Questions About XenForo

[A Clockwork Lime]

Hello!

Before I begin, I used to run a popular bulletin board system in my local area back in the late 80s and early 90s. It was a fun hobby during that period of my life and lately I've been missing it something fierce. So I've decided that I'd like to try to get back into the general swing of things by setting up a message forum.

Currently, I'm retired and have a ton of free time on my hands. I'm also a quick study, particularly when it comes to scripting languages (despite not having delved into anything beyond HTML or CSS in almost two decades). I've looked over PHP some, and it doesn't look too complicated to me, so I'm confident I'll be able to pick it up with only a minimum of effort.

With that in mind, I was hoping you guys could tell me if you think XenForo will meet my needs/desires. Below is a list of the key features I'm looking for in my software.

• The option to go minimalist as far as appearances go. I really hate all the extraneous information most forum software adds to their pages.
• I'm not sure what the term for it is, but the ability to make a front page that displays the major forums in this style rather than the more traditional method.
• Fine control over user permissions. Particularly, I'd like to be able to let users create their own subforums, gaining moderator status for that subforum (and that subforum only) in the process. I realize that I'll probably have to code the first part in, but I'd like for the software to be able to handle the latter part wtih relative ease.
• The option to create custom BBcodes, such as floating images or text, dice rolling (including multiple variants), nested tables, BBcodes that add specific image files (like custom horizontal rules), use of imbedded fonts, and things of that nature.
• The ability to edit/change existing BBcodes, such as changing the way LISTs look and things like that..

So, do you think you can help me out?

 

[Zynektic]

• The option to go minimalist as far as appearances go. I really hate all the extraneous information most forum software adds to their pages.
• I'm not sure what the term for it is, but the ability to make a front page that displays the major forums in this style rather than the more traditional method.
• Fine control over user permissions. Particularly, I'd like to be able to let users create their own subforums, gaining moderator status for that subforum (and that subforum only) in the process. I realize that I'll probably have to code the first part in, but I'd like for the software to be able to handle the latter part wtih relative ease.
• The option to create custom BBcodes, such as floating images or text, dice rolling (including multiple variants), nested tables, BBcodes that add specific image files (like custom horizontal rules), use of imbedded fonts, and things of that nature.
• The ability to edit/change existing BBcodes, such as changing the way LISTs look and things like that..

1. The default style you see here is pretty minimalistic and you can disable things to stop them showing. This is basically how it looks by default.

2. You can probably get help modifying it or a theme that allows this so should not be an issue.

3. Permissions are very easy to configure by making a default usergroup to apply all your basic permissions then secondary ones can provide more for moderators/admins or new usergroups for different purposes. As far as the other part goes, there are a few 'group' add-ons that allow you to configure groups where a user can create one, become the owner of it, add moderators to that section and make it private etc if that helps. I personally use Snog's one on my website as it works with the board nodes easily so you can adjust them around and move them quickly.

4/5. You can adjust BBcodes and add your own custom ones, probably easy to do what you have asked but someone else can reply on that one.