Out of all the popular forum software out there, which one do you think has the most challenging Admin Control Panel to navigate?

 

 

Was it due to overwhelming options, a confusing layout, or something else entirely? Share your thoughts and stories—especially if you’ve had to overcome a tricky learning curve. It’ll be interesting to see how different platforms compare!

I actually did a comparison of a few a bit back including screenshots (though I was focusing on permissions, which is usually one of the areas people do have most trouble navigating)

 

I don't really want to repost it here because it's quite lengthy, but https://admin-junkies.com/threads/forum-permissions.5456/ (don't even need to be logged in to see the previews of the screenshots)

I actually did a comparison of a few a bit back including screenshots (though I was focusing on permissions, which is usually one of the areas people do have most trouble navigating)

 

I don't really want to repost it here because it's quite lengthy, but https://admin-junkies.com/threads/forum-permissions.5456/ (don't even need to be logged in to see the previews of the screenshots)

I remember that. Loved that post,

I remember that. Loved that post,

I got bored of arguing with Tracy, but what's new? :P

 

But it really is fascinating just how the platforms differ on just the one area that you can reasonably infer they all have. It's almost the only feature set that they all do actually have, that and setting boards/tags/categories for how topics get grouped together, and even that isn't entirely consistent.

Yeah they all have their own style.

 

I actually tried out the free forums ACP a few days ago. Proboards, Forumotion and Jcink. Out of the three Proboards was the worst. I don’t understand how people can build a forum on that.

I don’t understand how people can build a forum on that.

Patiently.

Patiently.

No, not even that. It’s absolute chaotic and not user friendly. It takes 100 clicks to do something, installing a theme often gives a 500 server error, but the install did go through. I ended up installing the same theme three times. Then there’s so much onlogical placement, it’s not even funny. Pair that with way too small icon, links and text. Like I said, I don’t understand how this platform got so popular.

This is what I mean:

 

[ATTACH type=full" size="1912x833]484[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH type=full" size="1916x486]485[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH type=full" size="796x582]486[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH type=full" size="1174x921]487[/ATTACH]

It mostly reminds me of how things were in about 2008. Inertia covers a great many things.

I haven't used ProBoards since the very early days it came out. I'd hope the admin control panel has changed.

 

I found SMF to be difficult for a while. I think the admin panel could be organized a bit better. For example, why not put all settings in one tab rather than a settings page for each tab? But it's merely personal preference rather than the way it should be. Opinion.

 

But SMF was quick to get the hang of it.

 

vBulletin 6 has been a learning experience. Channel manager is how you add forums, and it can be tricky, too, but once you get it, it becomes a lot easier to manage.

I think the admin panel could be organized a bit better. For example, why not put all settings in one tab rather than a settings page for each tab?

Mostly to avoid making individual pages very long. But there’s many things I’d do with it if I had the chance, but that ship has sailed.

When I briefly tinkered with ProBoards years ago, I found its ACP rather clunky... then again it was for a test board :ROFLMAO:

Forum software would have to be vBulletin I took a look at the version 6 admin CP its still way to much to handle. But that is nothing compared to Joomla and PHPNuke.

At some point in time I think I've used the admin panel of every major free and paid forum software, with the exception funnily enough of XenForo.

 

I personally found SMF very hard and confusing to use as an administrator, which is probably the reason why I gave up with it so quickly (this was many years ago however). I also found vBulletin to be somewhat confusing, and has a lot of unnecessary, useless (in my opinion) and annoying things in the ACP that just aren't necessary and would be ideal to make a toggle on/off setting to save space for admins who don't use them.

 

Of the free software, for me, MyBB was undoubtedly the cleanest feeling ACP with the easiest way to manage things, change settings & install plugins/themes and the like. phpBB also had a great looking ACP and I used phpBB3 to run my biggest forum for several years, despite the plugins/modifications system being rather complicated. The ACP for phpBB was more focused, in my view, on moderation/user/specific section management, all modifications/plugin/theme installations were done through cPanel with just a small tab for management in the ACP which made things super sleek and not at all cluttered.

I would say phpBB 3's ACP is the most difficult one to use for a noob at least. When I first got into forums I went with Forumotion and picked phpBB 3. It confused me, all the user permissions were a bit of a pain to set up. I know how to set things up now but it's not beginner friendly.

Forum software would have to be vBulletin I took a look at the version 6 admin CP its still way to much to handle. But that is nothing compared to Joomla and PHPNuke.

How bad is it? I've never had the chance to look at it. I used vBulletin 3 and 4 though, but I've never used 5 and 6.