Also looks like SMF is no different in having a bunch of drama. I guess that's just typical humanity and it's found everywhere. XenForo had something similar if I recall correctly. Every software company probably has this once in a while.
I haven't heard of StoryBB before so I did a quick search, looks like it's already packed with a lot of features and I image it being a great platform for roleplaying. I dunno about IPS, I like their software and have always been an IPS fan throughout my years but ever since a couple of year ago, XenForo has won me over and I think they are more solid than IPS. I also believe XenForo will take the high lead from IPS (if they haven't already) since there's a lot more devs backing up the software. And we all know 3rd party devs are the backbone of any software, let's be honest about that.
I think your future ultimately lies either being a 3rd part dev for XenForo, or teaming up with someone to create your own software and compete with IPS and XenForo.
I don't know if you had the chance to look into flatboard, but that software also developed quite nicely throughout the years.
Every place has drama after a while; that's just the function of people growing away from each other, and/or more people coming in wanting to make their mark on the place. It's just frustrating that SMF's particular drama evolved the way it did, in a way that left nobody happy.
I think this time of year is leaving me with a lot to think about, the last few days being ill (again) and with the new year coming, it's given me a lot of time to think and reflect on what I've been doing and where I want to go. Reality is I don't sit well when I'm waiting around; all of the XF 2.3 roadmap discussion irks me because I've had the exact same discussion on SMF and it's like... yo, you guys, I have a bunch of things I want to give you but I'm not spending the effort cleaning it up etc. only to be told it's not on the roadmap. I found myself being a lot more 'going my own way' for my free time projects.
We shall see what the new year brings.
What are all the web development languages you know?
On the front end, it's HTML, CSS, JavaScript (plus jQuery/jQuery UI, Vue with some passing React; they're not languages at all but people talk about them as if they are), though I suppose I could experiment with anything that'll transpile down to WebAssembly, but I find I'm a) not really a frontend guy, I just make do, and b) I definitely find I need a project to learn something with, I can't learn it 'in theory', so I would need to find a project that made sense to me to do in WAsm and go from a different language, one which I probably already know, to it but I'm not sure that would really get me anything.
For the backend though, where I habitually live, it's a lot more complicated. You can do 'web stuff' on basically anything that will talk to a network and handle TCP/IP, though the protocols have gotten more and more complicated over time (especially if you're doing HTTPS without having Apache or nginx handle it for you). PHP is my go-to, but I've done web stuff in Python, ASP Classic, ASP.NET, Node, Go and Ruby over the years. I don't know if Rust has gotten to the point where it can be used (realistically) for web stuff, I know it's certainly been *doable* but there's a difference between tech demo and real world production use at scale.
I run SMF forum. Since you said you have worked in the SMF dev team, I would like to ask a few questions.
How do I install SSL from Let's Encrypt (my host does not support Let's Encrypt)?
When I migrated to a new host, all the images, including avatars, vanished. How do I address this issue?
This isn't really an SMF problem, because this is a webserver problem, either Apache or nginx, and SMF sits above that layer in what we would normally call application space.
If your host is using Apache, you *may* be able to set up the necessary things in Apache yourself, but this is not for the faint of heart. If they're using only nginx, then you'll have to use whatever certificate features they offer because you won't have access to any of the configuration directly to do this yourself.
I think you said in another topic that you were using Namecheap, which I'm mildly surprised doesn't offer LE certs out of the box, but in this case you can supply certs yourself as I understand it (I don't have a Namecheap hosting account, all my personal stuff is on Linode), but you'll need to do it every 2-3 months because that's how long LE certs last for. I believe - though haven't verified - that you can manually produce certificates and upload them, but no-one wants to do that manually forever. They do offer certs for as low as $5.99/year if you're buying for 5 years, but honestly I'd look for a better host.
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