4 ms·

The concept of internet forums has mostly been gathering dust for the past ten years while the ways people discuss over the internet have changed profoundly, so

The concept of internet forums has mostly been gathering dust for the past ten years while the ways people discuss over the internet have changed profoundly, so some re-imagining is definitely in order.

courtneycouch0 14y ago
Seems no one has made any real serious attempt to really modernize them.
- mbesto 14y ago
  Stack Exchange?
  - courtneycouch0 14y ago
    Stack Exchange is a break for the norm for sure. I guess I don't really consider it since it's not something you can setup on your site to power your own forums and commenting.
  - tipiirai 14y ago
    Yea. There are definitely something good going on with Stack Exchange but there is lot's of re-thinking on Moot - forums can be embedded on our site with just a few lines of HTML and it works out of the box - because it's a true integration with WebSockets and CORS technologies you have complete CSS and JavaScript control - Moot includes commenting that is as easy to embed as forums - The real-time aspect on Moot is not just an "cool add on", but the app is completely real time from top to bottom. All operations happen in place and everyone get's notified instantly. - "My Feed" or "All posts" are simple concepts but you cannot see them elsewhere. Traditional forums are list of links that point to another list of links and you end up clicking and sufring a lot. Maybe you want to try out search http://flowplayer.org/forum/#!/search/welcome http://flowplayer.org/forum/#!/search/welcome To get sense of the speed too.
- dorian-graph 14y ago
  I'm not sure of what you're imaging but 2 recent new sites somewhat related are: http://www.branch.com/ http://www.branch.com/ http://www.pivory.com/ http://www.pivory.com/
  - tipiirai 14y ago
    Yea. We're aware of both of these. branch is definitely a good one but it's really a different product and market. it's not forums and not really a commenting system for your site also. and we don't take pivory very seriously
  - courtneycouch0 14y ago
    I've seen both of these. Pivory seems not really very mature/serious, and branch doesn't seem like a forum replacement. IMHO pivory is hideous (different strokes) and still feels too bound by trying to simply make old forums "cool". Seems that commenting and forums line really should be more blurred. I know some people really like pivory but I'm not sure it's really a contendor for a serious forum replacement for a real site. At least in my view. branch on the other hand is really quite unique. I think however it's more of a commenting platform or something for closed discussions, maybe for some kind of collaborative solution even.. rather than a forum replacement.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    Wow, Pivory is clean and well done, no threading though, a shame.
    - tipiirai 14y ago
      What's good in pivory?
kybernetikos 14y ago
indeed. this particular service looks good, but reimagining is a strong word for what they've done if the screen shots are anything to go by.
- courtneycouch0 14y ago
  Theres a link to a demo on the bottom to play with it.
  - TheOnly92 14y ago
    The link is so hidden I couldn't have discovered it without looking at the bottom (coincidentally).
joonix 14y ago
Not really. You are just looking at the top, progressive layer of the web. There are still tons of niche forums using old software like vBulletin but with lots of traffic. Anything from car enthusiast sites to bodybuilding.
- tipiirai 14y ago
  That's true. I think JLehtinen refers to the fact that if you are about to pick a forum software on your site today you still have to choose from these very old systems.
  - joonix 14y ago
    Oh, yeah, I agree. These are very bloated, outdated solutions. But I don't think the site administrators are really interested in doing a full overhaul. Could possibly hurt SEO. Porting over old posts and data would be difficult too.
    - tipiirai 14y ago
      Yea. Those are valid concerns for sites with existing forums. We're making importers and dump SEO friendly data for crawlers.

courtneycouch0 14y ago

Seems no one has made any real serious attempt to really modernize them.

mbesto 14y ago
Stack Exchange?
- courtneycouch0 14y ago
  Stack Exchange is a break for the norm for sure. I guess I don't really consider it since it's not something you can setup on your site to power your own forums and commenting.
- tipiirai 14y ago
  Yea. There are definitely something good going on with Stack Exchange but there is lot's of re-thinking on Moot - forums can be embedded on our site with just a few lines of HTML and it works out of the box - because it's a true integration with WebSockets and CORS technologies you have complete CSS and JavaScript control - Moot includes commenting that is as easy to embed as forums - The real-time aspect on Moot is not just an "cool add on", but the app is completely real time from top to bottom. All operations happen in place and everyone get's notified instantly. - "My Feed" or "All posts" are simple concepts but you cannot see them elsewhere. Traditional forums are list of links that point to another list of links and you end up clicking and sufring a lot. Maybe you want to try out search http://flowplayer.org/forum/#!/search/welcome http://flowplayer.org/forum/#!/search/welcome To get sense of the speed too.
dorian-graph 14y ago
I'm not sure of what you're imaging but 2 recent new sites somewhat related are: http://www.branch.com/ http://www.branch.com/ http://www.pivory.com/ http://www.pivory.com/
- tipiirai 14y ago
  Yea. We're aware of both of these. branch is definitely a good one but it's really a different product and market. it's not forums and not really a commenting system for your site also. and we don't take pivory very seriously
- courtneycouch0 14y ago
  I've seen both of these. Pivory seems not really very mature/serious, and branch doesn't seem like a forum replacement. IMHO pivory is hideous (different strokes) and still feels too bound by trying to simply make old forums "cool". Seems that commenting and forums line really should be more blurred. I know some people really like pivory but I'm not sure it's really a contendor for a serious forum replacement for a real site. At least in my view. branch on the other hand is really quite unique. I think however it's more of a commenting platform or something for closed discussions, maybe for some kind of collaborative solution even.. rather than a forum replacement.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  Wow, Pivory is clean and well done, no threading though, a shame.
  - tipiirai 14y ago
    What's good in pivory?

kybernetikos 14y ago

indeed. this particular service looks good, but reimagining is a strong word for what they've done if the screen shots are anything to go by.

courtneycouch0 14y ago
Theres a link to a demo on the bottom to play with it.
- TheOnly92 14y ago
  The link is so hidden I couldn't have discovered it without looking at the bottom (coincidentally).

joonix 14y ago

Not really. You are just looking at the top, progressive layer of the web. There are still tons of niche forums using old software like vBulletin but with lots of traffic. Anything from car enthusiast sites to bodybuilding.

tipiirai 14y ago
That's true. I think JLehtinen refers to the fact that if you are about to pick a forum software on your site today you still have to choose from these very old systems.
- joonix 14y ago
  Oh, yeah, I agree. These are very bloated, outdated solutions. But I don't think the site administrators are really interested in doing a full overhaul. Could possibly hurt SEO. Porting over old posts and data would be difficult too.
  - tipiirai 14y ago
    Yea. Those are valid concerns for sites with existing forums. We're making importers and dump SEO friendly data for crawlers.