Other Regions Forums

Johanness

Johanness

TNPer
I've just been looking at other regions in Nationstates, and after a while it seems like other regions have better websites and roleplay then us. Take a look at this one, made by a region with only 100 people, which is more then 2000 people less then us: European Union.
And maybe the South Pacific forums: Click here.
Also the West Pacific one. There's look cool too.

I'm just asking, are we ever going to change these forums? I think that it would take too much of a long time, lots of confusion etc. but in a way it would kind of be worth it.

What other regions do you think have pretty nice websites?
 
We can't change the forums. I'm just saying later if we can we can switch to a better forum maker like mybb, fluxbb, or nodebb instead of zetaboards.
 
Sytarenne:
I've just been looking at other regions in Nationstates, and after a while it seems like other regions have better websites and roleplay then us. Take a look at this one, made by a region with only 100 people, which is more then 2000 people less then us: European Union.
And maybe the South Pacific forums: Click here.
Also the West Pacific one. There's look cool too.

I'm just asking, are we ever going to change these forums? I think that it would take too much of a long time, lots of confusion etc. but in a way it would kind of be worth it.

What other regions do you think have pretty nice websites?
Click to expand...
I think, like Elu, I want to know a bit more about why you say these forums are "better" than ours?

There are a number of features that you can bolt on to Zetaboard forums, some of which we use - others we have not used. Others, like an arcade, we had for a while but it was more trouble than it was worth.

Is it a simple matter of the forum skin looking nicer? or are there features tey have which we do not?

Specifics, please!

I take note of the comment about deleting double posts.
 
The European Union forum costs money to maintain, which means there WILL be problems somewhere down the line. They use NodeBB and pay at least $35 per month.

The South Pacific use myBB, which is an open-source free software. It's powerful, I'll give you that. But I would not rate that board above our own.

TWP's board is nice, but basically utilised. It is also $175 with a minimum of $25 renewal every six months.

The North Pacific uses Zetaboard. A well maintained, modified and populated Zetaboard. Closed-Source, but free and mostly reliable. For my own forums, I tend to self-host with vBulletin (my own regional board, $250 one off payment) or use an open source software like myBB, SMF or sometimes, phpBB3 (which is used by the NS forum).

Point being, this forum more than meets the needs of TNP. It removes the element of financial responsibility and all of the problems that go with it.. So I don't want to see that change. Nor do I want to see us have to crowd-fund and donate for a new board. This service works for us and a self-hosted board of that type would not work for us.
 
TWP boards are cool, yes, but I don't think our boards here are overly obsolete.

I am wondering if we could add a few more skins if that'd spice things up a bit. Overall though I think our boards are pretty solid.
 
Lord Ravenclaw:
The South Pacific use myBB, which is an open-source free software. It's powerful, I'll give you that. But I would not rate that board above our own.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the big circle that goes with each forum that's black when it has unread posts and goes light gray when you've seen it all.

Downsides include the lack of explanation with masking, but that doesn't mean nearly as much to me as post deletion.
 
Sytarenne:
A new theme would be nice. Maybe we could use IPB 3.
Click to expand...
That will be $175 please. We would also need $30 in six months time to renew the license. Oh and various amounts for other addons, plus the renewal fee.
 
Sytarenne:
EU just ejected and banned me, called me a troll just for saying "You probably can't maintain your forums because its $35 per month", gg.
Click to expand...
Have you considered not being a troll?
 
Sytarenne:
EU just ejected and banned me, called me a troll just for saying "You probably can't maintain your forums because its $35 per month", gg. By the way IPB 3 is a zetaboards theme not a forum service.
http://support.zathyus.com/topic/5097742/2/
Click to expand...
Actually, IPB 3. is a forum service. It's Invision Power Board version 3.x, and they're just releasing 4.x now.

TWP and TP use IPB.
 
Released in the last week or so. Default IP4 skin is ugly as sin.
 
