What are the chances that we could have vBulletin or another more powerful forum for posting? I don't know what the response is going to be like when Virtualmin Pro goes public, but I would like to be able to help people out with incidents, and I just feel that this forum does not make it easy to do so. Just my opinion.

Other reasons:

-Can't edit posts in this forum
-Can't set a time zone to see when people *actually* posted

I'd add more as I think of them, but I can't edit my posts :)

Hi James,

Good question. The answer is no to vBulletin or any other forum software, and without any doubt about it, but good question nonetheless. ;-)

We're using OpenACS to provide the entirety of the site, including our ecommerce (which isn't online yet, but provides some nice features), partner program (also not online yet), and the developer program (also not online yet). Things that are online that are also a part of OpenACS that integrate cleanly and work great: Bug Tracker, FAQ manager, voting. The integration of all of these applications and a lot more that we're working on getting in place is what makes OpenACS the only choice (OK, Plone or Zope could have been finagled into doing it as well, but I've maintained a few Plone sites for the past few years and I didn't want to take on another). I maintain another community site that is a combination of Plone for all of the content stuff (forums, articles, etc.), Roundup (for bugs), and a few other CGI scripts for other stuff...it has half a dozen different passwords that a serious user has to keep up with! Madness, and I decided when building Virtualmin.com that everything would be integrated from the very first day, and nothing would convince me otherwise. I would prefer second-rate applications seamlessly integrated over first-rate applications that will never work well together no matter how hard one tries. OpenACS is all in one DB, and our software registration will share it, our bug tracker shares it, and our partner program will share it, etc.

As for your problems with the Forums we are using:

-Can't edit posts in this forum

Actually, post editing is already supported. It just apparently isn't offered to normal users. I can get that fixed (though I've been shocked at just how difficult some permissions issues in OpenACS applications can be--I'm still fighting with Comment permissions in the bug tracker, as everyone ought to be able to comment on any bug, but for some reason this is not the default!). Nonetheless, no reason to jump to another forum over something minor like that. Worst case scenario, you can expect this one to be fixed in the next few days, I think.

-Can't set a time zone to see when people *actually* posted

This one I'm not sure about, but I bet I can make it happen...seems reasonably easy, anyway. As soon as we wrap up the software registration application I will put our OpenACS developer on these two.

Any other complaints about the website are certainly welcome...it's new, and we still have a lot to work out. Some issues are known and being worked on, but others probably are not.

I just noticed that in the "Your Account" main page there is a link to change your language. The page it links to allows you to change both your language as well as your time zone. I'm guessing this would be the first step into integrating it into the forum.

James

Good eye. I didn't know that time zone storage was already in there! (I'm still learning...Virtualmin.com is my first OpenACS website.)

So, yeah, I can't help but think having times be time zone aware would be easy.

First time I looked in, yes there is a place to change your timezone. Also noticed a place to upload a picture of yourself. Wonderful, how could I resist ;-D I do notice a time of posting when I view the forums. I think I'd noticed it before.