MesDiscussions Review

(October 15, 2006 22:55)
Last Version 2007.1 (July, 2006). Released under Proprietary License.
Resources Website MesDiscussions Website Download Download...
Company No One Development.
Price Free.
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What is MesDiscussions

MesDiscussion is a French software used by major web sites of the french Internet.

MesDiscussions respects W3c norms, can support a really heavy load and is really powerful. You'll find only one bad point with this tool: its license, but fortunately, the official website provides a dedicated hosting solution.

This is particularly useful for communities or companies which are looking for a powerful and a easy-to-manage forum software. MesDiscussions also provides the classical SEO module, helping your website to be crawled by search engines and, indirectly, helping the increase of its pagerank.

Major websites using MesDiscussions

You will find MesDiscussions.net forum on the following websites:

MesDiscussions is recommended for Huge Community.

(and supports smaller communities perfectly as well.)

Server & Client Requirements

Server Requirements
Programming Language
Required Architecture and Versions.
  • PHP 4
  • PHP 5
Web Servers
How the forum is delivered to users.
  • Apache 2.0/2.2
  • Microsoft IIS
Databases
How Forum Data are Stored.
  • MySQL
Operating Systems
Systems Supporting this Software.
  • Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
  • GNU/LinuxGNU/Linux
Browser & Client Requirements
Compatible Browsers
List of Compatible Browsers.
Mozilla FirefoxMozilla FirefoxInternet ExplorerInternet Explorer
Google ChromeGoogle ChromeOperaOpera
Apple SafariApple SafariKonquerorKonqueror
Mozilla SeaMonkeyMozilla SeaMonkey
Required Plugins/Technologies
Additional or Basic Requirements from Client Side.
Javascript.
Localization
Languages supported by MesDiscussions.
Yes.
No.

We do not have many details about MesDiscussions.net technologies, but we know that it uses the famous LAMP solution (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).

Compatibility with Smartphones
Compatible SmartPhones
Compatible Cellphone Brands and Manufacturers.
No.
Application Distribution / Type
How it is distributed / App Store Availability
No.

Forum Threads & Posts

Forum Threads / Topics
Forum Style Forum Organization No.
Thread Icons - Topic Tags -
Hot Topics - Unread Topics -
Hidden Topics - Sticky Threads -
Related Threads - Detect Duplicate Threads -
Announcements -
Posting Messages / Answers
Message Editing Form
How to Post Messages.
  • WYSIWYG Editor
  • Formatting Buttons
  • Preview Button
Post Editing Format
Supported Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
  • HTML
  • BBCode
Spell Checker
Checks typos on posts and topics.
-
Image Attachment
How Images can be Attached and Displayed in Message Posts.
No.
Embedded Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts.
No.
Posting Features
Quick Reply Box - Smileys Yes
Attachments Yes Syntax Highlighting -
Message Rating
- Message Quoting -

Additional & Technical Features

Additional Forum Features
Poll Creation Yes
Private Messages
Users Can Communicate using an Internal Messaging System.
Yes
Instant Messaging
Discuss with Visitors and Members in a Chat Window.
No
Calendar
Topic, Member Birthdays, Events are available from the perspective of a calendar.
No
Online Users List
Connected User List (Often Found in the Forum Footer).
-
Members List
Search and Consult the List of Members.
Yes
Technical Features
Bundled Software
Additional Software Available with the Forum.
No.
RSS/Atom Syndication
Posts and Threads Exported to Feeds Aggregators Syndicate.
No.
Friendly URLs
URLs are clear and contain information about the topic (title, message,...). Highly recommended for SEO purposes.
-
Post by Email
Post Directly From your Email Box.
-
Remote Control
Remote Control from External Software/Websites.
  • XML/RPC
Cache System
Cache pages to optimize bandwidth and load times.
-
Template Engine
It is easier to theme a forum using a known template engine (more docs & examples,...).
No.

The header, footer,... can be configured depending of the current forum of the user, that able administrator to do what they want with their forum. Of course, you can add PHP code in these parts, to display dynamic information.

Statistics are provided in the Administration Panel, to display traffic, messages posted, by month, term and year...

User Profiles & Options

Some details about MesDiscussions features regarding members.
Member Options & Features
Bookmark Threads
User Profiles Keep a List of Followed Posts and Topics.
-
Email Notifications
Receive Emails When New Messages are Posted in Followed Threads.
Yes
Export private messages
Private Messages can be Downloaded by Users.
-
Payment Subscriptions
Paying Membership Subscription.
-
User Profiles
User Profile
User Information and Settings.
Yes
Avatars
Pictures of Members, Useful to Easily Identify their Posts.
Yes
Signature
Signatures Added at the Bottom of Each Message.
Yes
Ranks
Tags and Labels Identifying the Members, based on specific criteria (Total Posts Count, Credits, Moderation Level...)
Yes

Moderation & Users Management

Moderation & Threads Management
Moderation No.
Moderator per section No
Global Moderator No
Move Threads
Move Threads from Topics
Yes
Shadow Topics
When a thread is moved, the previous position is kept in order to inform users of this modification.
-
Close/Lock Threads
Close/Lock Problematic Threads
Yes
Users Management
User Groups
Organize and define groups of users, and apply different actions and settings on them.
Common Groups: Guests, Members, Moderators, Administrators,...
Yes
User Registration No.
Limit Features For New Users
Features are limited if a user has created a small number of posts.
-
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.
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.
No
User Banishment Yes

