Deal-breakers that would make you switch to another software?

[Cedric]

What factors would make someone quit using a forum software. As webmasters, we all want to provide the best user experience for our community, but sometimes the software we choose might not meet our needs or expectations. So, I wanted to open up a discussion about this topic and get your thoughts.

What are the features that you absolutely need in a forum software? What are the deal-breakers that would make you switch to another software? Is it the lack of customization options, slow loading times, or a confusing user interface? Or maybe it's the lack of support and updates from the software provider?

For me, I think the most important feature in a forum software is ease of use. If the software is difficult to navigate and use, then it's not going to be a good fit for my community. Another factor that's important to me is the ability to customize the software to fit my branding and design preferences.

What about you? What factors would make you quit using a forum software? Have you ever switched forum software before? If so, why did you make the switch and did it improve your user experience?

Let's start a discussion and share our thoughts and experiences on this topic.

 

[Arantor]

I know some people that swear off IPS just because by default it doesn't indicate which post number is which in a topic, e.g. your post is #1, mine will be #2. Not a cost factor or a usability factor or a features factor, but simply that.

I also know for many people the factors you mention - price, customisation options, confusing UI etc - are all perfectly valid reasons and one reason I believe that choices should exist; there are people who swear black is blue that the phpBB admin interface is the best, while there are people who swear otherwise that it really isn't. It's all about personal take, and I have long believed that software should strive to not try to appeal to everyone but to pick a place, draw that line in the sand and go 'this is what we're doing now' and try to please that group of people better - as in, let's make 50% of the people 100% happy, rather than make 100% of the people 50% happy.

It's also interesting, when I look back at my own choices; I first used PunBB: I wanted something small, lightweight and with a good security record and that's what I got. But I wanted polls as a feature and I didn't like the idea of it being a plugin and thus something I'd have to maintain, so I went back and looked for something small, lightweight and with a good security record. Then I found SMF and I've been one foot in that camp ever since.

As for since then, I've also been one foot *out* of that camp because the RP scene that I've been loosely in and out of since 2015 isn't catered to by SMF, not really. In fact none of the mainstream forum platforms do it particularly well, but you can sort of cobble it together with what features exist. Hence my determination to do something about that, one way or another.

 

[Cory]

If the customer service of the official board staff is terrible where you couldn't even resolve problems with your own board, I think that could be a deal-breaker.

If the board's load to a crawl due to bad performance and optimization by the developers, then that would probably make me walk away.

If the forum software is not feature-rich enough, I may turn away and go elsewhere.

 

[Ravenfreak]

The price can be a huge turn off for people. I know there's free options and they do well, but paid scripts usually have faster support and security updates usually are released quicker. Ease of use is another factor that can turn someone off from using a certain software, for example phpBB is confusing for some when it comes down to it's member permissions. It was the first software I used and I ran into many issues getting things to show up for certain groups, so it took me a bit to understand how it all works.

 

[Tracy]

Hence my determination to do something about that, one way or another.

And here lay the area that you might really want to look into on extending other packages, if not actually writing a total RP based script that is customized for that use.
Trying to shoe horn a script that was never designed to perform those functions to "work" can be a lot of work....
I honestly don't know how "big" the RP community is... I seriously doubt it touches the size of general forums... but for a niche, providing a great product may be a worthwhile pursuit.

 

[Arantor]

Well... the RP community isn't particularly big, so that's one problem. Secondly, it's fragmented into overall two different ends of a spectrum - the one side is all about very heavily collaborative writing, the other does a lot of stats and dice rolling with storytelling in between.

Unfortunately... the first end of the spectrum is a level of obscene toxic that you cannot begin to imagine until you spend time in it... the sort of community groups that would go after a battling-with-cancer patient with a helpful site out of jealousy and get it forcibly shut down via an FBI investigation (even though there was actually nothing illegal going on).

The other end of the spectrum is a social demographic that I personally find uncomfortable to spend any time around, because I find the level of anthropomorphising of animals that goes on a bit awkward. Like, if you're off having fun roleplaying being a lion or whatever, have at it, but that's not where I want to be.

It's not like I didn't try. I spent a while trying to bring SMF up to something reasonably modern, while adding in the most useful of the features. I did contemplate approaching that from scratch as a couple of other people tried (Vesta, Solus Orbis), and ultimately... the one end of the community I could serve best... doesn't want it. Doesn't matter how good or bad it is, it's not Jcink, it's never going to be Jcink and I realised I was wasting my time caring. (This same group routinely complains that there aren't any new coders coming along making skins, but fails to understand that their toxicity is, by and large, why the coders left. The various gossip blogs that circulate on Tumblr make this very clear.)

I just keep the one roleplay site I participate on running, and that's all now.

 

[Jason]

Well, in my case, phpBB simply doesn't have enough mods to get my community going the way I like and since I now have gotten access to my account (I lost access for a long time.), I got six XenForo licenses to play with (after I upgrade them). Nonetheless, though, I do like the phpBB theme I have now. It's a shame there are no free reactions mods and the like for the current version.

 

[Reverie]

The forum developers quit updating their software and it is getting left behind in the dust. No support is being provided truly - or have a negative demeanor in some way.

If the software lacks in add ons or the ability to customize your forum to the way you want. Lack of coders interested in it as well would make this a possible thing. That also goes with themes - if there are not themes to customize the look I might not be that interested. It depends on the Admin CP if you could customize more so or not.

 

[Jason]

I've pretty much moved to XenForo for my drumming forum; phpBB just doesn't have enough mods for what I want to do.

Anyway, phpBB is still good for other projects I have.