[Darth-Apple]

As most of you know here, Makestation is powered by MyBB. Until recently, it was actually powered by SMF, and then (thankfully) the conversion to much better software took place.

I have used phpBB before for other websites, and I can say that it has become quite outdated. I don't particularly love it as much as I once did, and its lack of a good plugin system is also a bit annoying. I still have to say that it is much better than the most recent versions of vBulliten, but that's not saying much.

What are your thoughts on phpBB?

[Kyrie]

PHPBB is okay, I guess. It's outdated.

I do like the feel of phpbb3 though. It feels like it tried too hard to be modern.

It's a good forum board but it takes a bunch of modifications to make it usable in my opinion.

[Darth-Apple]

The theme is definitely still surprisingly modern for forum software that is as old as it is. I'd actually like to see someone make a phpbb3-like theme for MyBB, but that'd be a lot of work.

I do agree with the mods. I feel that it is one of phpBB's biggest disadvantages. What's really frustrating is that each update requires a lot of custom coding to repair old plugins since not all of them work with each update of phpBB. It's annoying to say the least, especially in comparison to options like myBB where plugins usually work flawlessly with each maintenance update.

Also, welcome to Makestation!

[simlink]

Someone has been working on it - and I've seen some attempts around (MyBB prosilver)
Anyways, the attitude in their ecosystem seems to be "roar, new that can't be added to the core... must be a plugin..." - they seem to be stuck in their ways to an extent. Not all users, but many seem to. Just see the discussion on whether they should add a +/- 1 or "like" system to the software. Yikes.

[Darth-Apple]

I agree. I think that some kind of +1, +rep, or anything similar is an essential feature of the core package. Because of their lack of a good plugin system, plugins usually break with each maintenance release, so you can't ever really rely on plugins for your forum. The solution? Don't ever use a +rep system on your forum, or anything else that isn't in the core package.

I do hope that MyBB prosilver works well. It sounds like a very interesting project.

[earlybird]

As most of you know here, Makestation is powered by MyBB. Until recently, it was actually powered by SMF, and then (thankfully) the conversion to much better software took place.

I have used phpBB before for other websites, and I can say that it has become quite outdated. I don't particularly love it as much as I once did, and its lack of a good plugin system is also a bit annoying. I still have to say that it is much better than the most recent versions of vBulliten, but that's not saying much.

What are your thoughts on phpBB?

I've only admined forums on yaBB, so I can't say from an Admin's perspective. The forums I've been a member on have been powered by Vbulletin, Huddler, phpBB, and myBB.
Vbulletin--everybody HATES it, but I Can't seem to find anything wrong with it. I guess it's an issue with a particular version or two or something.
Huddler--I think that platform is AWESOME. User-friendly once you get used to it. But they want only big sites, so you won't find many forums on that one.
phpBB: has always worked for me, but looks bad, aesthetically. Also a little confusing in some cases...
MyBB: Personally, My favorite free software. Works well, looks good, well maintained.

[Darth-Apple]

Vbulletin--everybody HATES it, but I Can't seem to find anything wrong with it. I guess it's an issue with a particular version or two or something.

vBulliten used to be very good software back in the old days of VB3. When Internet Brands took over the brand, they made a number of unwisechanges that were intended more for the profit and less for the community of customers. The frustration and conflict within the company led the lead developer to retire from the company, who later went on to start Xenforo, and what remained of the vBulliten team then decided to rewrite vBulliten from scratch and release it as VB 5 connect, being perhaps one of the worst releases in forum software history.

It's really sad in a lot of ways. I could go on and on, but ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that the new management has run it into the ground and VB is not what it once was.

Huddler--I think that platform is AWESOME. User-friendly once you get used to it. But they want only big sites, so you won't find many forums on that one.

I'll have to check it out sometime.

[earlybird]

Huddler--I think that platform is AWESOME. User-friendly once you get used to it. But they want only big sites, so you won't find many forums on that one.

I'll have to check it out sometime.
[/quote]
Here's the link. Maybe I shouldn't call it a platform, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I know that it's a type of software--I don't know much about it at all.

http://www.huddler.com/

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Actually, thinking about it, I've seen some xenforo and IBP boards too. Both are, in my opinion, pretty good. Xenforo seems to be similar to MyBB, at least on the surface.

[Darth-Apple]

Thanks, I'll check it out.

[Darth-Apple]

Interesting... PhPBB 3.1 is in the works.

https://wiki.phpbb.com/PhpBB3.1/RFC

Unfortunately the mod installer that was proposed hasn't really been accepted or rejected, and at this point it looks like it won't be included. Automod should still be around to do the code edits automatically, but automod not being included in the core package is a little worrisome.

Either way, it still looks pretty interesting.