Quote from: RE on Feb 02, 2025, 10:52 AMSimple Machines Forum (SMF) is the database/forum software the Diner runs on.  It's a very old, open source piece of software that has evolved over the years as a HUGE number of independent developers contributed their time to create a variety of modules that increased its functionality as well as addressed a variety of security issues that have cropped up over the years.  Not all the modules are of equal quality because all the developers who added stuff weren't equally proficient, nor did they generally go through all the source code to look for places where one module might interfere with or trip over the code in another one.

As a result, the final product isn't always altogether stable, particularly if it gets interfered with from outside, as this one periodically does.  Sometimes this is the MIB poking around, sometimes the SMF folks issue updated versions, and sometimes Kdog himself who likes to tinker and tweak things makes a change which have unanticipated consequences.  The current version is v2.1.4

This version is pretty good , but it does have weaknesses I don't like, a major one is very old which is how threads get tied together.  They default to the topic of the OP as reference, and if that gets changed or disturbed later, it can orphan all the subsequent posts made in the thread.  They are still there, but they don't appear in the thread when you don't address it directly.

Anyhow, overall we don't lose too many postsand since Forums have gone out of style in favor of social media, there's nothing available FOR FREE that's better than SMF for running a forum.  It has a lot of functionality with levels and controls and for the most part operates quickly and has a good search engine.  It's not perfect though, so you gotta live with a few problems.

RE

That is a very good explanation.  I have since made modifications to our version, and I did them in the right way to share as mods for others to download.  Quite a few hoops have to be jumped through do a mod right, but I learned how to do it.  Then I found out the people now behind SMF are a closed shop of total and complete assholes.  They are only letting mods happen at defined breakpoints, be that appropriate or not.  Fuck that. 

Our version is the most stable version, and there are no new plans to create a new release on the existing code base.  The SMF mofos are going object-oriented.  The upshot is from here on out the Diner rolls it's own.

We have the right to do anything we wish with our version and future modifications will be as custom as I desire.  As long as a backup exists everything is fine.  (not to be confused with a database backup).

And concerning the database, Comrade Simba has been restored, his old posts have been linked to his new identity.