Should We Move To A New Forum Platform?

[Gary Lewis]

Didn't check to see if the censor code would insert an emoji instead of characters.  

Xenforo looks like it will:

Allow us to automate the registration process.  They'll have to agree to our guidelines as they join, and we might even be able to send them to a sandbox for a post or two - if we really want to do that.

Have multiple levels of "helpers" with administrators and moderators having different roles and capabilities.

Have "conversations" behind the scenes between two or more people.

Like posts and report posts.

Post pics that automagically appear right-side up, and supposedly in the future will be resized to whatever level we set.

Format posts like we are using Word.  Check out the post here.

And on and on and on.  I'm like a kid in a candy store.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

Jeff - I'm not aware of any of the forum that has its own app.  I'm not saying none do, but I'm not aware of any that do.

Discourse offers iOS and Android apps.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Of course, not a group specific app , we always havethe dreaded Tap-a-talk  

[Gary Lewis]

Jeff - Discourse does have an app, called Discourse Hub, but it doesn't let you post.  The iOS version in the Apple app store says it provides:

A central spot to review all notifications, unread counts, and new counts from your forums.

Real time push notifications for officially hosted Discourse forums

Authentication via Safari quicker access to your sites.

And, by the way, it has a 2.8 rating.

Jim is right, there's always Tap-a-talk, which says it works with Xenforo.  But do we need an app?  Have you tried to look at Xenforo via the link I sent on your mobile devices?

[Gary Lewis]

Well, bummer!  Chris beat his head against the wall yesterday and sent Xenforo a message asking for help as he couldn't get their demo to work on our Weebly server.  They sent him a message back that he was spamming them so they'd banned him.  

Today I sent them a message explaining that we are stuck, and including the message from Chris as well as the banning message.  We got back:

Demo forums cannot be embedded on external servers.

Weebly servers are also not compatible with XF, so if you did want to self hosted, you would need a new host.

No apology, but at least we got a definitive answer.  Xenforo is a no go, as is Discourse.  

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

Jeff - Discourse does have an app, called Discourse Hub, but it doesn't let you post.
[…]
But do we need an app?  Have you tried to look at Xenforo via the link I sent on your mobile devices?

Gary, thanks for precision.  I did not dig the specs, lack of time.
A mobile app that cannot post, what’s the goal?


In fact, we do not need a dedicated mobile app.
I was simply thinking about "mobile members" who could find easier to use an app designed specifically to be use on mobile devices.

A full featured mobile app, or course.

About Xenforo, I’ll go take a look.
Edit:  Just read your no go conclusion, so I’ll not lose my time on it.

[Gary Lewis]

BigBrother-84 wrote

About Xenforo, I’ll go take a look.

Don't bother.  See my post just prior to yours.  Xenforo is a no-go.

[BigBrother-84]

Well, time for me to pause and ask.
Please correct my understanding if I’m out of the track.

1- Weebly:
• Weebly is a "website builder" free software.
• Weebly is NOT a server app, it does not offer services like VPN, DNS, FTP, File Sharing, Wiki, Web Site hosting, Users and Groups permissions, and so on.
• Weebly offers some "apps" that, in fact, are kind of "extensions" that add features to the website, like embedding a Forum directly in the website.
• Weebly company also offers website hosting, but a website made using Weebly software can also be published on any other hosting provider, simply using the export feature.  But I suppose that any modification to the website is little bit less "direct", since you have to export+publish to the remote host each time you modify your website.

2- Web Host:
• Not clear for me if we have our own computer somewhere that is «server software» equipped and is hosting our website, or
• Our website is hosted on Weebly company servers, for easier editing reasons.

3- Bullnose Library:
• In fact, the Library is a collection of web pages, made using Weebly website builder software.
• If, for some reasons we go to another host, we can still continu to use Weebly software, or export the site to import it in another website editing software.

4- Bullnose Forum:
• The Forum uses Nabble platform, but this latter is aging and will not be updated by its editor.
• Our Forum uses Weebly app embedding feature to "integrate" it in the Bullnose website.

So, if these statements are not completely in orbit, why not begin by asking Weebly about what Forum platforms can be embedded in a Weebly made website?  They probably can submit a list, in which we could find an interesting Nabble modern alternative.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Stop making sense!










🤷‍♂️

[Gary Lewis]

Weebly is both a website builder and a web service provider.  Our hundreds of pages of documentation have been built using Weebly's builder and run on Weebly's server(s).  And while they have a free service, I've signed up for a monthly fee in order to have multiple editors.

As for porting our documentation to another site, this webpage says (with the bolding being theirs, not mine):

It is possible to transfer your Weebly site to another hosting provider. Weebly provides an export feature that allows you to download your site’s content, including pages, images, and other media files.

Once you have exported your site, you can then import it into your new hosting provider’s platform.

However, it’s important to note that the design and layout of your site may not transfer perfectly, as different hosting providers may have different website builders and templates. You are essentially only migrating the content, not the design.

From what I've seen porting Weebly isn't easy.  Two years ago when I was looking for someone to do it no one had been successful.  And, as the above says, once you port it you then have to go back in and fix things - on every page.

My understanding is that Weebly code only runs on Weebly servers.

