iSean

i have been using phpBB forums for many, many years. these forums have suited my needs quite well over the years; however, i am starting to feel the age of the forums. phpBB forums were built in another era of the web and the code it getting larger and larger and they try and improve old code for the current internet. i have fiddled with MODs as you can read in my previous entry, but that’s not quite done the trick.

i have caught web 2.0 fever, i’ll admit. i love using gmail and hitting a keystroke and seeing changes without having to wait for a new webpage to load. i like the CSS designed sites that use scripting to be more interactive and responsive to what i want. phpBB forums don’t allow for this kind of look and feel. so, i started looking for a replacement about a month ago. i downloaded a new forum software package called Vanilla.

Vanilla is made by Lussumo and they call Vanilla the, "sweetest forum on the web." how can i resist having the sweetest forums on the internet? i couldn’t, obviously. i installed Vanilla a few weeks ago and finally got around to playing with it last night. I ended up staying up far too late trying to see if this forum could suite my needs. i think it can.

i should point out that Vanilla is not perfect. and, it’s only a .9.2.6 release; although, the 1.0 release is imminent from what i can tell. i have created groups and categories. i tried adding an avatar and i’ll have to change some underlying code so that the CSS knows where the avatar folder is located once the avatar gets uploaded. that won’t be hard, but that makes me wonder what other tweaks i’ll need to make when things go wrong. i also don’t like that the default size for avatars (called icons, fwiw) is 32 x 32 pixels. that’s awful small when i am using the avatars to try and learn faces with names. and, i notice that if i change the icon/avatar size that i’ll have to change the CSS because it will then overlap with the username, etc. how much work am i willing to put into something that might not even suite my needs until i really test it out? hmmm.

i created a dummy account that i use for testing what my students will see and i think this thing might be ready for prime time. my problem is that classes start in just a few days (Monday) and i am not sure i will time to make the course changes i’ve planned and run Vanilla through the battery of tests that i’d like to try. i’d love to beta test Vanilla with my 1 spring online class rather than introducing it in the fall semester with all of my classes. decisions, decisions.

Tags: vanilla, lussumo, phpbb, forums, online teaching