Forum Mods Suggestions

[mahesh2k 0]

Most of us on Xisto, have our own Hosted forums or associated with forum as admin/moderator/designer. and we're always in search of good MODS for forum. and most of the times official forum communities rarely have this type of discussion. or if by any chance they've it then there are multiple topics related to MODS on different purpose. So my intention behind this thread is to share information about MODS that we feel are good or recommended for our respective forum software. This discussion is not limited to specific forum software. you can post any forum version and mods recommendation here. This is what i use on my SMF forum :1. SMF Sitemap2. Stop Spammer3. reCAPTCHA for SMF4. SMF Syntax Highlighter5. Ad Managment6. Tagging SystemIf you've any suggestion or if you use any other MOD on your forum then please post about it here. (Be it any forum PhpBB, AEF, vb,IPB, SMF, MyBB,PunBB,Yabb etc, just post your suggestions).

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I have about 70 mods on my SMF, and around 200 hard-coded edits. I'll post a list later though. The SMF Media Gallery is a really nice gallery to have, and would reccomend it to all. There are a few MODs I was considering making, but they never happened (though I do have one "MOD" up there).A wishlist for me would be a torrent tracker (complete with stats and the like), watermarking pictures on the SMG, Calendar complete with who's attending (I have a beta release of that).But really what a lot of people want in MODs is already in SMF.

[mahesh2k 0]

70 Mods ? that's heavy for even counting. But for the topic, can you list some them ? i want to know about the MODS on SEO side. if any MOD you've for Blogging integration & other comfort features then please do mention them. and for hard coding, you manually worked around SMF ? is SMF easy to understand, i mean i've looked at code so that's why asking. I'm in search of good SEO mods. Be it any Forum software. please list some of MODS related to SEO.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

Here are some of the major ones that I have installed:

BookmarksSMF Arcade Trophies Mod
SmileyLimit
SMF Arcade
Googlebot & Spiders Mod
Member Specific Permissions
Enhanced Calendar
Bakers Dozen Pages
Event Registration Mod
Advanced Reputation System
Social Bookmarks
Simple Award System
vReportBoard Mod
View Any Topic Permission Mod
Select All And Copy 'Code' To Clipboard
SearchResultsMod
Users Online in the Last 48 Hours
Change Theme Permission
NoFollow All Links
View Single PM
Enhanced Quick Reply Box
Expand Pages Mod
SMF Sitemap
Custom Form Mod
Pretty URLs
Advanced Contact Form
SMF Poll Mod (enhanced polls)
Custom Action Mod
Aeva ~ Auto-Embed Video & Audio
RateThatTopic
RSS Feed Poster
Ultimate Profile
SMF Media Gallery
Enable/Disable Themes

That's really all the major stuff, everything elsse is just template changes, or minor stuff. If you want details on what the MODs are, post here, and I can explain them to you. Really some useful ones there.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

As for easy to understand, it is. If you want to make edits to the appearance, you would edit the template files (either in a cutom theme's folder, or if they aren't in there, they revert to the default ones). For more features, it would be a Sources edit. Everything is clearly labeled, index.template.php is the header and footer, and the rest iis really easy to figure out (ex display.template.php is the topic display and recent.template.php is the recent posts).The only downfall is that somethings can be controlled by more than one file. For example the linktree can be edited or deleted in a number of ways through at least 5 files.And zCommunity is a great MOD for blogging. It is supposed to be it's own software soon, since the MOD's files topped 2MB.

[mahesh2k 0]

Thanks for the list of MODS. i found some of the MODs worth to install as per my theme of forum. *Member Specific Permissions *SMF Sitemap *RSS Feed Poster Zcommunity is great suggestion. yeah, even i heard that it will be a separate soon, but there will be integration with SMF and other forums. but i like the features of zcommunity. I tested it on my test forum. and found it worthy to install on my working forum as well. just holded idea to install it cause forum is with less members and activity is also not there. so i guess it'll be too early to start blog with forum. but sooner or later i'll be adding blog so this will come handy. BTW i heard that there is add-on of drupal and joomla for SMF ? is it ? i mean i didn't googled it nor i asked it in official SMF forum. if there is add-on/mod that allows SMF-Joomla then that will be great. In mean time, i'll try and manually edit templates. let's see if i can come up with something. Just a question, off-topic perhaps but how you manage to get traffic for forum ? via signature ? twitter ? or something else ?

Edited August 19, 2009 by mahesh2k (see edit history)

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

RSS feed poster only works on some servers. It has only posted once on my forum. The MOD for 2.0 is very good though and is very well made. I had zCommunity, but it was rarely used, so I just combined a blog with my e107 site. It was really a website (updates) and band updates blog anyway. I actually think it will be better if it isn't linked to SMF since it will have less work on the server.I believe there are bridges for CMS's and SMF. Check the community forums, there's a bunch listed there.Traffic right now is mostly from direct traffic, and returning members. For new traffic I rely on SEO and I use yahoo answers to an extent. I have a twitter, but is mainly used for fun. I think I have 10 followers. In more detail, my disturbed site was completely built up from traffic from YouTube videos, and posting on the official site. I use a great deal of yahoo answers for this site. For my all that remains site, it was completely dead until a live chat with the band, and the lead singer posted it on myspace and twitter. YouTube helped a bit too.

[mahesh2k 0]

Thanks for the info. for feeds, i'm experimenting with twitterfeed, i got 30 followers because of tweeter feed. most of them are not registered on the forum but they do send @ messages and direct messages on twitter regarding forum posts. so it feels good that even if not registered, posts are being read. earlier i used to think all my traffic is fetched by mods. but after response from twitter found that there are few lurkers as well. Instead of zcommunity, what you think about other cms ? i mean joomla or drupal ? which one is better choice for forum usage. My experimental approach won't work always and it could harm forum so taking suggestions wherever possible. BTW, how you worked around MOD "pretty URL's" cause i tried it with two different forum(test), and they're screwing forum instead of changing URL structure. so revert back to the old URL structure. One more question, is there any group or team you know who code SMF themes ?

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I have used Drupal, but never used it for a production site. I was originally going to move my e107 CMS to Drupal, but embedding remote videos were a hassle to do in Drupal, and I never received support on the Drupal boards. I haven't received support on e107 either, but there haven't been many problems with it so far. I have never used Joomla, but have heard positive things about it. It is one of the more popular CMS' out there, so you are bound to get good support and regular updates there.Pretty URLs is great. I have it currently enabled. The thing that is key is manually editing .htaccess of your directory. If you go on the MOD's support topic on the community, Danii will give you the specific code that you need to add. It really helps with SEO, and is nice to have for a direct URL to something it just takes knowing what the board is or the topic is. The default URLs and the "SEO URLs" that are in the default package aren't that good.Yes. Dzinerstudio.com, Tinyportal.net are two of the best places to get themes. If you have a specific look in mind, I can give you specific themes.

[mahesh2k 0]

Yeah, i heard some good things about Joomla as well. and i guess integrating joomla with SMF will be a good option. i'm going to contact SMF & Joomla support forums for this before getting started to check if i get prompt response in case i get stuck in next few steps. I'm not sure if Wordpress/Habari can be integrated and i guess it'll be pain if i added wordpress with SMF cause there are lot of updates for it these days. So going with Joomla,let's see if it works on test machine will try it finally then.My problem with Pretty URL MOD is that i installed it and when i rewrite .hta nothing was working. every URL be it login or threads. all are screwed up. will try asking this on SMF forums soon. but is it necessary to apply this MOD earlier i mean i've got more that 300 posts on forums. so is it too late to apply this MOD ?Yes, for themes i've few mockups in my mind and i've made it on Photoshop as well. Looking for more like professional theme(like appbid.com site's look )your help for themes in this is appreciated. Do let me know if any theme or designersite pointer for this.

