What do you think of BLF's forum software?

I think BLF uses Drupal 7, even though Drupal 8 has been out for a little over four years.

(I know that Mr. Admin hates updating to new versions because it causes a lot of work for him.)

I really like how BLF looks.

I like the blue color scheme even though I used to think a green color scheme would look better.

The forum software doesn't have all of the features of other forums I belong to, but it seems to function pretty well.

The main thing is that it looks way better than all the other forums that I use, and that really matters to me.

What do you think of our forum software?

As I always think…. If it works… dont touch it!

I really like this software and I dont see any reason to change or update. I dont need any other function or improvement.

That´s my opinion

Oh, I am not suggesting upgrading to Drupal 8 as I know it will not be fun for sb.

Eventually we'll have to, but until then, I'm pretty sure we won't.

Happy with it here, blue & white looks clear.
Seems pretty reliable - much less downtime than “other” flashlight forums

Yes, very little downtime, and only one moderator/administrator!

That's pretty efficient.

I'm aware of the Stylus dark theme for Windows but I'd give a lot to have a forum software option for a dark theme that would work with Android. White is too hard on over-60 eyes.

It feels a bit quaint not being able to use unicode, especially emojis.

A white background looks good to me, but I'm only 43.

It's weird because with my first computer, a Commodore 64, I liked a black background with blue text.

I think that given the costs, time and effort that sb has at his expense, the forum software is fine.

If money and effort was not a concern however, I would dearly wish that pictures could be uploaded directly on BLF. Third party hosting is very cumbersome and nowadays has become risky. If pictures could be uploaded as easy as in Whatsapp I would post more often i.e. in the what did you mod today thread.

Works well enough for me that the thought of any changes are met with trepidation, and that’s a rarity in my online world.
I like coming here :slight_smile:

I agree with Djozz though, hosting pictures would mean i post more of them,but i know funding of the hosting would cause too much complication for me to ‘want’ the change. I just need to figure out a better process from my camera to this forum.

The only thing I really miss is the ability to +1 a post (i.e., without having to make a new post).

Browsing on smartphone sucks. Engine should be updated and support Tapatalk.
Mike

Smart Phones Suck……

https://www.serendipity.li/smartphones-suck.htm

Probably ur right, but hard to carry PC when travelling.
Engine should support smartphones and Tapatalk.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all your thoughts an comments.

So yes, for now we are running on Drupal 7, which is still receiving security updates, so from an IT standpoint it’s still fine to use. The reason I haven’t upgraded to Drupal 8 yet is because it simply doesn’t have the most basic functionality that we need to function as a forum. Since I launched BLF on Drupal 6, Drupal has turned into more of a do-it-yourself programming framework and offers much less out-of-the-box functionality. There are still some developers creating plugins for Drupal 8, but it appears that most are as reluctant to upgrade as I am. Eventually they’ll probably port more plugins to Drupal 8 as the EOL date of Drupal 7 gets closer.

As for forum functionality, it’s somewhat ironic that the do-it-yourself framework traits of Drupal that I mentioned in the previous paragraph actually prove to be a huge advantage for us in other area. For example, our community spam moderation, email notification, and post reporting systems are custom solutions that I put together with relative ease despite not being a true web developer. There are also a ton of other options that I can use to throw together temporary controlling measures for trolls and other repeat problem users. That’s by far the best part still about Drupal, and no other web software is as comprehensive.

So I’m still committed to adding new functionality where it’s practical to do so. The thing about emojis appears to be an underlying issue with the specific server configurations that I’m using, and also complicated by the fact that the database tables were originally created a long time ago with a much older schema. Since I don’t really make heavy use of emojis I’ve never thought much about this limitation. But I’ll look into that to see what can be done. As for image uploading, it’s always been possible with Drupal, but at the time it didn’t seem like a wise decision, given that the external image hosting solutions seemed very robust and best suited to the task of managing images back in that time. I recognize that isn’t necessarily the case nowadays, so I’ll keep looking at the different options. But it’s not a decision to be taken lightly from a technological planning standpoint.

Thanks for being a part of BLF! I’m really glad to have you all here.

I have looked into options for that, and they do exist. I just never thought of it as a particularly necessary function, since here’s it’s not like in many other forums where they’ll jump down your throat if you post a +1 or otherwise violate their strict posting protocols. We really try to be more laid back here, at least within reason whenever it doesn’t cause major annoyance to a large number of users.

Yeah, I’m sure our forum theme will eventually be refreshed to adapt to smartphone screen sizes.

Tapatalk, on the other hand, probably never. That’s Tapatalk’s fault, as they dragged their feet for years on Drupal support and eventually abandoned it altogether. From what I can tell, quite frankly it’s no great loss, and many Tapatalk users aren’t at all happy with it.

Considering how much it costs me to be part of this community (0$$:money_mouth_face:.
I’m pretty darn happy with the reliability and look of things.
All the Best,
Jeff

I like the BLF forum software just fine, with TK’s After Dark style.

I like the simplicity/reliability of how BLF is set-up/run and managed (KISS) I can depend on it like a Small Block Chevy or my Kawasaki :smiley:

. :beer: Thanks SB for all you do! :wink: :+1: