Several questions

[Douglas]

Forgive me if these questions have been answered elsewhere, I have a very high critical issue that I have to consider and deal with.

There is a slight chance that I will be moving off my existing forums onto YaBB SE, and have several questions that need to be addressed before I do this.  A bit of a background on me.  I have over 300 members, averaging 1,000 new posts a day.  We're a VERY active site and the last thing I want to do is make more work on anyone.

Now, for the questions...

For those of you that have 50,000 or more posts/threads on your forums, how are your load averages and forum speeds?

If you don't mind sharing your sites, could you please include links to your sites, or PM me with them?

Are there any plans on being able to nest forums within one another?  This is a VERY critical item for me.

As my site is not just about forums, I have coded a completely separate system that utilizes the forums log in system to handle access for the rest of the site.  The forums are actually in a sub directory of the site itself, the system I wrote/designed is outside of the forums directory.  If I were to utilize the forums here, would I still be able to create my own log in system and utilize information (passwords and email addresses, usernames and ID's) from the YaBB SE forum database in conjunction with my system, like I have it now?

How receptive are the developers here for new ideas and concepts/suggestions?

What is the turnaround time for posts about bugs, and are the fixes shared publicly as soon as they're found?

Has anyone experienced any kind of issues running extremely large sites?

I understand that there are modifications out there (I have already downloaded and installed the mod program).  I do understand that you don't support these mods, but how many of the mod ideas that are available are actually incorporated into the next release?

Because of the sheer visibility I can bring to any forum/software I use, are the developers willing (from time to time) to work with me via IMs (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo) to provide guidance?  (I promise NOT to take advantage of this.  If I can get the support I need, I will have NO problems referring to you, and even helping contribute financially).

Are there any limitations to smilies, avatars, post icons or file attachments?

Do you have the ability to have skins (Several different graphical layouts where the end users can change their chosen skins).

Do you have the ability to have custom title changes based on post counts?

I am sorry if these questions have been answered, but there's at least three sites that are interested in converting over.  I would also need to work with someone to get a converter/importer for the system I am using.  I do not wish to identify what that system is, at this time, as I do not want to tick off the current developers of the forums that I use.

Thanks in advance, gang.  

[David]

Ok, let me know if I miss something.

For those of you that have 50,000 or more posts/threads on your forums, how are your load averages and forum speeds?

I run a YaBBSE only hosting company and we currently average about 8 million page views a day and over 10 million hits.  At this point it comes down to hardware.  We have seperated the webserver and the mysql server onto different servers.  I also would expect that the 1.5.1 code is more optimized then ours.  Unknown's secret project will also dramatically reduce server load and page load time once it is realeased.

Are there any plans on being able to nest forums within one another?  This is a VERY critical item for me.

This will be in YaBBSE 2 and should also be in Unknown's secret project.

If I were to utilize the forums here, would I still be able to create my own log in system and utilize information (passwords and email addresses, usernames and ID's) from the YaBB SE forum database in conjunction with my system, like I have it now?

As long as you are willing to do some coding, yes.  YaBBSE uses a single cookie to check login information and the code for all of this can easily be found in the LogInOut.php file in the Sources directory.  You should also look at SSI.php as it does many other things designed at including parts of your forum in your website.

How receptive are the developers here for new ideas and concepts/suggestions?

As long as you don't ask when a new version is coming out they/we are very receptive.  After all, without users there is no reason to code.

What is the turnaround time for posts about bugs, and are the fixes shared publicly as soon as they're found?

5 minutes for this post, albiet not a bug.  

Except for version 1.5.0 YaBBSE has not had large bugs in a public release.  With version 1.5.1 we have done a public beta and at one point new builds were coming out twice a day.

We try our hardest to make bug fixes publicly availiable either as a mod, new version, or just a posted code fix until a new version comes out.

I understand that there are modifications out there (I have already downloaded and installed the mod program).  I do understand that you don't support these mods, but how many of the mod ideas that are available are actually incorporated into the next release?

It all depends on the mod itself.  If it is seen as a core feature it is considered to be included.  Features like the calendar, merge/split threads, and others all originated as mods.  Then again something that turns YaBBSE into a RPG will probabally never be included due to how few people it would interest.

Because of the sheer visibility I can bring to any forum/software I use, are the developers willing (from time to time) to work with me via IMs (AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo) to provide guidance?  (I promise NOT to take advantage of this.  If I can get the support I need, I will have NO problems referring to you, and even helping contribute financially).

This is totally on a person by person basis.  I have helped many people in the past off of this site but mainly by e-mail.  Then again if it is something that I see needing to be done via IM and the person is not annoying, I will contact them that way.  Most of us prefer someone try to get their problems solved on this forum first though.

Are there any limitations to smilies, avatars, post icons or file attachments?

In order to add more smilies you must install the more smilies mod written by Big P.  Avatars can just be uploaded to the avatars directory.  Currently the post icons cannot be changed but I believe at one point there was a mod for this.  Attachments are only restricted by the max file upload size set in php.ini by your host, default is 2mb.

Do you have the ability to have custom title changes based on post counts?

No, but I would expect it in YaBBSE2.

[Douglas]

Fantastic.  I am especially impressed with the board statistics module.

David, I'd like to PM you some specs, if you don't mind.  Just let me know if that's okay.

Do you have the ability to have skins (Several different graphical layouts where the end users can change their chosen skins).

Didn't see this one answered.  I'm sorry to be so picky, but want to know that the skins that I have won't totally be for naught.  ::chuckles::

One question that I do have, and it's more of a suggestion for the next release, is would the developers consider making it an option for the initial configuration about compression?  I already have compression enabled, being handled by a PHP add on that we have running on our server.  I had to manually go into phpMyAdmin and disable compression with YaBB SE.  IMHO, this should be a configuration option, rather than enabled by default.

Also, would someone be willing to share the load averages for this particular site?

David, thank you for your speedy reply.  Not something I was expecting so quickly.  Oh, and as far as the "When's the next release" question, I totally understand that.

[David]

Sure, feel free to pm me or e-mail, [email protected].

Do you have the ability to have skins (Several different graphical layouts where the end users can change their chosen skins).

Another thing about Unknown's Secret project.

* David hopes he won't be killed for saying so much about it

One question that I do have, and it's more of a suggestion for the next release, is would the developers consider making it an option for the initial configuration about compression?  I already have compression enabled, being handled by a PHP add on that we have running on our server.  I had to manually go into phpMyAdmin and disable compression with YaBB SE.  IMHO, this should be a configuration option, rather than enabled by default.

I will suggesst it, most likely we will just switch it to off by default if it is changed at all.

Also, would someone be willing to share the load averages for this particular site?

Best I could find but it is from about a month ago.
http://www.yabbse.org/community/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=17801

[Spaceman-Spiff]

aha... the secret is getting more revealed...

[[Unknown]]

* David hopes he won't be killed for saying so much about it

GRRR!! I had managed not to say anything about it's main purpose!! (despite the fact that I almost did and sotpped stopped posting like ten times...)

Oh well, that would be it.  It's faster, themable, and has child boards to boot.

Expect more .

And yes, I am willing to do things over IM - as logn long as I initiate it.  Wait for me to say "please contact me over a messaging service" before doing so, as I already have over a hundred and thirty people on my contact list. (*ugh*)

-[Unknown]

[Douglas]

[Unknown], welcome to my world.  I've got about 140 on mine.  ::chuckles::  I try not to contact anyone, unless there's a clear need AND I have permission to do so.  Thank you for at least being willing to entertain the idea.

David, at least [Unknown] hasn't killed ya yet.  ::grins::  I think you and I both better be countin' our blessings, lol.

Spaceman-Spiff, I see that you're a person of horrible taste (Calvin and Hobbes).  I am as well.    Don't you just love the secrets that are being revealed?  Whoops, hope I didn't just put myself on that blacklist of [Unknown]'s.

To all, I actually will have to wait until the skins and titles based on post counts are available before I give you guys a run.  This doesn't mean that I won't use ya'll now.  I actually have 1.5.0 installed on a site, and am planning on using your system for my customer support site, AND for a band/duet that I will be meeting with this week.  

A bit of a blast from the past:  I actually heard about YaBB about a year or two ago.  When I first found out about YaBB (Perl version), you all were in Alpha mode of YaBB 1 Gold.

It's great to see a PHP version of this, and that the community is thriving nicely, both for PHP and Perl.  Very nice work, ladies and gentlemen.  

[David]

This doesn't mean that I won't use ya'll now.  I actually have 1.5.0 installed on a site, and am planning on using your system for my customer support site, AND for a band/duet that I will be meeting with this week.  

Please please upgrade to 1.5.1, 1.5.0 is crapty and full of bugs.
http://www.yabbse.org/community/index.php?board=9;action=display;threadid=17909

[[Unknown]]

David, at least [Unknown] hasn't killed ya yet.  ::grins::  I think you and I both better be countin' our blessings, lol.

Spaceman-Spiff, I see that you're a person of horrible taste (Calvin and Hobbes).  I am as well.    Don't you just love the secrets that are being revealed?  Whoops, hope I didn't just put myself on that blacklist of [Unknown]'s.

Nah, don't worry.  It was gonna happen soon anyway.

Well, you can have post groups... if you want people to be able to set a custom title (which isn't terribly different from their display name, imho.) when they have more posts, it's _really_ easy to do.  I could probably churn out a mod for it within a few minutes if you want that.

Skinning/theming takes a bit more time .

-[Unknown]

[Michele]

To all, I actually will have to wait until the skins and titles based on post counts are available before I give you guys a run.  This doesn't mean that I won't use ya'll now.  I actually have 1.5.0 installed on a site, and am planning on using your system for my customer support site, AND for a band/duet that I will be meeting with this week.  

Actually, you don't have to wait. Chris Cromer has a mod that adds user-selectable themes to YSE, and titles based on post count is already built in. You can set the number of posts for each level in Forum Preferences and Settings, then change the name of each level in MemberGroups - there's only 5 levels to work with though, so if you needed more, then you're right, you'd have to wait.

Not to toot my own horn, but you can also look at PfaBB (link in sig), which is a highly configurable portal package built around YSE.

[[Unknown]]

Alright, a few things....

First, there's a "more postgroups" mod.  A very nice mod, I must say too.  If that indeed is what you are looking for.... I would say go for it.  (it let's you have 8 titles, based on post count.)

And, well...
Let's leave it at saying my mod is not a "skins" mod, it is a theme mod.  There's a big difference between skins and themes.  Skins are just template.php .

-[Unknown]

[Michele]

And, well...
Let's leave it at saying my mod is not a "skins" mod, it is a theme mod.  There's a big difference between skins and themes.  Skins are just template.php .

-[Unknown]

Not just template.php, but the logo and images and the entire CSS if you wish. But you're right, we can't un-nest all those tables you have in the Sources files right now.  

[[Unknown]]

And, well...
Let's leave it at saying my mod is not a "skins" mod, it is a theme mod.  There's a big difference between skins and themes.  Skins are just template.php .

-[Unknown]

Not just template.php, but the logo and images and the entire CSS if you wish. But you're right, we can't un-nest all those tables you have in the Sources files right now.  

Is that so?!  *whistles more...*
What if.... say.... you wanted to have your forum be text only in one theme..... and much more graphical in another....?  I don't suppose that could be changed... yes?

I should send you to my test board... hmm....

-[Unknown]

[Michele]

Is that so?!  *whistles more...*
What if.... say.... you wanted to have your forum be text only in one theme..... and much more graphical in another....?  I don't suppose that could be changed... yes?

I should send you to my test board... hmm....

-[Unknown]

Gee, will it work with PfaBB?  

Yes, separating it all out is the way I'd like to see it too because NTS gives me a headache just thinking about it! But Chris's skin mod works now, in both v1.5.1 and in PfaBB, so that's what I recommend to folks until something better is released.