[z64555]

This post: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=53623.msg1733779#msg1733779

The issue arose about a year or so ago when links to programming-mother****er.com would fail in the same manner. The work "****" would be bleeped out in the link URL, thereby invalidating the link destination entirely.

Perhaps make a redirect page that warns users that have the language filter on that "vulgar" language may be on the link, and have a user-settings option to automatically dismiss the warning and just redirect anyway?

[NGTM-1R]

I believe I mentioned this in connection with image links during my first let's play as well, but...

[Goober5000]

This bug has been around for a long time, and one would need to dig into the forum code to fix it.

[Spoon]

This bug has been around for a long time, and one would need to dig into the forum code to fix it.

Well thats why we have admins around... right?

[Hades]

We could just drop the whole language filter, since we're not a bunch of five year old children (and even many of those know the word "****"). Just a thought.

[Scourge of Ages]

We could simply default the language filter to "off" instead of "on", so that it won't mess with links when you post, unless you have it set to "on."

(Unless that's unrelated to the issue at hand)

[Fury]

This bug has been around for a long time, and one would need to dig into the forum code to fix it.

It might be worthwhile to check out MyBB as potential replacement to SMF. MyBB uses a plugin system that utilizes hooks. Unlike SMF, MyBB lets you add plugins and themes without having to modify original sources. Something that has been a huge pain in the ass to maintain with SMF, as you are aware.

http://www.mybb.com/features/plugin-system

And a comparison of four forums:
http://www.forum-software.org/forum-comparator/mybb-vs-phpbb3-vs-simple-machines-2-vs-vbulletin4

Another thing to note, whenever I've seen live demos of various forums in forum-software.org or opensourcecms.com for example, SMF has always had many spam posts compared to others.

Or you can stick with SMF and keep waiting for their ambitious next-generation SMF software, might take a good while...

[rev_posix]

This bug has been around for a long time, and one would need to dig into the forum code to fix it.

Well thats why we have admins around... right?

Admins !~ coders.  Two very different disciplines.  Just saying.

[Spoon]

Yes, and?

[rev_posix]

Yes, and?

Just becasue someone is an admin doesn't mean they can fix/change things in the code of the forum, which is what the quoted post was implying as I read it.

If that is not the case, feel free to disregard my post.

Getting back on topic (sort of), I don't have an opinion on switching forum packages.  From my perspective, it's an HTML front-end with a DB back-end, the actual code is (usually) irrelevant.  Goober and Sammich would be the ones I would look at first if a forum package switch was being considered.

[Black Wolf]

I hope it isn't(and don't think it is by anyone except for Fury). Every time we've done something like that it's been messy, and the system we have now actually works pretty well IMO, especially regarding the forum/main page integration.

[z64555]

We could simply default the language filter to "off" instead of "on", so that it won't mess with links when you post, unless you have it set to "on."

(Unless that's unrelated to the issue at hand)

Well the problem is that the links for users with the language filter on are bleeped out, not just the text shown on the post but in the URL string that is passed to the browser.

It doesn't matter if the poster has the filter on or off when they make the post, because users with the filter off can still see the language in its un-bleeped state.

I hope it isn't(and don't think it is by anyone except for Fury). Every time we've done something like that it's been messy, and the system we have now actually works pretty well IMO, especially regarding the forum/main page integration.

I agree, this is something that I would classify as a "petty nuisance,"  and maybe deserves a notice, place in a FAQ, or a sticky about it until a good solution can be reached.

[Fury]

I hope it isn't(and don't think it is by anyone except for Fury). Every time we've done something like that it's been messy, and the system we have now actually works pretty well IMO, especially regarding the forum/main page integration.

Reasonably good end-user experience does not mean the forum itself is straightforward to maintain long-term. SMF has been horrible in this regard because it requires admins to almost always modify forum sources to apply modifications. It is really painful to maintain and I know that from first-hand experience, as I used to be HLP admin for several years. Any forum software that can potentially make away with such a nuisance is well worth consideration.