Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with forum

Ye Olde Interwebs Discussion Board

cachondeo45 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:29:25 -0800

I need a community board or webblog similar to this one that can accommodate multiple threads and discussions for the non-technologically savvy folks in an organization. Basically, an organization for which I serve on the advisory board currently handles all of its affairs through email. We often have three or four points of discussion open at the same time, and the emails get tangled and disorganized. But after suggesting a board or something to that effect, several people objected saying that they wouldn't check it if it were password protected; they didn't want to have to log in and remember another password. I guess I'm looking for something that's really user-friendly where people can see the posts if they have the URL but don't have to log in unless they want to post something but by the same token, the content of these communications is confidential, so I don't really want it floating around there on the web. Suggestions? And we have a limited budget (non-profit ) - we would need something cheap or free.

Also, if you can point me to any examples already out there that would serve as an example, that would be great too.

marriage support forums

drlith — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:21:16 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations of on-line marriage support forums that share some of the features of the Usenet group alt.support.marriage in the good old days. I was an active participant in several Usenet newsgroups in the alt.support.* hierarchy, especially alt.support.marriage. Sadly, the group has declined in quality and usefulness in recent years, and I stopped posting/following a couple of years back.

I'm looking for an alternative online marriage support forum/message board that shares some of the qualities of alt.support.marriage in "the good old days," where a reasonably large group of regulars provide the opportunity to explore questions and concerns that unfold over time--or sometimes to simply vent--and not just seek specific answers to a single question.

Are there any high-quality marriage forums out there?

Catching el clasico soccer game in DC?

uk_giffo — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:50:59 -0800

Where in Washington DC will I be able to watch el clasico (Barcelona v Real Madrid) this Sunday afternoon at 1pm? I don't have cable so I want to get out to a good bar or cafe to watch the soccer game. Can any locals recommend somewhere? Anywhere metro-accessible I suppose, but the more central or NW the better. The Washington Redskins and a ton of other American football teams are playing at exactly the same time so I don't think I'll have much luck seeing it at the traditional sports bars.

As a cheeky bonus question (sorry!), are there any useful DC-centric general forums? I'm looking for an online space where I'll be able to ask these kinds of local questions and others. The forums I've found seem to lean quite heavily towards discussing politics on the hill (understably so).

Using the web to make HOAs/Condos click?

lowlife — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:21:48 -0800

Looking for suggestions or examples of websites dedicated to folks who live in Condos or HOAs (i.e. a website for a specific building or development), and what makes them work (or not). I'm in the midst of developing a webapp website for the condo where I live, and taking a look around the landscape of existing sites, things are either basic or barren.

Looking at examples (in Canada), A few sites seem to have gone the phpbb route (such as this site) which is simple and cheap; others are apparently spending money on hosted solutions by a company, but their sites are templated and barren.

If there are other pre-existing solutions out there, I'd love to hear about them. If you live in a community with such a website, I'd be very interested in knowing why it does or doesn't work the people it's meant to serve.

Condensed Matter Forum?

Aanidaani — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:20:27 -0800

I'm looking for a forum that hosts discussion in the field of condensed matter physics and/or materials science. I'd like a site where scientists can go to ask and answer questions, similar to Ask.Metafilter, but a general forum would be good as well. Does anyone know of such a site?

science.metafilter.com?

clearly — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:35:21 -0800

Where do you go to discuss science online? I would like to find the best scientific discussions, websites, blogs, news, etc... online.

As a grad student, I would like to start becoming more involved in the scientific community outside of my school and immersing myself in new research taking place, scientific reviews, and take part in the discussion to better understand my field.

What better resource than the internet, right?

Bonus points if they emphasize biotechnology, genomics, or molecular biology.

What are the best places to talk about China online in English?

Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:48:01 -0800

What are the best places to talk about China online in English? Message boards and e-mail lists are both OK, though I prefer the former format. I'd particularly like to find places whose culture permits starting a conversation either with a question or statement/disquisition/link for discussion. Topics of particular interest to me are contemporary Chinese culture, recent Chinese history, and the Chinese economy. Thanks!

Holy juxtaposition

acidic — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:41:50 -0800

What's the story behind the (contemporary) sculptures scattered in and around the Forum in Rome? When I was in Rome earlier this month, I was surprised and delighted to see almost a hundred white sculptures (many of very abstract, spherical human bodies) scattered around the ruins of the Forum and surrounding areas. Google failed me. What are they? Did the artist win an amazing competition of public art, and was there ensuing art-world controversy? Do the installations rotate? Etc etc.

