@eeeee said in Please help me, I can't install:

When v4 has Activitypub then this (to me) will be a big bonus over other forums. Do you think Xenforo will implement this?

There have been requests for the revamping of their "Whats New" function for several years. The "What's New" function on XF is sorely dated.
Strangely, for some reason the XF developers seem to be stuck in a mid early 2010 design rut. Some of the stuff may require them to increase their minimum PHP version limits - but that is not something they want to do as it might drive off a noticeable segment of their license holders that are still using legacy shared hosting providers that still are not offering the newer versions of PHP. So instead of just putting their foot down and saying that the minimum will be 8.x, they work around the issues of having to keep backwards compatibility, frequently at the cost of the ability to move forward.

The problem with XF (and what caused some of to be in some hot water from complaining about it) was that for the past several years they made very few QOL improvements (those that benefit the end user) and concentrated on making it easier on the Admins and developers. Granted, that is important, but it's not the admins and developers that keep a site alive, it's those end users that QOL improvements can make happy.

Im kind of impressed that Xenforo have done so well on features (like you describe)

Several of those features are not Xenforo offered. They come from 3rd party developers and are paid. One of the things you will see XF admins hoot about is the cost being only $195 compared to $499 for Invision. The thing they sadly forget is for that $195 you are only getting a forum. For that $499 from Invision you are getting an entire suite, including Pages which is a fantastic add-on.
My site cost me almost $1000 just in software purchase cost to get to where it is and runs about $400 a year to keep the licenses active.

One of the things that surprises me about NodeBB is how nice it is, especially for the "cost".

@eeeee said in Emails still not sending, 535:

This is where I get stuck, where is the DMARC/SPF/DKIM configured and what should it be configured as?

As mentioned, they are DNS entries. In fact, if I remember correctly (it has been a while since I set up the last ZoHo domain related email) the provide the entries that you need to enter into the DNS listing entry area with whomever you are hosting your DNS with.

For DKIM they have help documentation
https://www.zoho.com/mail/help/adminconsole/dkim-configuration.html

You also have to create your MX entries.

I think there are SPF guides for ZoHo also, but this is mine and should work as a TXT entry in your DNS control panel for your root DNS entry (sometimes shown as @ in the dns entry panels).

"v=spf1 include:zohomail.com -all"

And I've been enjoying playing with NodeBB so much I just started another site with it.
Still learning the ins & outs of getting multiple sites on one VPS instance, but I think I may have it.
The site is for the open and friendly discussion of politics and religion, the thing banned on most sites.
I figured it might get some traction with societies the way they are today.
Ideology Central.

@eeeee said in Please help me, I can't install:

That must make sense in some universe!
For your main Astronomy website do you find Xenforo has and advantages over Nodebb?

Main reason that the site admin settled on it (it was on SMF prior to now) was that the site is not that concerned with validating users for valid XF licenses. And some of the people involved have butted heads with Xenforo developers (including me) in the past and under the current XF license it gave an opening to revoking the license in that it could be claimed to violate their terms:

You undertake to ensure that the Software is not used by You or others to engage in or promote: illegal activity; any activity that would violate the rights of third parties; defamation, discrimination, harassment, hatred or harm of third parties.

If they did, that would be almost $200 flushed down the drain, so it's easier to find a solid platform to offer support on. And due to past history nobody involved in the site overly trusts them.

For your main Astronomy website do you find Xenforo has and advantages over Nodebb?

As for the Astronomy site, yes. There are several 3rd party add-ons along with 1st party in use there that have no equivalency in NodeBB and would be extremely difficult to create most likely.
Just a quick list:
Resource Manager
Gallery
Review System
Classifieds system
Link Directory
Social groups (with their own calendar and discussion areas)
Showcase (to show off your equipment)

Then you have the dependence in several areas of custom fields that are used.

