I have NodeBB running, would like to add Wordpress

Danny McWilliams

Thanks @Julian - i've set up a separate droplet on DO so that will alleviate any problems that may cause; and if either side of the site needs more resources it's a case of increasing as required.

Any ideas on how best to configure the domain to run the Wordpress install at it, and use a subdomain to point to the forum?

I.E.

http://www.onlyanexcuse.com - Wordpress install
http://forum.onlyanexcuse.com - NodeBB install

Bear in mind the droplets have different IP addresses, would this cause any problems if I set up the blog comments plugin?

Bobber

@Danny-McWilliams I did EasyEngine and was really impressed https://rtcamp.com/easyengine/

I have wordpress and nodebb on the same droplet
I did connected the comments section and replaced with nodebb, but also i think it would be a great idea to have additional widgets for wordpress in order to promote Community > Like NodeBB users widget / popular topics and etc

As far as subdomain goes you will need to change DNS settings withing digital ocean cpanel and then edit nginx config file.

Danny McWilliams

@Bobber thanks, that looks pretty cool! I'll have to give this a try.

Danny McWilliams

Edit: scratch all above. I've managed to sort it. Must have been DNS taking its time.

WhichInv

Hi @Danny-McWilliams I had a look at your Scottish football forums and NodeBB is working well and looking good.

I saw that you switched from Vanill and that it caused you problems. I only came across NodeBB this evening and until then had been considering switching from BBPress in my WordPress site to either Vanilla/Discourse/VB (though I'm considering NodeBB now too).

May I ask what issues you had with Vanilla?

Thanks

Sylwester Cyba

NodeBB runs on Node.js and Discourse on Ruby on Rails (can only be installed and updated via Docker).

To run Vanilla and vBulletin you need PHP/MySQL just like for WordPress and bbPress.

DevPre

Hosting Discourse is expensive, you can't install docker on OpenVz Vps, the community of discourse is not very good, there aren't a lot of plugin and isn't lightweight like nodebb. I don't like php based forum boards like phpbb, mybb, xenforo ecc. so difficult to make themes and plugins and don't take advantage of the full potential of JavaScript , they are so static.

Danny McWilliams

@WhichInv thank you, it's working well for us - the problems I had with Vanilla were accumulated over time through my own faults and inexperience, other were ongoing issues with the software. I first installed Version 2.0 and instead of a stable version, opted for the latest development builds which I updated regularly. I was an early adopter of 2.1 and the dev builds of that version.

My main issues came with the database. A couple of times the normal upgrade method wouldn't quite cut it, so it was just as simple to install a fresh forum and hook up the database. Other times I used importer to fill the database. Over time, things went missing and sections of the database became corrupt and in trying to install the latest stable version, I'd somehow messed up the database trying to alter things and it was a lost cause.

The other main issue was a combination of spam and registrations. Vanilla is a magnet for spambots, and numerous measures need to be taken to ensure that they're kept at bay. Spammers 90% of the time were registering, flooding the activity feed (which they can access if you don't set permissions properly) and going, even before confirming registration.

There are detailed methods to prevent spam outlined in the forum at vanilla, but it eventually got so unwieldy that it put off registrations. For example, to register we had a "are you human" question (a sum), a recaptcha, username, password and "why do you want to join" question, on top of email validation, Stop forum spam, Akismet... so either new users were put off (unless they used SSO) or locked out of using the forum.

Then, for almost 5 months last year we were unaware people couldn't register because there was an issue with recaptcha; it didn't show on the registration page (that was a theming issue), I thought there wasn't one there and no-one could register because they couldn't see it to fill it in!

That's not to say I wouldn't recommend Vanilla - it is excellent, and has a wealth of plugins to get things done, with a busy support community - if you set it up properly.

I am enjoying NodeBB and though I promised I wouldn't use something in development again, I have been pleased with both its features and ease of use for our users - I wanted something similar enough to Vanilla for them to adopt.

WhichInv

@DevPre I don't mind that there aren't many plugins because plugins are the main reason BBPress is so bad. Many of them are abandoned and forgotten by their creators. As a result when WordPress or a plugin is updated there are frequent problems caused by something to do with BBPress that takes ages to pin down.

NodeBB's large number of Plugins worry me, especially because I can find no reference to plugin quality control.

WhichInv

@Danny-McWilliams Wow wee bit of a journey you had there. looks like you managed to retain enough of your community though to keep your forums viable which is good going.

I'm not a football fan (though I pretend to support Motherwell/Arsenal - won't catch me watching them play) but there are a healthy variety of topics with active conversations on your forum.

Have you had a look for a Wordpress theme centred around forums? I haven't either but there are all sorts of themes on Themeforest, and they rarely cost more than USD $50.