Administration & Support

Database Management
Backup Database
Backup forum datas that you could store somewhere else.
No
Prune Database
Remove old and unused datas from your forum.
No
Restore Database
Restore a backup of your database if the previous install crashed.
No
Administration Tools
Statistics
Statistics about posts count, users, traffic...
Yes Error/Notice Log Viewer
Forum Logs could be consulted.
-
Tasks Scheduler
Maintenance tasks are regularly launched and could be scheduled.
- Mass Mailing
Send an email (newsletters, advertisements, information,...) to all users.
Yes
Installation & Upgrading
Installation Method
How this forum software could be installed.
Installation Wizard
Upgrading Method
How this forum software could be upgraded.
Upgrade Wizard
Updates Notifications
The Admin Panel informs you when a new version is released.
Yes
Forum Migration
Convert an existing forum to MesDiscussions.
-.

Security & Spam Protection

Security & Spam Protection
CAPTCHA
Captcha protects your forum against spam bots.
e.g., Syndicate
No
Abnormal Behavior Detection
Detect users or request strange behaviors, and try to process proactive actions.
-
Words Filtering
Offensing Words are automatically replaced.
Yes
User Blacklist
Prevent specific user accounts to register (based on email address, name,...) and disable potentially harmful members.
No
IP Blocking
Prevent access to spam robots and other scripts that could attempt DDOS or Brute Force attacks on your forum.
Yes

Customization & Social Networks

Customization
Plugins
Add new features to your forum installation.
Yes.
Themes
Modify the style of your forum easily.
Yes.
Custom BBCodes No Smiley Packs Yes
Custom
Thread Icons
- Additional User Profile Fields
Ask more about your members with custom fields.
-
Integration with Applications, Social Networks, Intranet...
Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
No.
CMS / Blog Bridges
Integration with existing Web publishing tools.
No.
User Accounts Integration
Do users be able to log in with their corporate, Google, Facebook,... accounts?
No.
Content Aggregation
Forum allows to integrate news and content from other website, using an aggregation protocol (RSS, RDF, Atom,...).
No.

The maximum score on Installation has been given because this part is done by the company working on MesDiscussions.net forum. So, this is something that you should not take care anymore.

About userbase integration, No One Development provides modules to their clients to plug MesDiscussions.net to their existing databases. This is for example the case for France Television company (FTVi).

Please note that their are some non-official plugins, like MD Enhance, even if MesDiscussions do not provide a specific architecture to integrate them.

W3C Norms & Accessibility

Norms & Accessibility
HTML / XHTML Markup
XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
XHTML 1.0 Transitional
Click to see if it respects HTML norms.
CSS Stylesheets
CSS 2.
CSS 2
Click to see if it respects CSS norms.
Accessibility (WAI)
Web Accessibility ensures that the forum is usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
Conformance to AA level.
AA
UTF-8 Support
Default encoding used to support all locales and countries.
Yes
Conformance to W3C Norms
Does MesDiscussions correctly follow (X)HTML and CSS norms?
Yes.

Final Words


Good.

In one word, MesDiscussions.net is a really powerful software. It allows companies and communities without any computer science knowledges having a forum software that will help them develop their business.

Hardware.fr and France 2 are example of big forums that use MesDiscussions.net, and are evidences to prove that this is a really good and adaptive software.

The customization is easy to do (no CSS and HTML knowledges needed), advertisement, footer and header can be replaced and changed in a little number of clicks, etc...

The only bad point is that currently, it seems that MesDiscussions.net has only convinced french company to use it, and we do not have example of international ones that use it.

This is the same company that provides support, hosting and develops the software, so you can be sure that any problems will be quickly fixed.

Additional Resources:

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Comments (2)

Salut, Je pense que dans la

Salut,

Je pense que dans la description du forum, tu peux changer / mettre à jour différents trucs.

  • D'abord, la version indiquée n'est pas celle installée sur la démo.

    Current version : 2006.2 (July, 2006).

    C'est la 2007.1 qui est installée actuellement. Wink

  • Ensuite, quand tu écris "Download Link : Download this forum software here : MesDiscussions" je ne pense pas que "Download" soit bien approprié, puisque le site ne sert qu'à "commander" le forum. To purchase/buy être plus proche de la rélité je crois (à  toi de voir).
  • Dans la partie "Post Form" tu indiques seulement "Rich Text Editor" alors que MesDiscussions dispose aussi d'une interface WYSIWYG.
  • Dans la partie "File attachment with posts" tu indiques "No", mais pourtant on peut, mais seulement une image qui sera stockée dans un compte utilisateur personnel grâce au forum.

Ensuite, d'une manière générale, dans les spécifications des forums, tu pourrais préciser si le forum noté accepte ou non l'insertion de fichier flash (vidéos, jeux, sons...).

Je termine, en précisant que même si le forum ne dispose pas de plug-in officiels, il en existe des officieux. Par exemple le célèbre "MD Enhance" qui propose de nombreuses améliorations pour les forums MesDiscussions.net. Anciennement connu sous le nom "HFR Enhance" est spécialement conçu pour le forum Hardware.fr (forum Hardware.fr ) il s'appelle maintenant et accepte tous les forums MD ( MD Enhance )

Voila, c'est tout ce que j'avais à écrire.

Labbai.

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lastnico's picture

Hi Labbai, I didn't see your

Hi Labbai,

I didn't see your french post, but the modifications you requested are performed.

Thanks for your french comments Wink

FSR Admin - Vote for 2012.

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