What don't you like about SMF

[Allan]

Just wandering what people don't like about SMF, they have the easiest plugin manager, theme installer and updater?

 

[alakazam]

The user interface. I've always disliked SMF's user interface. I haven't used the script as an admin, so I have no idea what the admin panel looks like, but on all the SMF-based forums I have been, I've always found it difficult to get my way around, to find my posts, to edit my profile etc.

 

[Kaynil]

I have no idea about the admin interface, but the forums give me the impression that they are not very flexible. The themes most of the time seem pretty basic colour swaps. There are a few that are crafted with a lot more skills but I haven't seen a skin that radically changes the location of SMF elements like I've seen in MyBB and phpBB.

From the user side, it just feels like a really old software. reading the last 10 posts is a feature I used to like, as you can actually read snippets of the last post, instead of the thread title bumped, which will give me more curiosity and egg me to already draft in my head a reply. It works great for small activity forums but quickly becomes pretty messy as there is not a quick way to check out the threads that received activity like the conventional "New Posts" format most forum use.
If a thread receives 5 posts and another receive 2 in between. SMF will show me 7 posts, which I can read in reverse and get an idea of which ones relate to what discussion. In another community, I only get 2 thread titles in the results, but I have to open them to see what has been posted if it was new.

If SMF recent posts, bundled by thread those recent posts and had snippets that you can click to read the rest (like Xenforo quotes), I definitely would prefer this system as it would encourage discussion than just reading the thread title

If I click Profile it takes me to my Profile info instead of my Profile Editing page.


With all that said, they are not major gripes and I find myself easier in a SMF than a Zeta board.

 

[Shole]

Themes. That's the thing they need to fix and they will be the top free software for forums out there.

 

[Golddisk]

I definitely agree with the others who have mentioned themes. I used SMF for awhile on a project and found that there was very little choice in what was out there in themes.

 

[jyy]

I have come across login problems. It's mainly because forum owners have updated the software, but it's too advanced for the theme. In that case, a code fix is needed, but they haven't done it.

 

[Nomad]

I am a fan of SMF, but there are a couple of things I don't like for example, when it comes to scalability, SMF is not very good. It fails to handle a large user base and high traffic. Compared to other software, SMF has limited customization options.

 

[Mike66]

I like SMF too, I've been running it for many years

Can't say that I've ever seriously considered moving to an alternative.

 

[Dilip]

When was the last major rewrite? The last time I checked the latest version had code that was as old as 2010. Felt that is risky security-wise and didn't use.

 

[Jason]

I tried to make a math forum but the only mod for it won't left-justify. In that case, I went back to phpBB. Anyway, though, besides that I got no problem with SMF.

 

[TwitchisMental]

When was the last major rewrite? The last time I checked the latest version had code that was as old as 2010. Felt that is risky security-wise and didn't use.

Yet it's one of the most secure forum software. 3.0 is also in production.

I am a fan of SMF, but there are a couple of things I don't like for example, when it comes to scalability, SMF is not very good. It fails to handle a large user base and high traffic. Compared to other software, SMF has limited customization options.

Want to explain how? There are several very large SMF forums running just fine.

Besides maybe just the flat number of MODs and or Themes.. not sure how it would be limited as far as customization options.

@OP My biggest issue with SMF is probably the built in theme editor... it sucks..
With that said with the way themes are made, it is better to use something like VScode or Notepad++ anyways.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I thought the last update was fairly nice. I mean they were the last "free software" that I could tell who was trying to modernize a bit even if not as modern as one might expect.

I really don't have much to say about SMF in terms of not liking it these days.

I had drama there. I feel like while I overacted a little bit, I was still somewhat in the right. But that was years ago, more than 10 years!!!

I'm so old. LOL.

 

[Smokey]

It's overall look and feel, feels very dated. It reminds me of a bad/poor version of YaBB (if you remember this software) or ProBoards.