The Simple Machines software we have been using for Triumph Talk has taken us to a crossroads. It seems as if the whole story is falling apart with the software due to a huge political issue within the SMF team. For starters, the guy that did our photo gallery got banned and now is busy writing or forking SMF with a few other great ex developers from SMF. Now it seems that the gallery software we are using is not really his top priority, DaveM has discovered that all the new upgrade are really shocking. They are full of bugs and at times just give you a blank white screen when trying to use it.
Also we need to upgrade to the latest version, RC4, for security reasons and most of the mods we use have not been upgraded. Dave has been putting off the upgrade now for some time in the hopes of the mods being upgraded. However, it looks like many of the mod authors have now also jumped ship and left SMF.
We have decided that the best solution is to use a commercial forum software like vBulletin. Our host (sever owner) is also reporting that we are running major errors on the server due to bad coding in this software. This is causing some problems that you have noticed like slow downs and failures to load. We decided that vBulletin is our best option. Here are the pros and cons.
1. The cost - $285 US for vBulletin.
2. The gallery - we will lose what we have now and will need to start from scratch. But this is doable.
3. It may be a bit of a bumpy road as Dave will also need to learn this new software; but I don't see that being a huge issue. The support from the vBulletin staff is excellent.
Making this purchase will deplete our PayPal account. If anyone would like to make a donation to help us out with this, please use the donate button. We appreciate all donations.
Also we need to upgrade to the latest version, RC4, for security reasons and most of the mods we use have not been upgraded. Dave has been putting off the upgrade now for some time in the hopes of the mods being upgraded. However, it looks like many of the mod authors have now also jumped ship and left SMF.
We have decided that the best solution is to use a commercial forum software like vBulletin. Our host (sever owner) is also reporting that we are running major errors on the server due to bad coding in this software. This is causing some problems that you have noticed like slow downs and failures to load. We decided that vBulletin is our best option. Here are the pros and cons.
1. The cost - $285 US for vBulletin.
2. The gallery - we will lose what we have now and will need to start from scratch. But this is doable.
3. It may be a bit of a bumpy road as Dave will also need to learn this new software; but I don't see that being a huge issue. The support from the vBulletin staff is excellent.
Making this purchase will deplete our PayPal account. If anyone would like to make a donation to help us out with this, please use the donate button. We appreciate all donations.