Forum software

crapmatic — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:01:20 -0800

Forum software questions. (1) As a user, which type of forum software (vBulletin, phpBB, SMF, other) do you like best from in terms of usability? (2) If you're an admin, which forum software do you like best, having tried at least a few types? (3) Which forum software is considered to be most/least resistant to spambots and spammers? Insight and anecdotes are appreciated, as are links to resources on choosing between forum packages and perhaps new forum packages outside the vBulletin-phpBB-SMF triad. Feel free to mention any mod kits that tighten a forum against spammers.

My own general experiences:

- Vbulletin is awesome, flexible, and is resistant to spam without mod kits, but it's expensive and puts you on an annual payment treadmill to get upgrades, even if you want to buy it outright. This is why I only operate a couple of forums with vBulletin. I also suspect from past experience that it may be CPU intensive and may not work well on shared hosting.

- phpBB3 seems to attract more spammers than other forum packages, and the out-of-the-box configuration has poor or kludgy spam tools; my experience is that phpBB3 should never be deployed without mod kits or it will get overrun with spam.

- SMF is small and elegant; I like it and am using it for one new forum, but I haven't used it long enough to know if I'm going to have spam problems.

comics for snobs

sponge — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:20:07 -0800

Can you recommend any graphic novel / comic forums or groups that focus on more obscure, non Barnes and Noble titles? Or that are more focused on the art, illustration qualities.

Related: 1, 2.

Thanks!

Forum with integrated event calendar which users can RSVP to?

carnival of animals — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:18:39 -0800

Do you know of any forum software with an integrated calendar which allows users to RSVP to events, or an add-on/mod that does this? I was hoping there would be an add-on that does this for Vanilla, which is my preferred forum software. As it turns out, an add-on which does exactly what I need was once in development, but seems to be indefinitely on hiatus.

I'm currently looking at calendar mods for Simple Machines Forum and phpBB. (Any recommendations there would also be much appreciated.)

I'm a front-end person with little or no PHP or database skill, sadly. I'd rather not use Drupal or Joomla for the forum, if that's possible.

Best Bit Torrent Forum?

davidaugust111 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:32:45 -0800

Best Bit Torrent Forum? I'm having a problem, plus I'd like to learn more about torrents. Does anyone have any recommendation on an active forum board I could join? Thanks, David

Active writing forums?

Ugh — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 13:57:59 -0800

Anyone know any active writing forums they would recommend? The last time I had time to devote to writing, I was a member of Writers Write but it appears they have since closed down their forums. I enjoy the forums at NaNoWriMo but they're not as active this time of year as I would like. Google results are overwhelming. Any suggestions for active discussion boards? I'm mainly interested in fiction (novel-length), but also in memoirs.

Bonus question, there was a forum I was part of at some point which had the author of Look Me in the Eye as an active participant. At the time, his memoir had been picked up, but not yet released. Anyone know which forum this might have been?

Spanish Metafilter, existe?

Laotic — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:23:03 -0800

Are there any Spanish-language metafilters out there? Could not find anything for all I tried.

Is there a better, more 'Web 2.0', alternative to traditional bulletin board systems?

Glum — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:09:07 -0800

Why are all web Forum/Bulletin Board systems so horrible? Is there anything that outdoes PHPBB, vBulletin etc. and adds a bit of good ol' fashioned Web 2.0 usability to the genre? Web forums are like first person shooters. The developers of both seem afraid to do anything new or different, even if it would create a better experience for the user. Has anyone created a web forum system which breaks the mould that all the others seem to stick to?

The web is now littered with sites and apps that all strive to offer the best user experience they can (Gmail and Google Reader spring to mind, but it's not just Google). Surely by now someone must have revisited the tired old Bulletin Board concept and infused it with a bit of Web 2.0 sensibility?

I know that forums have a lot to deal with - big databases, security issues etc. but surely anyone can see that clicking on a thread and being greeted with a mass of little 'page numbers' at the foot of the first page of replies does not promote user satisfaction.

Forums are horrible places to be, even if you are tech and net savvy, goodness knows what it must be like for the average person.

