esoTalk Review
Last Version | 1.0.0b2 (December 9, 2009). | Released under | GPL License. |
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Resources |
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Price | Free. |
Last Version | 1.0.0b2 (December 9, 2009). | Released under | GPL License. |
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Resources |
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Price | Free. |
esoTalk is a free and open-source forum application. The main aims in the mind of its developer are: being as simple, fast, light as possible, and provide, for talented users, to extend it as easy as possible.
Clearly, esoTalk is on the same battlefield of PunBB, Fruitshow or Vanilla. You won't find big (who says laggy? Do I hear useless too?) features, and if you want such, you will have to rely on the community plugins. esoTalk is in the same category than Punbb and Vanilla: voluntarily simplistic and resolutely modern. It tries to reinvent some features that you see everywhere in all other forum, but with a different manner, and also renounces to implement some of them that do not look so important. Let's see if it is sufficient to have a good forum software...
Server Requirements | ||
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Programming Language
Required Architecture and Versions.
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Web Servers
How the forum is delivered to users.
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Databases
How Forum Data are Stored.
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Operating Systems
Systems Supporting this Software.
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Browser & Client Requirements | ||||||||
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Compatible Browsers
List of Compatible Browsers.
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Required Plugins/Technologies
Additional or Basic Requirements from Client Side.
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Javascript, AJAX. | |||||||
Localization
Languages supported by esoTalk.
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Yes.
Supported Languages:
Consult the List of available languages for more information. |
Extremely simple to install, esoTalk just requires a PHP / MySQL architecture.
Compatibility with Smartphones | |
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Compatible SmartPhones
Compatible Cellphone Brands and Manufacturers.
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No. |
Application Distribution / Type
How it is distributed / App Store Availability
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No. |
Forum Threads / Topics | |||
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Forum Style | Flat | Forum Organization |
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Thread Icons | No | Topic Tags | Yes |
Hot Topics | No | Unread Topics | Yes |
Hidden Topics | No | Sticky Threads | Yes |
Related Threads | - | Detect Duplicate Threads | No |
Announcements | No |
Posting Messages / Answers | |||
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Message Editing Form
How to Post Messages.
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Post Editing Format
Supported Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
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Spell Checker
Checks typos on posts and topics.
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No | ||
Image Attachment
How Images can be Attached and Displayed in Message Posts.
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Embedded Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts.
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No. |
Posting Features | |||
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Quick Reply Box | Yes | Smileys | Plugin |
Attachments | No | Syntax Highlighting | No |
Message Rating
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Yes | Message Quoting | Yes |
Additional Forum Features | |
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Poll Creation | No |
Private Messages
Users Can Communicate using an Internal Messaging System.
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No |
Instant Messaging
Discuss with Visitors and Members in a Chat Window.
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No |
Calendar
Topic, Member Birthdays, Events are available from the perspective of a calendar.
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No |
Online Users List
Connected User List (Often Found in the Forum Footer).
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No |
Members List
Search and Consult the List of Members.
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No |
Technical Features | |
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Bundled Software
Additional Software Available with the Forum.
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No. |
RSS/Atom Syndication
Posts and Threads Exported to Feeds Aggregators
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No. |
Friendly URLs
URLs are clear and contain information about the topic (title, message,...).
Highly recommended for SEO purposes.
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Yes |
Post by Email
Post Directly From your Email Box.
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No |
Remote Control
Remote Control from External Software/Websites.
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No. |
Cache System
Cache pages to optimize bandwidth and load times.
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No |
Template Engine
It is easier to theme a forum using a known template engine (more docs & examples,...).
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No. |
esoTalk does not want to compete with other classic forum softwares, and that's why classic features like calendar, user list and so on are not present here. It's not due to a lack of time (or maybe, a little bit , but only because the primary target of its main developer is to focus on a simple forum software.
Member Options & Features | |
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Bookmark Threads
User Profiles Keep a List of Followed Posts and Topics.
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Yes |
Email Notifications
Receive Emails When New Messages are Posted in Followed Threads.
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Yes |
Export private messages
Private Messages can be Downloaded by Users.
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No |
Payment Subscriptions
Paying Membership Subscription.
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No |
User Profiles | |
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User Profile
User Information and Settings.
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Yes |
Avatars
Pictures of Members, Useful to Easily Identify their Posts.
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Yes |
Signature
Signatures Added at the Bottom of Each Message.
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No |
Ranks
Tags and Labels Identifying the Members, based on specific criteria (Total Posts Count, Credits, Moderation Level...)
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No |
The user profile is at least as simple as the forum itself: type your email, upload your avatar and configure some properties... That's it, your user account is ready.
Moderation & Threads Management | ||
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Moderation |
Post-Moderation
The moderation is done afterwards, if an administrator notices a problem or if a member reports something wrong. Each message is therefore directly published.
Reactive Moderation
By reporting any problems, members are reactive against moderation problems.
Moderators' main objective is to regularly check user reports, without having to follow each threads.
