Hi all,
before i start on the real purpose of this post - is there anyway to add the ability to format info with the table tags?
First off let me say that what follows is meant to be constructive criticism. I fully appreciate the effort that goes into running a site and if there's not the available time to change anything then so be it...
With that said, here are some things to consider about our beloved V site.
1) Personally I don't much care for the Drupal software engine behind the site. I've also seen folks over at http://endless-sphere.com talk about the V board's software being at least part of the reason they don't frequent here.
2) I think part of the problem is that Drupal tries to be all things to all people (a forum, a blog engine, a community management tool, a document management system (the collaborative library)). That's hard to pull off.
3) The prime component that we all use are the forums. There are, IMO, much cleaner and simple forum software (personally I agree with the folks that say endless-sphere is "cleaner").
(ok i'm giving up on typing shift+i because it keeps inserting the italics tag!)
4) if i were in charge i think i'd look for the best blog software (likely Wordpress or something similar), the best forum software (something along the lines of what esphere uses) and the best wiki software (for the collaborative library - likely Media wiki) and then have a home page that tied all these three pieces together. I think that would result in a better user experience.
5) If a change were to take place I'd also look carefully at the information architecture and see if it would be easier to cut down on the number of forums and create a tighter focus.
(hey why has shift+i started working again? It's weird!)
If at the end of the day the site admins are most committed to Drupal for whatever reason then so be it. If however, some of this seems reasonable to other folks then perhaps a site overhaul would be worth it? If anyone wants to get more details on what I was thinking I'd be happy to offer more details.
Thanks to all (mostly that's DH but I don't want to exclude people by accident).
Oh, and in the meantime can you look into the possibility of adding table like formatting commands? :-)
Thanks!
I know some of the people who migrated to Endless Sphere were unpleased with Drupal. One issue is at the time we launched this site I used a beta of Drupal 5, and the Drupal people were warning against using the beta for a production site. I did anyway and maybe that wasn't a good idea. There were a few bugs, and the add-on modules weren't available during the beta.
i'd look for the best blog software: I did look for the best 'blog' software. Rather.. several years ago I knew I wanted to build community websites, so I did a search of the available software systems that would enable community websites. I looked at wordpress and joomla and phpnuke and a dozen other systems whose names I've forgotten. I chose Drupal because it has a great feature-set and it has a strong community backing the software.
I think gluing together dissimilar packages the way you're suggesting would not work well. I like the consistency which comes from the same thing providing all the services.
To my eye the issue is a matter of presentation. On this site we have the forum as the main focus with everything else kind of attached at the edges. This is very different from how Drupal works out of the box.. in that by default Drupal looks more like a blog.
cut down on the number of forums and create a tighter focus I agree very much with this. There are too many "For Sale" forums, for example.
in the meantime can you look into the possibility of adding table like formatting commands?
er.. I can easily add the HTML <table> tags to the list of allowed tags.
- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/
Table tags, did I hear someone say we could do tables? Happy days I guess I should have asked for this long ago but didn't think it was possible. I would be very great full if table tags were added.
Thanks,
Chas S.
David,
I disagree that using the best from each sector would need to look disjointed. I also think that if one uses public usage as an indicator then Wordpress beats Drupal in today's environment. Although it's possible to make them all play together it would take more effort to customize them (part of being the best is that they allow customization). If I were doing it I'd keep the general layout of top banner and right menu and have the main content area served by an iframe. The top menu would be plain vanilla links to control what was seen in the main content area. The right menu would be a little more interesting in that you'd need to aggregate various feeds from the independent blog, wiki and forum. Everything would be styled to complement one another.
However, I don't have the time or inclination to do it. I was merely suggesting it as a possibility. If you're invested in Drupal and want to stick with it then I have absolutely no issue with that. Just thought I'd raise it.
Give me and Chas the table tag and we'll wander away all happy and content! :-)
John H. Founder of Current Motor Company - opinions on this site belong to me; not to my employer
Remember: " 'lectric for local. diesel for distance" - JTH, Amp Bros || "No Gas.
I know you guys don't like it, but IPB has always worked for me. Like all software you'll want to keep up with the security updates.
IPB 2.3
MediaWiki
IBP/Wiki Integration
IPB Blog Upgrade
IPB Gallery Upgrade
Customized skins? Sign up on this forum, log in, scroll to the bottom left and select a preview of the possibilities (you guys are gonna melt when you see those).
<table border="0" style="border:1px solid #999999; padding:10px;"><tr><td>
<a href="http://www.BaseStationZero.com">[img]http://visforvoltage.org/files/u419...
[size=1][color=black]www.[/color][color=#337799]BaseStationZero[/color][co
You need to know HTML to use them as there doesn't seem to be another way to support editing tables. I can also add some buttons which help build those tags, like I did a few weeks ago with the toys.
I also think that if one uses public usage as an indicator then Wordpress beats Drupal in today's environment.
I appreciate there's a competition between various software packages. And there is quite a bit of choice. There is a lot of sites using Drupal, just as there are a lot of sites using wordpress. As the former owner of a Beta VCR I wish to contest the claim that popular = best. Popular simply means something is popular.... :)
I believe the different systems serve different purposes ... I did evaluate wordpress and it is a nice system with good features, but it's purely about blogging. phpbb is purely about forum chatting. What if you want to do something in addition? For example.. A posting in a forum disappears into the "past" but what if it contains useful information? There's some information which is timeless and should be organized in a different way than the time it was posted. One of Drupal's biggest advantages is the "taxonomy" system which can be used to categorize things in extremely flexible ways.
One thing the recent changes mean for us is it might be easier to achieve changes which improve the functionality and layout of the site.
Don't get me wrong.. Drupal does have flaws and it's not a perfect system. At the same time, I am invested in and committed to Drupal. I'm really displeased with the support for uploading images, for example, and this is one of the weaker aspects of Drupal.
Also, we probably don't have this site organized in the best way. This can be improved, and that's partly to do with the organization of the forums, and partly with the presentation of the other elements of the site.
- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/
Yes, I would cut down the marketplace to one or two forums. But if this site grows fast, then there will be an interest to break them out more.
Thanks for enabling table tags. They can be very useful.
Fair comment! I heard one interesting theory of why VHS beat Beta - pornography! Apparently the story goes that Sony refused to license the technology for blue movies, whereas VHS did. This of course may well be an urban legend - but it is kind of an interesting thought...
I look forward to keeping on using Drupal and keeping our Webmaster happy and content! Did you buy a laser disc player too? The pain of being an early adopter, eh? ;-)
John H. Founder of Current Motor Company - opinions on this site belong to me; not to my employer
Remember: " 'lectric for local. diesel for distance" - JTH, Amp Bros || "No Gas.
My tables are better than your tables!:
LOL!
LMAO!
<table border="0" style="border:1px solid #999999; padding:10px;"><tr><td>
<a href="http://www.BaseStationZero.com">[img]http://visforvoltage.org/files/u419...
[size=1][color=black]www.[/color][color=#337799]BaseStationZero[/color][co
Geez.. can you imagine a table (not a <table> but a table you can put your drink on) with a top like that?
For some reason those pictures reminds of a table in The Hermitage, this museum in St. Petersburg which used to be the Tsar's winter palace.
- David Herron, http://longtailpipe.com/
Articfox,
I also prefer IBP, it's very user friendly, and was used on the old Forum. It's not free, but it's well worth the cost.