what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?

[phenomlab]

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

flarum just indexed 800 unwanted sub-pages with the same page title which is a big SEO mistake

Can you clean that up ? I expect it’s possible with Google Search Console, but something of an extremely laborious task.

[Hari]

@phenomlab This extension is the fix for that

https://github.com/SychO9/flarum-discussion-canonical-url

I’ve checked how nodeBB canonical URL is … i can see they have done the right job

[phenomlab]

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

@phenomlab This extension is the fix for that

Yes, but that’s another extension to fix an extension !!

[Hari]

@phenomlab SEO extension does not do deal with canonical URLs for flarum core.

flarum core sets 10 or 20 posts into a group and they add ?page=1 as the 20th post canonical URL

when I took this to askvortsov. he said if something can be done with an extension it has to be done with an extension and we don’t change the core, i was shocked by reading this.

clark also responded in the same manner (I’m sure he is not into SEO) google says you should not have multiple pages with same title otherwise bot will get confused to give ranking.

imagine if someone searches for what is the difference between nodebb and flarum and google shows /24 th post as the first result? user will not understand anything until he scrolls up

https://discuss.flarum.org/d/28600-understanding-canonical-urls-of-flarum-posts/

i don’t want to talk about this further, it is not good to discuss the flarum flaws without their presence. hope they will realise the SEO part soon!

we will continue using flarum for the next 5years

on the other hand if get budget we will be switching to WordPress (gatsby + wpdiscuz with graphql)

[JAC]

@hari does your forum currently have many posts and users?

[Hari]

@jac Yes, i would not be able to share my domain since I’ve singed a non disclosure agreement with my organization

we do deal with my posts every day, I have a great bonding with flarum

[phenomlab]

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

i don’t want to talk about this further, it is not good to discuss the flarum flaws without their presence. hope they will realise the SEO part soon!

And in the same sense, this site was not created to bash Flarum in any way. It was borne out of a lack of fundamental basics in Flarum that require a shed load of extensions to gain the required experience, where in contrast, NodeBB has all I need out of the box.

[JAC]

@hari Wow, very good stats . I was going to suggest moving to NodeBB would be a simplier option if having trouble with flarum although it seems moving isn’t an option with that may users / posts.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

i don’t want to talk about this further, it is not good to discuss the flarum flaws without their presence. hope they will realise the SEO part soon!

And in the same sense, this site was not created to bash Flarum in any way. It was borne out of a lack of fundamental basics in Flarum that require a shed load of extensions to gain the required experience, where in contrast, NodeBB has all I need out of the box.

Absolutely, although by the same token forums like this simply work because we’re all here to gather advice and find solutions to our tech issues we face, I’d say opinions are welcome I’m not speaking for the platform I’m generally saying it’s good to have an opinion on something and for us it started with Flarum and quite frankly that’s why we’re here because we’ve used Mark’s services before.

What I’m trying to say is discussions and opinions are mostly healthy .

[Hari]

@jac a year ago we devloped a WordPress flarum like theme to switch to (Wordpress + wpdiscuss)

everything works perfect but the page size is ending up around 5mb and load time suks. (do not laugh at me )

recently we explored gatsby and graphql, wpgraph ql now supports wp comments … if gatsby can generate a static page of WordPress comments in future we will switch to it.

recently bbpress got graphql support too.

using gatsby someone may build good static forum. it will be a great experience with Yet another related post plugin and a static page lets see wp graph ql need to grow

google loves related posts and too many links in a page.

and each discussion page should have more content in a way related posts work as content too. quora does this a lot.

even if qoura has 1000 posts they don’t change URL (like nodeBB or discourse)

[JAC]

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

a year ago we devloped a WordPress flarum like theme to switch to (Wordpress + wpdiscuss)

Sounds interesting! I used to mainly run wordpress sites but haven’t done for a few years properly anyway.

Forgive me if I’m wrong but are you looking for a solution away from Flarum?

[Hari]

@jac said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

Forgive me if I’m wrong but are you looking for a solution away from Flarum?

we will continue to use flarum for existing forums.

in future, we will plan something with wp graphql & gatsby

static site with a commentator that would be good enough for our needs.

we may close resignations on current flarums and redirect new users to the wp graphql powered forum. old installations will act as archives not sure.

no thoughts for next 1-2 years

[JAC]

@hari said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

@jac said in what is the reason for choosing node BB over flarum?:

Forgive me if I’m wrong but are you looking for a solution away from Flarum?

we will continue to use flarum for existing forums.

in future, we will plan something with wp graphql & gatsby

static site with a commentator that would be good enough for our needs.

we may close resignations on current flarums and redirect new users to the wp graphql powered forum. old installations will act as archives not sure.

no thoughts for next 1-2 years

It sounds like you have a clear goal, flarum isz a good option and if it irons out its issues it could be big.

Personally if your project with WordPress and flarum don’t go fo plan to id definitely say go for Nodebb as a solid choice.

[phenomlab]

@jac @Hari my thoughts around this are that with any platform - be that WordPress, Flarum, or NodeBB, there is an inevitable “lock in” - very much like Hotel California (“you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”).

What I mean by this is that you are buying into an ecosystem that offers no easy or readily available path out. If you plan to stay for the long term and there is a clear progression path from that project meaning it’s a viable route, then great.

However, all of these platforms (except WordPress perhaps) have a way of ingesting data from other sources, but little to no way at all of taking that data somewhere else. This is nothing against any of those platforms, but the fundamental issue here is that whilst it’s probably easy to move into another product, it’s a different story altogether when you want to leave and take your data with you.

Most FOSS based platforms can realise this and make money out of migrations. I know for certain that wpForo does this, and I also know that it’s something that one of the developers at Flarum has been touting for some time.