List of forum software for the future
Here is a list of forum software that brings something new into the world, as of year 2013.
To list a new piece of forum software, please reply to this topic with a forum name and link — only. Then reply again to your own reply, and clarify what novelties the software brings along. (In this way, [other people's descriptions of why the forum software is innovative] can be upvoted above yours.)
I'll start with Discourse and Project Ivory :-)
Update 2013-03-11: Not terrible many people visit this page. I started another conversation at Reddit instead, here: http://www.reddit.com/r/subofrome/comments/19u88d/best_modern_forum_software_and_features_bulletin/
- AAnonymous
Wedge: http://wedge.org/
EosAlpha BBS: http://forum.miranda.or.at/
ElkArte: http://www.elkarte.net/These are SMF 2 forks.
- UKajMagnus @user_145
3 forks, I wonder which one will "win" :-)
I think fairly many features seems to be geared towards developers and website admins. For example, have a look at Wedge's "forward thinking" features: http://wedge.org/pub/feats/future/ — it's only about HTML5, jQuery, CSS, MySQL related stuff. Nothing the actual end user knows exists... Theming and security related features, and admin backend related features, are also not very noticeable for the end user.
If it's that much work to "upgrade" the old software to use modern web functionality, I wonder how long it'll take before they have time to add new and noteworthy functionality, from the end users' point of view.
If I were to start using a non-threaded discussion forum, I'd probably choose Discourse, rather than a fork of older forum software. — Discourse apparently already uses the "newest technology", and one can start adding new features, intended for the end user, "directly".
(On the other hand, perhaps Discourse and certainly Debiki are rather lacking, when it comes to the backend and the admin interface. — But the end users won't notice this as much, hmm.)
- In reply toAnonymous⬆:UKajMagnus @user_145
Here are some interesting new features:
Wedge:
- Auto-embedding of linked contents (e.g. a YouTube video)
- Automatic Quote splitter — This seems really useful :-) (when you reply to someone)
- Auto-saving Drafts
- Like/dislike posts
ElkArte:
- Reply as new topic. Discussions tend to derail, but now you can go off-topic by replying as a new topic instead.
- Post via email
EosAlpha BBS recently added:
- Users are notified if
@mentioned - A like system
- Topic prefixes
- Topic tagging
- Zoomed post editor
I think EosAlpha BBS doesn't seem to be very actively developed? The forum is fairly quiet
- UIn reply touser_145⬆:KajMagnus @user_145
Slant, http://slant.co/
A collaboratively edited resource with lists of good reasons to make this or that choice. Perhaps not really a forum, but can in many cases be used instead of a forum, I think.
- UIn reply touser_145⬆:KajMagnus @user_145
- UKajMagnus @user_145
Discourse brings many improvements:
Built in trust system that automatically prevents trolls, spammers, and bad actors from taking over.
Designed for hi-resolution tablets and advanced web browsers.
Get notifications when your name is mentioned
When you return to a topic, you'll start reading right where you left off
Start writing a reply, continue later perhaps on a different device
Reply as a linked topic (deals with off topic subthreads)
Drag and drop images
... And more, see http://www.discourse.org.
Also see:
- CodingHorror blog post about Discourse
- Discourse featured on Hacker News
- UIn reply touser_145⬆:KajMagnus @user_145
Project Ivory, http://pivory.com/
[Edit: Site gone, since long ago. Project apparently canceled.]
- UKajMagnus @user_145
Hi @cheshirecat :-) (?)
- In reply touser_145⬆:UKajMagnus @user_145
Project Ivory has gotten a lot of attention at Hacker News and Reddit. It has a simple uncluttered user interface, and, according to a Reddit comment:
- Single page layout, with interesting interface based around functions you need to access quickly being docked at the edges of the window
- New forum threads listed at the top by default, then a homebrew best sort [also showing older but very popular threads I suppose]
- Reddit style user pages
In reply touser_145⬆:KajMagnus @KajMagnus2015-09-19 08:56:00.645ZFlarum, http://flarum.org/
Good looking, fast, good for mobiles, easy to install, cheap hosting (it's PHP). A helpful sidebar that quickly takes you to recent topics.
Shows flat comments sorted by time. Threaded in the sense that you can reply to individual comments.
... Ooops I cannot like my own comment :-) Otherwise I'd upvoted Flarum