The software behind this very site is called drupal. It provides all the fancy features you would expect from a community portal. This also means, that by providing so many features the programmers cannot invest as much time into the forum-part as the developers of full-blown forums can do.

So yes, there are some drawbacks regarding the functionality. Whenever my time allows it, i dedicate some energy for this site and try to let things run smoothly. Integrating a 3rd party forum software such as SMF or Invision Board is not an impossible task, but currently I don't have time for this. It is not about installing the forum software only. You will need to integrate it into the site look and feel, authentication system, perhaps mail notification system and migrate existing content into the new setup.

If anyone is techy enough to help me out with this task (MySQL, PHP and Linux skills will be required) - you are more than welcome!

Cheers!
Paul.

- "I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka." -Dr. Horrible

the forum is a little hard to use, for myself as a newbie, and i have a decent amount of forum-using skilzz. it appears that you can reply at any point in the thread, making it difficult to follow the train of thought.

drupal- understood about what it takes to run one of these though, i know from experience. is there some sort of "how to be a primo sigler addict and use these forums" guide on here?

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blog | twitter

first, welcome to the newbies!

second,  what might help a bit in tracking down the threads you're interested in, is in the Navigation box on the right margin, click on My Account and then on the Track tab.  That allows you to access the threads you've psoted to and see which ones have new responses.

Hopefully that helps a bit. 

~~~ mwhuahahahahaha ... so it's, you know, coming along ~~~~~~~

that did help a bit

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blog | twitter

 You will need to integrate it into the site look and feel, authentication system, perhaps mail notification system and migrate existing content into the new setup.

Thinking about this- would you want it incorporated with this site itself, or perhaps only linked to a separate forum service that was skinned to look and feel like this site?

Transferring all this content and existing memberships to new servers of course would be tough. Hmm.  

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since we need to use the same user database in order to provide a signle point of account setup you will not be able to use any external services.

How it ususally works:

• a forum software is installed on the same machine (my serve in that case) which runs the portal 
• a template / skin is being created for the forum software mimicing the look and feel of the portal site (including navigatio)
• content gets migrated, either by using provided scripts by the forum itself, or by getting one hands dirty with custom scripts and sql statements
• a plugin needs to be installed (and even maybe developed) for the forum software in order to use the portal's user database for authentication

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blog | twitter

I got lost somewhere around integration and authentication. I'm going back to Mommy's Hubby where I can understand what's going on!!!!

"Even crazy people sometimes base their fiction on an ounce of truth" -S. Sigler

admit it.  Your a techtard just like me!!!!!!  Admitting it is the first step!!!!!!

"Even crazy people sometimes base their fiction on an ounce of truth" -S. Sigler

- "I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka." -Dr. Horrible

- "I don't have time for a grudge match with every poser in a parka." -Dr. Horrible

In the eloquent way our beloved FDO says it...Damn your eyes!!

~~~ mwhuahahahahaha ... so it's, you know, coming along ~~~~~~~