My site has been around since 2003. Until this past April, I used phpBB message board the entire time. But over the years that solution was getting harder and harder to support. Mostly because the most popular starting point of my site, the Portal, was no longer supported with phpBB MODS. It just got to a point where I could not upgrade phpBB because it would break the most important page on my site.
So in April I decided to go to a WP solution for a message board. It integrates 1000% better than phpBB did. I can just create that Portal page and work from there.
Well.. My solution was bbPress. Yes it got my phpBB board moved over to WordPress, but I found out quick that my users were not happy about it. So about a month ago I found wpForo and it looked like a perfect solution! 2.0 had just come out and I was excited about switching over… Took a few weeks, but I did manage to get everything moved over with some help of this forum! So thank you!
On to my site!
Like I mentioned earlier the Portal page is a huge thing on my site. It is a starting point for my community users. My site is a college hockey site for the University of Minnesota hockey team. So that Portal has not only forum info, it also has the next game, a countdown to the season, summaries of the articles we have published covering the team. It’s just a great place to get a summary of everything for the users.
They key for me was getting what the users wanted on the page from the Forum. Most importantly, the most recent topics and links directly to the first unread post (something bbPress doesn’t have). On that page you will see the profile widget and a modified recent posts area based on the short code [wpforo item="recent"] (with a lot of things hidden with css for that portal page only)
Wow…. This is getting way too long. But a few more things. I have tweaked my site and the wpForo css to get everything inline on how it all looks. I made changes to my site to match the wpForo widgets and vice versa. It has been a fun project.
So here on thee main links I’d love to share.
The Portal: https://gopherpucklive.com/portal/
The Forum: https://gopherpucklive.com/forum/
Add ons I am using:
Giphy, Emoticons, User Custom Fields, Ads Manager, Private Messages, Advanced Attachments and Embeds.
Your website is designed very beautiful, works fast, and it's user-friendly, but I have a question about the portal, I would like to know why is the sidebar on the left side?
In case you want to say thank you !)
We'd really appreciate and be thankful if you leave a good review on plugin page. This is the best way to say thank you to this project and support team.
Your website is designed very beautiful, works fast, and it's user-friendly, but I have a question about the portal, I would like to know why is the sidebar on the left side?
That is a great question!
Thinking about it now, I did it that way because I created that page long before my site was a Word Press site and that is how it has always looked. So I wanted to keep things familiar as we have transitioned off of phpBB earlier this year.
But you have me thinking... I do want to change that to be inline with WP. I think my users have adjusted well to all of the recent changes, so this is a great time to do it.
nice
One thing I have done that has eliminated spam is to add an extra field to the registration page via the Member Fields Add-on plugin.
So I have set registration to admin approval. Added a question field that asks who is the current men's or women's head coach for the school. Then I added the field to the email that comes to the admin. The spammers either do not answer the question or they just add their username in that field.
The trick was finding the exact name of the field created by the Member Fields add-on so it would populate within the email. So I dug around phpMyAdmin a bit and found the field. Attached is what the registration page looks like along with the registration email.
So when that field is empty or wrong, I delete the new account right away. I had this on my old phpBB board for years and it worked great. They key is to have a question that only users of your site would know. But spammers and bots from other places in the world do not know how to handle.
@cotner No need for all that. There are tones of plugins to prevent or reduce spam and bots and other malicious visitors.
@cotner No need for all that. There are tones of plugins to prevent or reduce spam and bots and other malicious visitors.
Not a single spam post in over 10 years of using a question & answer in the registration process... Use what you know works is my belief.
@cotner Sure, i ibelieve you. Just that there are specific plugins for all that. This is what i posted.
I didn't comment on the "technlogy" used but on the way you did it.
@cotner Sure, i ibelieve you. Just that there are specific plugins for all that. This is what i posted.
I didn't comment on the "technlogy" used but on the way you did it.
Totally get it...
I just like sharing problems and solutions that other users may want to know about. I have learned a lot about wpForo just by reading other users problems and solutions. I can apply those solutions to my own needs many times. So I love to share whenever I can.
@cotner No need for all that. There are tones of plugins to prevent or reduce spam and bots and other malicious visitors.
Not a single spam post in over 10 years of using a question & answer in the registration process... Use what you know works is my belief.
It's not only about spammers, it's a good way to ensure your membership is comprised of only people actually interested in the main forum niche.
