New Forum?

With things like private messaging M.I.A on Joomla, or causing the site to crash until I could uninstall the only one compatible with the current Kunena forum is it time we considered migrating the forum part of the site to dedicated forum software like SMF or phpBB? This would allow private messaging BUT would require members to login to the forum separately given it is a completely separate portal to the website itself.

Other than private messaging I see no other reason to consider it to be honest but I am putting out here for discussion to see what members think.

I offered SMF/phpBB as they are freeware. There are others like IP.Board which could replace Joomla completely (Retromags runs on this platform for example) but it comes at a truly horrid up front initial cost for all that functionality. I love the idea of it but ..... Yikes!! Sticker Shock!!

I have been looking at SMF for a while but the Download Manager is ugly and linking to Mediafire kept throwing up an error as I think it expects locally hosted files.

I saw similar issues with php-fusion back on version 7 but I have have to say version 9 is a big improvement in every way. The download manager supports linking to file-hosted content and masks off the URL and is easy to add content. It has built in forums, supports tracked threads so you can choose to be notified when an update occurs right on the front page and I can use the NEWS feature to update the front page directly without having to post something like new releases in the forums if I don't want to. There's also a shoutboxThink of it as a free alternative to IP.Board. It looks like this in action ......



Clicking on Downloads shows a list of files with the categories on the right hand side as seen below ......



All in all it now looks and feels better than Joomla which definitely could not be said for version 7. I could easily get into using this in preference to Joomla as the benefits far outweigh staying with the current Kunena forum ...... but ..... and it's a big BUT ..... the oldgamemags.com links directly into Joomla so the only way I could see this replacing it would be to take down Joomla completely to free up the public directory for a new install of php-fusion.

The only other option I can see is to purchase another domain name (like I did with KiwisWorld a while ago and run Joomla on OGM and php-fusion on the new domain until the new site is updated then cut it over. But it is worth considering the small cost (domain registration) as this platform is easy enough to use that I could see Jason or even kitsunebi being good to add content to the site so making it easier for me by reducing my current one-man band workload.

Thoughts?

Anyone interested can now go to www.oldgamemags.net and see phpfusion in action.

I have made a download available to the public so you can see the download page in action without the need for an account. All available issues of this magazine have been added to the site to verify membership restrictions are working correctly.

Private Messaging works

Download Statistics works. Now you can see how many times members have hit the downloads ... now THAT beats the current setup because well, she's broken Jim!!

And I've just uploaded my first scan after some coaching from Kiwi With more hands on board we'll be able to get scans up on the site quicker than ever

Leon wrote: I haven't been able to log in or reset my password (it says an email is sent, but I don't receive one).

That's because I haven't migrated the member database yet. It was explained on the New Releases thread a few days ago.

Jason and I are currently neck deep in the task of adding the download database content over there (both current and new content). We need to determine if the platform can handle the jandle as far as stability is concerned with several thousand mags. If it can't then it is a waste of time continuing with it. We are now at approximately 2500 files added to the download portal and it's looking pretty good. Double that and if it stays that way I will be confident enough to start migrating users over.

Jason and I both have email addresses for contacting us regarding anything related to the site. They are This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We will have these noted on the new site.

As far as an update on progress over there we now have 3300+ mags migrated across to the download platform.

Once we hit somewhere between 4000 - 5000 mags added I will commence adding everyone to the member database.

There are a couple of differences with the new site in regards to the download section which will become obvious when people are migrated. The biggest difference is that newer content not able to be released, or because I choose for it not to be released, is now not visible to members. In retrospect this should have been implemented on the current site as well as all it has done by making it visible is encourage incessant moaning by one or two people who want everything with little regard to the reasons why it isn't available so removing them from sight solves that problem.

Anyways, all will be revealed soon!!