Interestingly AskMetafilter manages to not fall into the trap and, by stripping out almost all the features of traditional BBs, creates a 'forum' which is easier to navigate and bear. Two years ago this thread asked a very similar question and one of the last replies said, basically "there's nothing new under the sun". Is this still the case?

My forum has turned into a monster I want to disown!

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:02:50 -0800

How can I go about shutting down my popular online community in a way that doesn't make my users hate me? About a year ago, I founded an online community on Ning.com. The network has grown to 6500 extremely active users. As it's grown, it's also become exceedingly difficult to manage. Even with three moderators helping me, I'm constantly dealing with flame wars, angry banned members, and all the usual BS one expects online communities.

It's reached the point where I've started considering shutting the community down.

The question is ... how in the world to do this without making the users hate me? The community was set up in part to market a book I wrote -- these are my readers! I don't want to piss them off, but the group is becoming a time suck and brand liability.

Any resources or anecdotes from anyone who's shut down communities before? Obviously, people would be sad and upset -- but are there ways to minimize the freaking out?

Where do the amateur classical/jazz musicians hang out online?

lemonade — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:36:13 -0800

Where do the amateur classical/jazz musicians hang out online? I'm looking for good forums or blogs for non-professional musicians...I want to hear about the latest repertoire, the latest hot violin soloist, pracise techniques, tricky piano fingering and phrasing discussions, why Glenn Gould's recording of Prelude in C is so stacatto...

Classical and jazz, piano, violin and guitar--but anything goes, really.

How can I migrate PHPBB3 to BBPress?

neilkod — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:36:50 -0800

How can I migrate PHPBB3 to BBPress? I have extensive database skills but not a whole lot of experience in the mysql space. A friend is asking my help in converting a very small PHPBB3 installation to BBPress. No more than a dozen or so users and maybe 50 threads across a few topics.

The closest Google gets me is downgrading phpbb3 to phpbb2 and then to BBPress. Can the hive do better?

Fees for giving "ask the expert" advice

cherie72 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:30:37 -0800

How much would an online expert expect to be paid? I'm looking to set up an "Ask the Expert" service for my company web site. Some have told me that many experts do it for free, just for the exposure. I'm lobbying to offer a fee or honorarium for answering questions (perhaps five per month). I would filter them and forward them to the right expert, and they would have to respond within 24 hours.

I'm finding lots of sites (finance, health, exercise) that let you email a question and get expert advice, and there are a lot of them with pretty impressive experts. But how can I find the standard fee given to these folks or get a range of fees for reference? We're not even sure if we can afford such a panel of experts, and we certainly don't want to insult anyone by offering them too little.

vBulletin is trying to destroy my sanity

chrominance — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:23:33 -0800

I have recently dived into the world of styling vBulletin forums and have discovered homicidal tendencies I didn't know I had. Please send help in the forum of guides, tutorials, and reference documents. The vBulletin manual is woefully lacking in anything past the most basic information and there's a whole lot of counter-intuitive or obscure "magic" going on in the templates—how was I to know, for example, that the $navbits variable would only be accessible to the navbar template, and not anywhere else? Or that when a template calls $threadbits, it performs the inclusion of a separate template and looping through all threads on the page automagically, and doesn't really act like a variable at all? Where are the $thread and $forum variable arrays documented? I've just spent half an hour trying to find a way to get the URL for the forum a thread is in, WITH NO LUCK. This is a ridiculous state of affairs.

Either documentation is completely lacking and you have to just try things via trial and error, or else my Google-fu is supremely lacking. I hope it's the latter. Please post any and all decent vBulletin resources that will shed some light on how to handle templates and styling properly. Things like variable references (and COMPLETE ones, please, not the "complete list of variables!" lists that somehow forget to include the most basic $thread and $forum vars), template inheritance trees, and stuff like that, as well as walkthrough tutorials and basic hack guides (not for the specific hacks but to familiarize myself with the general way vBulletin works).

smart online sex forums: lizard brains can wait outside

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:18:55 -0800

Is there a Metafilter about sex? I'm looking for an online forum where people discuss sex intelligently. All I can find are sites that are filled with juvenile comments and hookup sites. I know that there are specialized sites for people with various fetishes, but I'm looking for something more general. An open-minded community where people can discuss their experiences, fears, turn-ons, kinks, etc. It's fine if there are sub-sections for hookups and "I'd hit that"s, as long as there are more grown up sections, too.

