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A
Anonymous
June 7, 2009
Question

What are the "forum alternatives"?

  • June 7, 2009
  • 6 replies
  • 18501 views

So if Adobe really does start to come around and consider the fact that this "Jiveware" is not working out to everyone's satisfaction, has anyone discussed or researched the alternatives yet?

Obviously they have had their own internal research but it doesn't mean we can't help and make suggestions based on well functioning examples of high traffic forums that we may have seen on other sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software

Wiki has a section here (if the link works) with "subarticles" that contains ASP, PHP, and "Other" forum software comparisons.

It's not like Adobe is the only company that has a long list of high volume forums out there--what do others use?  I'm sure it's not Jiveware.

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    6 replies

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009
    We are experiencing growing pains (a lot of them)

    We are not experiencing "Growing Pains" — this is Rigor Mortis …

    A
    Anonymous
    June 9, 2009

    Ann Shelbourne wrote:

    We are experiencing growing pains (a lot of them)

    We are not experiencing "Growing Pains" — this is Rigor Mortis …

    You should be a comedian, really. (big obnoxious smiley, for email users)

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009

    well, i dunno about whether they're priced right for their market, but they have some pretty big customers:

    http://www.webcrossing.com/Home/customers.htm

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009
    Only the market can set a "realistic and fair price", it's not up to just Adobe alone. 

    How many of their other customers have quit?

    My guess is that Adobe tried to play the "Bully Card" and were told they could stuff it!

    Basically Adobe has got too big for its boots and has lost sight of its prime market and the needs of its customers.

    As I have said before, I am no longer prepared to help in any of their Forums until they get rid of this format in its entirety,

    "Points" and these ludicrous and meaningless titles (Community EXPERT?!!!) have destroyed all meaningful discussions and left us with only mundane Newby questions and ungrateful petulant responses to any help that is proffered.

    Most of the former contibutors with any real knowledge of the Applications or the Industry have abandoned these Forums.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009

    I know Ann, I agree with you about the forum quality.  I don't know how many customers WebX loses from their pricing plan (even they don't, honestly), but if it's too high and they're a well run business, the price will come down eventually.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009
    Couldn't handle the load of both sets of forums, that's what we were told.

    BZZZT...

    couldn't handle the load AT the price adobe was paying/willing to pay. there, fixed that for ya.

    … which provided a splendid excuse because somebody at Adobe had a vested personal interest in adopting Jive?

    When a crime has been committed, as it has at the expense of the Users of these Forums, just "follow the money" …

    Mark_A__Boyd
    Mark_A__Boyd
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2009

    We are hardly in a position to offer alternatives when we don't know all the requirements for the system. For instance, one of the criteria mentioned is that it should have a points system that can be integrated with another part of the site. What was it ... Community Help? Something like that.

    A
    Anonymous
    June 8, 2009

    Mark A. Boyd wrote:

    We are hardly in a position to offer alternatives when we don't know all the requirements for the system. For instance, one of the criteria mentioned is that it should have a points system that can be integrated with another part of the site. What was it ... Community Help? Something like that.

    We know many of the major requirements, we are the primary users!  And points, really, isn't an important one.  It seems points have been deemed more critical than NNTP support, which really is kind of sad.  I wouldn't say Adobe should be deciding what the requirements are without even consulting their customers, if this kind of result is what we get.

    Now, I've never suggested we do the research for Adobe, just that we come up with a list of actual forums (currently used by major websites) using alternative software to assist in finding something that meets the community's major requirements.

    Mark_A__Boyd
    Mark_A__Boyd
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2009

    Points are not important to you, me, and the majority of users who've posted their opinions in this forum, but they are apparently important to Adobe - very important. Otherwise, my suggestion is to drop Web forums completely and just use NNTP. Low maintenance costs, easily searched via dejanews.com, post code without worrying about translation for the Web, etc. Unfortunately, NNTP does not provide the bells & whistles Adobe wants for their system.

    And most of the flames would be about top/bottom posting, stop sending HTML to newsgroups, PC vs Mac etc... :-)

    Phillip M Jones
    Phillip M Jones
    Inspiring
    June 7, 2009

    Asking question now: PHPbb?

    Kath-H
    Kath-H
    Inspiring
    June 7, 2009

    They need to forget about pandering to youtube-facebook-twitter-games-playing youngsters with short attention spans. They need to consider what the most valuable members of the forums want and need - those people are the ones to nurture, not the ones who arrive in a panic and don't much care what the place looks like as long as they can get rapid, authoritative help.


    The people to consult should be easy to identify, and they are by no means all 'Community Experts'. Whoever makes these decisions should eat humble pie and find out what it would take to get back the real experts who have left. If that has to be NNTP, so be it. If it means speed, reliability, permanent log-ins, stripped-down-efficient-speedy-interface, go back to where you left off - concentrate on that.


    I'm not saying that those who mainly ask are not important, of course they are - they are customers and it's important to attract/retain them.


    But unless the unpaid 'staff' are in place, ready and willing to answer a lot of questions as patiently and accurately as they always have, the place will just fall apart. It will become a place where link-harvesters and drive-by posters play around, giving each other half-arsed answers and squabbling over points.


    I'm definitely not one of the 'elite' of course - so my only real suggestion is to ask the people who matter most, and DO WHAT THEY SAY.

    Mark_A__Boyd
    Mark_A__Boyd
    Inspiring
    June 8, 2009

    I don't know for sure if Jive is all that popular (I'd guess it's not popular at all), but "security through obscurity" is not good security.  So if Jive really is more secure than an open source alternative or even a popular low cost alternative.... well... do we know that for sure?

    It doesn't even work properly and we're talking about whether it's secure, heh, highly doubtful.


    Jive lays claim to some big customers too - and some of them even use it for public forums. But neither is as popular as phpBB, if popular is defined as number of public sites using the software[1].

    Agreed, security by obscurity (or even by proprietary) is not security at all. The unscrupulous do tend to go for the easier targets, though.

    [1] I am only guessing here - no stats to back up this claim or even a desire to look it up ;-)

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