[Phoenix.Illusion 0]

Yeah, i heard some good things about Joomla as well. and i guess integrating joomla with SMF will be a good option. i'm going to contact SMF & Joomla support forums for this before getting started to check if i get prompt response in case i get stuck in next few steps. I'm not sure if Wordpress/Habari can be integrated and i guess it'll be pain if i added wordpress with SMF cause there are lot of updates for it these days. So going with Joomla,let's see if it works on test machine will try it finally then.

My problem with Pretty URL MOD is that i installed it and when i rewrite .hta nothing was working. every URL be it login or threads. all are screwed up. will try asking this on SMF forums soon. but is it necessary to apply this MOD earlier i mean i've got more that 300 posts on forums. so is it too late to apply this MOD ?

Yes, for themes i've few mockups in my mind and i've made it on Photoshop as well. Looking for more like professional theme(like appbid.com site's look )your help for themes in this is appreciated. Do let me know if any theme or designersite pointer for this.

I dont actually think that is a good idea.
For a start they are both easily hackable and I know they are and there are probably 100 hackers on here that know how to hack.

We are just awaiting upon the admins!?!

- Dark Archer

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

I dont actually think that is a good idea.For a start they are both easily hackable and I know they are and there are probably 100 hackers on here that know how to hack.

We are just awaiting upon the admins!?!

- Dark Archer

OK, please stop signing your posts. There's a signature place for a reason.
Secondly, knowing 100 people that can easily hack SMF is impossible. There are currently no reported cases of SMF 2.0 RC1.2 or 1.1.10 being hacked without a password being compromised. Enlighten me.
And what are we waiting for the admins for?

Yeah your best idea is to post on the support topic. I know that it works with these servers, but there might be something that you have to manually edit or the like.

For a light theme would this work?
http://www.dzinerstudio.com/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item49

There aren't that many good white themes out there, above is probably the best.

[mahesh2k 0]

I dont actually think that is a good idea.For a start they are both easily hackable and I know they are and there are probably 100 hackers on here that know how to hack.

Easily hackable ? that's news for me. can you point to the cases where you find joomla and SMF easily hackable ? 100 hackers here on trap ? what do you mean by that, please explain.
and if smf, jommla is easily hackable i wonder what would be your recommendation then ? custom cms ? or any other suggestion ?

We are just awaiting upon the admins!?!

Admins ? for what ? I'm not getting your replies.




@Disturbedone:
that's good theme. but will need lot of modification to css in order to make it look like i wanted. especially on navigation, footer side. Do you've any idea how much custom SMF theme could cost ? i mean if i go for custom theme what would be the price. cause the themes i'm looking for are more of simple, accessible and not fancy so price must be cheap right. So in search of design companies that can do this job for me. depending upon price quote i'll decide if it is worth to spend on theme right now or adjust with current theme modification.

I've seen few freelancers on SMF official forums. let's see if they're willing to work with me on this. if it works out i'll redesign my forum. in between,i'll update this thread with any new MOD plugin for forums software.

[TheDisturbedOne 1]

The custom themes for SMF will run you about $30-$200. It depends on what you are looking for. You can try posting at the help wanted boards on the SMF community forums. I could try to make you one if you have something specific in mind. I haven't made any custom themes from scratch, but I have modified my current theme to make it highly "custom". I have avoid idea on how to do themes on 1.1.10, and a basic knowledge of how to do themes on 2.0. If you want me to try something, pm me here or post back here.

[mahesh2k 0]

30-100$ not bad price. but again i've no idea how the price is arranged. i mean i've simplest design in mind. so got post on that forum in order to get custom quote. yeah, i agree as 1.1.10 being short term release not worth to design theme for 1.x branch now. so it is better to check how SMF 2.0 styles are designed. If you can post here about SMF 2.0 customization(as tutorial) it could help me as well as others as well ( and mycents too! : p). it'll be a good to see a post on SMF 2.0 theme customization. In between i'll come up with Photoshop psd,and i'll pm you. i would love to learn theme customization from you.