Forum Update

[pinzgauer]

I did a bit of poking around and learned some nuances:

The main one being Fora (with an a) is different than foro/xenforo. But it's a bit complicated.

Xenforo forum software was/is developed by the two original developers of vbulletin.

While not free it's licenses are fairly inexpensive and you can get selfhosted or cloud versions with varying options. It is fairly well respected and one of the top contenders. {(If not the top)

As of what I can tell from searching today it has not been acquired by vertical scope though that is a constant rumor.

Vertical scope does use a highly modified version of xenforo on their forums. So a lot of people tend to conflate the two together, so most forum admins say the vertical scope modifications make the user experience unrecognizable versus distribution xenforo.

Vertical scope does own and promote Fora (with an a) as a forum reading App. It is widely hated, with good reason.

What about other apps for xenforo? Most folks complain about the current app offering from xenforo as well, though they are supposedly in development of one that is much nicer.

The outline in earlier post of what tapatalk allows you to do efficiently is exactly right. I can see on red post s and go straight to them without having to go through pages of stuff I've already seen. I can Mark her form red. I can easily upload images directly to the forums and attachment. Ads, if present, are very unobtrusive.

Virtually none of the above occurs using a mobile phone on most native forums.

If M4C has apps other than Fora, I'll give them a try. But if it does not accomplish the above points, my participation will dwindle as my time to read m4c on my laptop is 2% of the time I spend compared to tapatalk.

There are forums I used to participate in more than m4c that I rarely go to now because of their miserable web experience on phones and no TaT sppt.

I appreciate the staff / admins sharing what they can and hope there is a path forward for all of us.

[Diamondback]

Have ya READ their Terms of Service lately? Discord chat app's TOS are so cryptocommie "we can yoink you for ANYTHING we don't like" that my politics group closed our membership and rename ourselves to be as gray-man as possible.

https://discord.com/guidelines/

'Do not use hate speech or engage in other hateful conduct. This includes the use of hate symbols and claims that deny the history of mass human atrocities.

We consider hate speech to be any form of expression that either attacks other people or promotes hatred or violence against them based on their protected characteristics.

We consider the following to be protected characteristics: age; caste; color; disability; ethnicity; family responsibilities; gender; gender identity; housing status; national origin; race; refugee or immigration status; religious affiliation; serious illness; sex; sexual orientation; socioeconomic class and status; source of income; status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking; and weight and size."
So much room for abuse there.

"Do not organize, promote, or support violent extremism. This also includes glorifying violent events or the perpetrators of violent acts, as well as promoting conspiracy theories that could encourage or incite violence against others."
IOW, BLM/Antifa good, J6/other ostensibly-right bad.

"Do not share real media depicting gore, excessive violence, or animal harm, especially with the intention to harass or shock others."
Bye-bye hunting pics and Terminal Ballistics discussion.

"Do not share false or misleading information (otherwise known as misinformation). Content that is false, misleading, and can lead to significant risk of physical or societal harm may not be shared on Discord. We may remove content if we reasonably believe its spread could result in damage to physical infrastructure, injury of others, obstruction of participation in civic processes, or the endangerment of public health."
Now who have we heard THAT from before?

"Do not organize, promote, or engage in any illegal behavior, such as the buying, selling, or trading of dangerous and regulated goods. Dangerous goods have reasonable potential to cause real-world, physical harm to individuals. Regulated goods have laws in place that restrict the purchase, sale, trade, or ownership of the goods. "
Bye-bye Classifieds!