Sytarenne:
I've just been looking at other regions in Nationstates, and after a while it seems like other regions have better websites and roleplay then us. Take a look at this one, made by a region with only 100 people, which is more then 2000 people less then us: European Union.
And maybe the South Pacific forums: Click here.
Also the West Pacific one. There's look cool too.

I'm just asking, are we ever going to change these forums? I think that it would take too much of a long time, lots of confusion etc. but in a way it would kind of be worth it.

What other regions do you think have pretty nice websites?
Click to expand...
I actually don't like those other 2 looks personally. They have no personality. :/

We will never move to a paid forum, even if someone volunteers to pay for us. I will echo the idea that new skins need to be vetted, and if you want to try them out, I believe Elu is the best one with the test forum to make sure they would work.

Frankly, if the forum skin is what puts you off of playing in TNP, that's just a bit sad.
 
SillyString:
Sytarenne:
EU just ejected and banned me, called me a troll just for saying "You probably can't maintain your forums because its $35 per month", gg.
Click to expand...
Have you considered not being a troll?
Click to expand...
So you would ban me from the north pacific if I said that?
 
Sytarenne:
SillyString:
Sytarenne:
EU just ejected and banned me, called me a troll just for saying "You probably can't maintain your forums because its $35 per month", gg.
Click to expand...
Have you considered not being a troll?
Click to expand...
So you would ban me from the north pacific if I said that?
Click to expand...
Don't be silly, and I don't mean the Vice Delegate, either.

When you start comparing one established community to another and appear to denigrate the community you are part of, you are undoubtedly going to annoy people. This board has had a lot of work done to it; a lot of time has gone into that. Our community has taken this board from being a simple Zetaboard and made it a home to our community, and it has stood for a very long time. Saying "Oh this forum is okay but it's not as nice as <insert less customised generic forum here>" does nothing to help whatever point you're trying to make.

UCR communities are more likely to have forums which cost money. Why? The Founder of that UCR is normally the person running the community and government both. GCRs however are more transient. Having a sense of financial authority over a region is a very bad way to run a GCR, it gets messy and quickly unless you have an admin team pretty much separate from politics or are a dictatorship - see The Pacific.

$35 per month on it's own is not a lot for some, for others it's rather more than they'd like to pay for a browser game. As it stands, I pay about $40 for everything I use - webhosting, backups etc for my UCR (the forum license was paid for long ago and does not require anything). IPB, vBulletin, etc are exceptions to the rule, not the rule itself. Most communities on NS stick with Zeta and the free softwares on the internet for good reason.
 
Sytarenne:
Sytarenne:
We can't change the forums.
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about changing our forums. I'm talking about other regions forums, and maybe adding a new skin.
Click to expand...
Moving to a different forum software, either paid or unpaid, would require changing forums.

I would be in favor of adding some new skins, but that's really a separate question.
 
As I noted in another thread a moment ago, feel free to check out the Zetaboards support forums for possible add-ons or additional skins.
It is S.O.P. that if the admin team thinks an add-on has promise, or a skin, we test it out on the TNP test forum Elu maintains.We never make such changes without that testing first.
If you find a new add-on or skin from Zetaboards you want considered, please post the link . Otherwise, there's nothing really to discuss.
 
SillyString:
Sytarenne:
EU just ejected and banned me, called me a troll just for saying "You probably can't maintain your forums because its $35 per month", gg.
Click to expand...
Have you considered not being a troll?
Click to expand...
Ohh, is that how to do it? Well, guess I'll be normal now. Hey, have you guys heard of new anime? It's really so very good that sometimes I cry.
 
All right. When I find time to customize the board icons, or when someone else does that for me, I'll set testforum up with it as a demo.
 
Amerion:
Hmmm. IDK, I like it the way it is
Click to expand...
I agree. This is one of the better set up forums I'm a member of. Some different themes (user optional) and a few new smileys couldn't hurt though.
 
Only 2 come to mind:


and



The site is quite alright with hot-linking, but it would be easy to dl and add them to the forum database.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top