And yes, our forum uses a Nabble platform and it will not be updated.  But our forum does not use a Weebly app embedding feature to "integrate" it in the Bullnose website.  There is no Weebly app to do that.  We are actually using a Nabble app to do that that runs on the Nabble servers.

Having said that, there is the HTML iframe capability that Chris used to put a couple of the forums we tried on the Weebly site.  Weebly supports it just fine, and why Xenforo can't use it I don't understand.

There are several more well thought of forums to be tested, including InVision which may be the next to try.  Its documentation says it can be embedded on another website, and I'm sure if that is true it'll work on Weebly.  So I'm not ready to consider moving off Weebly.  I believe we have two separate issues and we can solve them one at a time.

Last, the reason we have our forum embedded our our documentation website is because we want the user to have the full range of menus at the top of the page.  Forum platforms don't do documentation.  Website platforms don't typically do forums.  So if we want the forum members to have access to the documentation then we have to integrate the forum onto the website.

[BigBrother-84]

Thanks for answering my questions Gary.
Now I see and understand the whole pattern.

It make sense to stay with Weebly hosting, I fully agree.

There is certainly a Nabble alternative out there, that can be embedded into our Weebly made and hosted website.

I thought that there was a  Weebly app available to embed a forum.
They discuss about two options, I am still uncertain about option #2:

Option #1 — Embed a Third Party Forum in your Weebly Website

Option #2 — Embed a Forum in your Website using a Weebly App.

Having that said, I feel no emergency to switch to another forum platform.  Nabble isn’t so bad, we learn to use it.
We have plenty time to explore different alternatives, no stress!

[Gary Lewis]

That app is a very limited forum to run on Weebly.  I looked at it and it really doesn't have what we want.  It may actually not be as good as Nabble in some areas.

And I agree, there's no urgency to move off Nabble.  However, the longer we wait the larger the migration problem of moving the existing forum over.  And, at some point Franklin may pull the plug on Nabble.  In fact, he is doing zero maintenance.

So I think we need to continue to look, but not move until we find what we really want.

[Gary Lewis]

Ok, we have a bit of news to share.  First, Chris and I think that InVision is going to do what we need to do.  We started a test forum of it this morning and it performed well enough that we embedded it on the Weebly page at New Bullnose Test Forum in the menu.

You can go look at it, BUT there is a problem at present - if you are already registered on the forum on the InVision server, which you can see here, you cannot log onto the embedded one with most browsers.  (I can get on with Firefox but not Chrome.)  The gentleman from InVision said that is normal and will be resolved on a paid-for service, so I signed up for the Beginner service at $49/mo.

Hopefully we can get the log-in sorted soon and y'all can try it out to your heart's content.  But in the interim you can register on the forum here and that registration will work when the problem is solved.

In addition I have a friend that has said he can port our existing Nabble forum to the InVision forum, and will do so for us at no charge.  Obviously we have no clue how long that will take.  Given that we don't yet have a strategy for the path forward.  So for now I would suggest that we use the Nabble forum as our production forum and the InVision forum as our test forum.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

First, Chris and I think that InVision is going to do what we need to do.  We started a test forum of it this morning and it performed well enough that we embedded it on the Weebly.

Progress!

Interested to participate to the “Test Forum”, but not sure how to proceed…  I suppose the goal is to test the embedded version.

Do we have to wait that the embedded version will be accessible?  Cause right now, there’s only the title that is visible, rest is blank.


EDIT!  Now “something” appears.  So let’s test!

[Gary Lewis]

Jeff - We'd love to have you participate.  Go here to do that, sign up, etc: https://j330110.invisionservice.com/

As for the one you can access through the New Bullnose Test Forum link in the menu, I messed up on a change but Chris pointed it out and that one is back up.  However, since you don't know if your browser will work with that one start with the one above, the one at https://j330110.invisionservice.com/.  If you sign up there your browser may work on the one on Weebly.  If not, it should soon.

BUT!  I RECOMMEND YOU SIGN UP USING EXISTING SCREEN NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS.  AND MAYBE EVEN PASSWORD!  That's because if we are successful porting this Nabble forum over to InVision we'll bring your ID as well.  And if you are using a new ID on InVision you'll be schizophrenic.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

This is very promising news!  

You and Chris have been putting a lot of work into this, and I want to express my appreciation for all the effort.  

I'll try the link....

[BigBrother-84]

Q1- Do we have to create a new member account, or use our existing one to sign in?

[Gary Lewis]

Jim - Chris has done the bulk of the work, and I really appreciate it.

Jeff - This is a totally new forum and it can't spell Nabble.  So everything is new, meaning you have to sign up to use it.  But, as said, please use the same info as on Nabble or you may have two different accounts if/when we migrate.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary said above, it's best to recreate your existing credentials
Username password etc..

[BigBrother-84]

Yep, I am too enthusiastic, I type my questions simultaneously with Gary’s instructions…  So I look like a guy who doesn’t read.

So I’ll calm myself.

First, I had to modify my password in the “real” forum, cause the “test” one doesn’t accept it (too weak).  I was stuck at the password step.

Now it looks happy with my new strongest password, but I am now stuck in buckle on the verification step. Can’t go through.