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Moderator per section | No | |
Global Moderator | Yes | |
Move Threads
Move Threads from Topics
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No | |
Shadow Topics
When a thread is moved, the previous position is kept in order to inform users of this modification.
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No | |
Close/Lock Threads
Close/Lock Problematic Threads
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Yes |
Users Management | |
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User Groups
Organize and define groups of users, and apply different actions and settings on them.
Common Groups: Guests, Members, Moderators, Administrators,... |
No |
User Registration |
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Limit Features For New Users
Features are limited if a user has created a small number of posts.
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No |
Guest Posting | Yes |
Multiple Administrators | Yes |
Send Warnings to Users
Inform users by email or PM that they infringe the board rules, and could be excluded for such behavior.
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No |
Forum/Section Restricted Access
ACL could be use to determine if a user or a group of users can access (in read only, post message) to some sections
and topics.
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No |
User Banishment | No |
Database Management | |
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Backup Database
Backup forum datas that you could store somewhere else.
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No |
Prune Database
Remove old and unused datas from your forum.
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No |
Restore Database
Restore a backup of your database if the previous install crashed.
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No |
Administration Tools | |||
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Statistics
Statistics about posts count, users, traffic...
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No |
Error/Notice Log Viewer
Forum Logs could be consulted.
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No |
Tasks Scheduler
Maintenance tasks are regularly launched and could be scheduled.
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No |
Mass Mailing
Send an email (newsletters, advertisements, information,...) to all users.
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No |
Installation & Upgrading | |
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Installation Method
How this forum software could be installed.
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Installation Wizard |
Upgrading Method
How this forum software could be upgraded.
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Upgrade Wizard |
Updates Notifications
The Admin Panel informs you when a new version is released.
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No |
Forum Migration
Convert an existing forum to esoTalk.
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No. |
Security & Spam Protection | ||
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CAPTCHA
Captcha protects your forum against spam bots.
e.g.,
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Plugin
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Abnormal Behavior Detection
Detect users or request strange behaviors, and try to process proactive actions.
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No | |
Words Filtering
Offensing Words are automatically replaced.
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No | |
User Blacklist
Prevent specific user accounts to register (based on email address, name,...) and disable potentially harmful members.
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No | |
IP Blocking
Prevent access to spam robots and other scripts that could attempt
DDOS or Brute Force attacks on your forum.
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No |
Customization | |||
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Plugins
Add new features to your forum installation.
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Yes.
~4 Available Plugins.
More info »
Installation:
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Themes
Modify the style of your forum easily.
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Yes.
~2 Available Themes. |
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Custom BBCodes | No | Smiley Packs | No |
Custom Thread Icons |
No |
Additional User Profile Fields
Ask more about your members with custom fields.
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No |
Integration with Applications, Social Networks, Intranet... | |
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Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
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No. |
CMS / Blog Bridges
Integration with existing Web publishing tools.
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No. |
User Accounts Integration
Do users be able to log in with their corporate, Google, Facebook,... accounts?
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No. |
Content Aggregation
Forum allows to integrate news and content from other website,
using an aggregation protocol (RSS, RDF, Atom,...).
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No. |
Norms & Accessibility | |
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HTML / XHTML Markup
See W3C HTML Definition.
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XHTML 1.1 Strict.
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Click to see if it respects HTML norms.
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CSS Stylesheets
See W3C CSS Definition.
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CSS 2. ![]()
Click to see if it respects CSS norms.
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Accessibility (WAI)
Web Accessibility ensures that the forum is usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
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Conformance to AA level.
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UTF-8 Support
Default encoding used to support all locales and countries.
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Yes |
Conformance to W3C Norms
Does esoTalk correctly follow (X)HTML and CSS norms?
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Yes. |
esoTalk is a really good surprise, because it proves that installing and configuring a forum software are not necessarily time consuming, and the final result is quite good. The simple list based layout is perfect for a modern website, where the primary way of looking for information is to search it, and not crawl every categories... This point of view is also reflected by the usage of tags, that is really useful to post a topic in several categories at the same times. Of course, the main problem is that those tags tend to scatter because of the typography for example, so it also requires a kind of discipline for your forum members.
Even if it is simplistic, esoTalk is well designed, fast and powerful... if the features implemented in it will be enough for your needs. The best thing is to look and test its live demonstration.
Comments (4)
Is esoTalk.org safe and
Is esoTalk.org safe and reliable? Has anyone used esotalk? The esoTalk search page is incredibly powerful with all the gambits available to use — but there is another hidden feature that make searching even more powerful. By default, clicking on a channel will show all conversations in that channel and any of its sub-channels. But what if you want to view conversations from just that specific parent channel, and none of the sub-channels?
Let me know if you don’t
Let me know if you don’t understand or I should write an article about installing the EsoTalk using Xampp.
It would be great if you
It would be great if you could write an article or blog post. Thanks in advance
We plan to install this one
We plan to install this one for our essay community at rushmyessay.com. Have already tried both phpBB and IPBoards, but they doesn't work exactly how we want them to
If not, maybe then it's a time to give punBB a shot