comparisons

  • Conversion from vB to Invision to XenForo. Conclusion: "So for all those negative observations I made about XenForo a year ago, about all I can say is to pass me another slice of that humble pie. I'm suddenly excited about my forums again and I've XenForo to thank for it." http://adminextra.com/threads/a-conversion-tale.5324/#post-43496
  • Triphp's vB to Invision to XenForo conversion. Thread. Blog post.
  • IPB vs. vBulletin vs. XF. It starts out slow, but by the end many informed people weigh in, sharing very thoughtful impressions. It is obvious that vBulletin is the clear former champ and looks like some people may have difficulty recognizing its decline. IPB isn't taken seriously by many and some people seem pretty unhappy with it. XenForo seems like a clear upan d comer. People accord it a lot of respect. http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89230

XenForo

IPB

Woltlab Burning Board

Detailed discussions of availability of specific features in different software packages

Getting a Portal

People don't get excited about forums. What they get excited about is people's stories and experiences that they can sympathize with, relate to, or learn from. Thus, when someone clicks on the "forum" link on our home page, it is crucial that they immediately see something that they can relate to - something that is human and lets them know that they are surrounded by people who understand them. This is particularly important for our forum because some visitors may not know anything about PPD/TMS, and might be about to head back to their chiropractor or traditional treatment. It's vital that we show them that there is another way. A list of forum categories is very sterile, doesn't grab them emotionally, and won't do this.

An example of something similar that would work very well (but for a racing forum), is http://cliptheapex.com . This page is where people go immediately when they visit cliptheapex.com. Immediately they see interesting stories, which draw them in. It is implemented in XenForo (it's a XenForo website), but it currently requires manual updating.

Mobile Access

Having the ability for users to access the forum through a mobile device is very important.

  • Invision Power: It currently has a Mobile Theme that can be used on smart phones, however the user must click the "Use Mobile Theme" option before it works.
  • Woltlab: It has a few add-ons but they use a third party app that users would have to download on their phones and would have to pay for the app.

Ease of Accessing Information From Board from other scripts, such as Mediawiki

XenForo

MediaWiki Bridges

Profile Pages

  • Invision Power: This forum has the capability to include an About Me or Biography section, where people could write their Success Stories. This would show up in the center of the page and be one of the first things people see when the go to a person's profile page
  • Woltlab: There profile pages include an "About Me" section that is easily edited and would serve as a great place for someone to put their Success Story
  • XenForo: There is a sub-section in a person's profile page that allows user's to enter their own stories. However, this section is not the first thing people see when they go to a person's profile page. The section is under the "Introduction" tab, but we could rename this to "My Story" or "My Success Story." We would not, however, have the ability to make it be the first thing people see when they go to a person's profile page
  • MyBB: Adding a section for a Success Story would require a significant amount of programming and is almost impossible.

Email Integration

Almost all forums send users email notifications when one of their threads or posts have been responded to. A few forums actually allow users to make forum posts via email, so when they receive a notification that someone responded to one of their posts, they can simply reply to that post by sending an email. This functionality has received mixed reviews from users of forums.

  • Invision: Currently does not have this function. It has been brought up and is something they are considering, however it is not a high priority for them. When asked if they would ever have it, an IP staff member said, ""Ever" is a long time. I suspect at some point in time, IP.Board will support this natively (though when, I couldn't say)." In conclusion, email integration is something that may be in a future release of IP.Board, however there is not telling when this would occur, so we should move forward realizing that they do not have this ability.
  • XenForo: The ability to reply by emails to threads has come up in their community forum, and it appears that this is not something that they will do in the near future. One of their arguments against this functionality was that is would prevent people, some of whom are the biggest contributors, from coming to the site. By going to the actual site to reply to a thread a person may see another thread that sounds interesting to them and reply to that one as well. The XenForo staff seems to think that having people come to the site to reply to threads increases the chance of users exploring the site.

Skins

  • Invision has a skin called Deluxe which is almost identical to XenForo. It uses the same light blue/grey color and the peach color as well. The threads are designed in the same way with the photo and user name in a box on the left. The main difference is that when you click on the user image it takes you immediately to that user's profile page unlike on XenForo. The home page has the same structure as the default IP.Board, but the colors are that of XenForo's default.

Other Information

Forum Administration Forums

Complete list of our forum posts


Interesting Links / Todo

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