Time to say goodbye
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Ok, after we saw what we were thinking about, its seriously time to say goodbye.
I know that pretty much no one is going to give a damn, however, I still hope that I am able to give some points the devs should think about for the future.One of the major reasons for me to turn away from NodeBB is the bad plugin eco system, resulting in numerous bugs and a bad usability (stable branch). On my installation not even emojis are working correctly. Browser layout is buggy as hell on Flyme based devices (UI for Android - in my case this is important as my userbase is using to 95% Flyme) and we still got no native ad support.
Actually I feel more comfortable in a SMF, myBB or even Kunena installation than with NodeBB. Why? Because they are designed for maximum functionality (especially SMF/myBB). Things might not look so fancy and are indeed a bit "oldschool", but at least they are working.
If NodeBB wants to continue its growth and become even more popular I'd suggest the following:
- More functions should be inherited in the core system.
I am not talking about spectacular things here, rather basic stuff like:
- Spoilers
- Emojis (simple PNG/GIF/JPG upload)
- Awards (Badges/Rank - you get what I mean)
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Native ad support
Definitely one of the most important factors when it comes down to large communities. -
Native mobile app
From the feedback I've received one thing got clear for me. No one, literally no one wants to use a website on their smartphone for any sort of texting purposes. I mean, why is there demand for stuff like WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook Messenger, while you could use them as web versions?
I really had in mind to code a native app, however, why bother with the other issues, if I could get a 100% complete solution for little to zero extra cost (10$/mo for dedicated Tapatalk app).
Another thing which surprised me were the "unknown" alternatives.
While I am going to stick with a slightly modified Kunena, I found many other interesting projects.Especially PHPHub5 blew me away:
https://github.com/summerblue/phphub5Looks quite like NodeBB - only the composer is a bit too plain. However, for that they have some really pretty and functional apps for mobile end devices:
https://github.com/Aufree/PHPHub-iOS
https://github.com/CycloneAxe/phphub-androidWould have loved adopting it for NodeBB - but thats a different story.
Nonetheless, I would still like to thank everyone and especially the devs for their support.
Good luck with NodeBB's future developement. - More functions should be inherited in the core system.
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Thanks @julian.
What you guys are trying to do is definitely amazing and way different from what I have seen so far.Nonetheless, it would be great if NodeBB could extend to an all in one solution without the need of additional plugins.
But these are just my two cents.
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Good luck, I can totally agree with some of your reasons. If had a commercial forum with a bigger userbase, I wouldn't pick NodeBB in its current state. Don't get me wrong I enjoy using it for a hobby project, but tinkering to get basic stuff working isn't for everyone.
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I went through this as well. Tough to turn away from NodeBB because it does have great potential, but putting it into a full production environment without dedicated staff to maintain or build your own plugins is just too risky.
I ended up deploying with Discourse, but I do wish that the team on Flarum would pick up the pace.
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@shinyidol I've read your topic as well. Definitely agree with you.
Its actually sad that even a plain forum as Kunena works more flawless than this.For me Kunena will the next thing to roll with, especially because of its simplicity, straight forward use, Joomla integration and Tapatalk support. If it won't be any good, I will just convert it to something else.
About Flarum - I check it regularly, but have no real hopes on it. I used esoTalk and FluxBB for testing purposes and both forums were buggy as hell. Not sure if this is anyhow going to change with Flarum.