Using mail for 2FA is an oxymoron. Just a few steps worse than using SMS.
The most secure factors are a key (I use Yubi Keys) and then the code used by apps.
I would NOT encourage dependence on email for 2FA.
I think it is used to be an option pre XF 2.3, but it shouldn't have been and it was mentioned to them. They finally went passkeys/code via app/backup code and got rid of the email option.

@darkpollo said in NodeBB and Cloudflare:

Is this still an issue? I cannot find any more info in the docs and I would like to use CF with Nodebb...

We are using NodeBB on a alternative Xenforo support site.
We are also using it behind CloudFlare successfully. I had numerous issues before I realized I websockets were in use and remembered it was an option in CloudFlare.
Currently their free plan does allow the use of WebSockets, but you have to turn it on as it is off by default.

It is located under your Network tab in the CF control panel.

@phenomlab I'm scaring 62 this year.
I cut my teeth on this type of stuff back when QuickBBS/RemoteAccess/Maximus/WWIV were the "in thing" for participation. First round was using MS-DOS 3.1 and DESQview to run my QuickBBS site then progressed to OS2 and Maximus/2 with Binkley on the the front end for FidoNet. Ran a 3 line BBS and had a 4th line devoted strictly for mail delivery since I was a NEC and also a HUB in the DFW area.

Unofficial Xenforo admin support site - Xenforo Help Central.
We know it's an oxymoron to run a support site for one script on another, but there were concerns that XF would try to invalidate the license as the site does not ask (nor really care as long as you don't broadcast the fact) if you are using a licensed copy or not. And the people involved are not well-liked by Xenforo developers because of posts they made about developer actions/decisions and that support choice.
The site is more about providing help to XF admins in an area free from monetary based concerns that is usual on an official support site.

There is no "click a button and install" option available AFAIK.
But there is fantastic Ubuntu installation documentation available on this site itself (then centOS one is lacking sadly but I may grab another VSP to play with AlmaLinux and NodeBB on).
https://docs.nodebb.org/installing/os/ubuntu/

You do have to be familiar with working on the command line of Linux (like in the old days of DOS) as it does make some assumptions about the knowledge level of the installer.
If you aren't, then it will be difficult for you to even with cut & paste use as you will probably run into issues.
And if you aren't, then it will probably be difficult to keep the site up and running.
If someone has gotten it up and running for you, it is your job to keep it running usually. Most people are not going to volunteer to maintain your VPS instance for you. That is usually a paid option with many VPS providers.
If you are not familiar with Linux, I encourage you to install it on spare PC (if you have one) to play with, or if you have a decent PC for use then install Oracle VirtualBox on it and set up a Ubuntu instance in it.
I do encourage you to use Ubuntu 24.04LTS if your CloudPanel offers it as an install option. It has a longer period before it is no longer supported than 22.04LTS has (04/2027) vs 04/2029). It also has a longer support cycle than 22.04LTS has (12 years vs 10 years).

@eeeee said in Emails still not sending, 535:

Anyway in AdminPanel, selecting Zoho email, and entering Username and Password... trying to send test email
Invalid login: 535 Authentication Failed

I use ZoHo for sending on our current site. I could never get the ZoHo service option to work. When I set it up as custom it works fine since I have my DMARC/SPF/DKIM configured correctly.

Google is easy to do with the SSO add-in. Twitter and FaceBook now have a mountain of hoops you have to jump through to use their SSO sign ins so I and many other admins I know have gotten away from using it.
FaceBook requires you (for certain permissions) to submit business documentation. Not really worth it if your site is a hobby site and you don't have a business. Yes, you can use your home address information I am sure, but many would rather not give FaceBook even more data to sell.

Just a note for those that are using CloudFlare. You may find your site CSS gets wonky after removing some plug-ins. Mine was some that dealt with the editor. No matter what I removed/added back in and rebuilt the editor was really displaying in bad form.
Then it dawned on me that CloudFlare does caching. Flushed the CF cache and the editor looks like it is supposed to.