I'm asking about this, because I was brought up not to discuss sex. It's always felt very freeing to me to be able to completely open up, but I don't have many real-life friends that would be into that. And it's freeing for me to hear from other people, even if their sexual orientation is totally different from mine. The web seems perfect for this sort of discussion, but I'm can't seem to find an intelligent site.

mylizardbrain@gmail.com

Call me fish meal.

Darth Fedor — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 21:03:13 -0800

What is the closet thing to MetaFilter, but about books and/or writing? I don't have anyone to talk to about the books I'm reading. It is no fun to finish 'Tree of Smoke,' read the B.R. Myers review of it, and have no one to yell about it to. I just read the first part of 'The Sound and the Fury' and no one was around to witness my brain turning inside out. After reading 'Moby Dick,' my heart was fairly screaming "DUDE! DID YOU SEE THAT WHOLE CHAPTER ABOUT SPERM?! OH MY GOD! HE TOUCHED ANOTHER DUDE'S HAND IN A VAT OF SPERM!" But there were no dudes there to hold hands with me when I needed it.

I'd like to share my own writing with other people, so they can tell me to quit, and quick, before I make a fool out of myself and my family. The writing websites I have found have been, how shall I say, full of very bad writers.

I refuse to believe that all folks who enjoy books whose emphases are on diction, style, theme, plot, etc. are all, by dint of it, above talking about it on the internet.

I am a GoodReads member, but nearly everyone on there confuses the word 'review' with the word 'synopsis.' Or, more appropriate to the level of erudition inherent, 'book report.' There are many folks who write wonderful cogent stuff, but you have to dig to find them. And anyway, discussion is limited to comments on reviews.

Short of finding actual flesh and blood friends, is there nowhere on this wide and desolate internet to rap about books? (And I don't mean rap like Snoop Dogg raps.)

(I mean rap like Dr. Dre does.)

"And all the bells and whistles."

Bakuun — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:03:11 -0800

I'm looking for a way to let members of my forum create an individual "member page" for themselves, or have it created for them automatically upon being accepted into a certain usergroup, that they could fill out with miscellaneous info. To be more precise, the forum revolves an online game, and the member page would have details about their characters, background stories, etc. It doesn't really have to be tied to their forum account, although it would be a smooth way to handle it from the user standpoint. Except I'm clueless on how to make this work. The board is hosted on space I own, under a domain I own. So theoretically anything is possible in the technical department, minus my lack of knowledge. There are so many forum softwares out there, and gallery softwares, but I don't even know where to begin to look for something that offers the functionality I want. Is this a feature I'll have to script in myself (difficulty level: probably high, but if that's the only way, point me in the right direction!), or is there another way for the php uninitiated?

Extra details: I'm using Simple Machine Forums, and ideally I'd like the pages created once someone is of the right usergroup (to differentiate between game members and visitors). Though as I said, being attached as part of the board isn't a real necessity.

All help mightily appreciated. If extra details are needed for you to answer, just poke!

Fireboard plus Joomla: "Out of Memory" error.

darth_tedious — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 11:48:17 -0800

Joomla and Fireboard Memory Problem: Whenever I click on a post, Fireboard breaks and reports that it's out of memory. I've increased memory allocation with php.ini and .htaccess-- it's now at 64m-- and this has had no effect. I'm using Hostgator. Any suggestions on how to get Fireboard operating properly (or for that matter, a host which runs Fireboard easily)? Thanks.

WordPress ~> abracadabra ~> Forum

Rabulah — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:25:03 -0800

Is it possible to convert a Wordpress database to a BBpress/phpbb forum database, easily? I have 3 separate Wordpress databases on 3 different sites, to which I have full access. I'd like to condense them to one database, that some PHP-based forum software can handle, and output as a forum. I basically want to have 3 forums, within one Forum, one for each blog, with each blog posting being a single post in it's given forum. I don't want to integrate a blog & forum. I want the blog to be replaced by the forum. Is this possible, and more importantly, is it easily possible?

I have ~300 posts, so doing them one by one isn't an option, sadly. Are there any special methods I should try Googling, or any websites/software that will either do this, or show me how to do it?

I should add that I'm not very proficient with PHP. I can read it at a basic level, but not code in it.