phpBB is dead

[wadie]

Hi!

phpBB has always been an interesting project for me and what I love the most about it is the engagement of the community which makes this open source software one bit better.

I haven't been involved in this project for a long long while now and just decided to log back in and see what's new and how things are going and I have to say things aren't looking as bright, not because this project is abandoned, but I believe it's because having a bulletin board nowadays has gotten "old fashion" and people aren't excited about it as much as they were specially with the present of new technologies, ideas and possibilities to build a community or have people getting engaged in something together.

I would like to hear your view on this and correct me if I'm wrong, because I might be missing something.
Is the phpBB community doing something in this regard or will it always be a Bulletin Board software only ? how long can this project go on in your opinion ?

Take care people

[AmigoJack]

correct me if I'm wrong

Your subject is wrong, it should be "BBS are dead", as there's nothing phpBB-specific in your text.

Is the phpBB community doing something in this regard or will it always be a Bulletin Board software only ?

That would be inconsistent - what do you think does BB in phpBB stand for? The same "idea" would be to ask if phpBB will always use PHP or expand to other languages as well.

nowadays has gotten "old fashion"

So have mailing lists, FTP and Myspace - yet all of them are still alive. While the last one was indeed a fashion thing it is also a good example on how fast hypes can vanish again. Facebook and Myspace exist since 2004, WhatsApp exists since 2009, phpBB since 2000, FTP since 1971. phpBB's main advantage is: it is OSS.

[kaspir]

How dare you! (j/k)

To my understanding, with 3.1 exts now, I'm hearing from everyone that it's a ton better! I got here late, during 3.1. and didn't have to deal without exts, but I know all about others pains who have.

Not sure how long you were out for... but I get what your saying about message based sites. When we already know about real statistics like, "Over 25% of all public websites are WordPress today." Which is totally true.

However, here's something else that is true. "Message Boards" (a.k.a. forums) have been around way before the internet was in your house! Not many of you, I'm sure, remember Bulletin Board Systems (BBS for short, software like Renegade, DOS-based). Even WordPress has bbForums or w/e they call it and imo, it has nothing phpBB. But yea.. No matter what the platform may be, or what they think of next.. it's always going to revolve around the same idea of Message boards for non-live, public postings & communications.

[david63]

I think that it is like all things in life, they evolve - not necessarily for the better but that is a matter of personal opinion.

There will, I believe, always be a place for the likes of phpBB (whether phpBB will survive I know not any more than the next man, or woman) but in the short term it will probably tend to lean more towards a "technical" arena rather than the social arena.

There are many who prefer the structured approach that a BB offers over the likes of FB, but there is no reason why the two cannot live side by side.

Should phpBB move more towards social media? - well technically it was social media when social media was not an essential part of [some people's] everyday life.

I have read reports for several years now that FaceBook has peaked and will start to decline in usage and popularity, but I cannot say that I have seen many signs of that happening but eventually it will fade once the next new idea comes along

[wadie]

correct me if I'm wrong

Your subject is wrong, it should be "BBS are dead", as there's nothing phpBB-specific in your text.

Is the phpBB community doing something in this regard or will it always be a Bulletin Board software only ?

That would be inconsistent - what do you think does BB in phpBB stand for? The same "idea" would be to ask if phpBB will always use PHP or expand to other languages as well.

nowadays has gotten "old fashion"

So have mailing lists, FTP and Myspace - yet all of them are still alive. While the last one was indeed a fashion thing it is also a good example on how fast hypes can vanish again. Facebook and Myspace exist since 2004, WhatsApp exists since 2009, phpBB since 2000, FTP since 1971. phpBB's main advantage is: it is OSS.

You were trying to be smart and was only looking for stupid flaws in my text while barely giving your opinion on the matter like david63 and kaspir did.

Just because I'm alive doesn't mean I'm breathing, and by dead I didn't mean the development or engagement but the amount of websites we see nowadays using forums and specifically phpBB has decreased not because it got worse, but simply because other options are available.

The whole point of this thread is to try and get your perspective on HOW it can evolve to meet nowadays requirements. MySpace may not have the community we or other projects have, and therefore it's online but DEAD, so staying on topic would be better than finding flaws in texts.

[RMcGirr83]

Just because I'm alive doesn't mean I'm breathing, and by dead I didn't mean the development or engagement but the amount of websites we see nowadays using forums and specifically phpBB has decreased not because it got worse, but simply because other options are available.

Back in the day phpBB was all there was, then came along, in no particular order, SMF, Vanilla, IPB, vBulletin, Xenforo, MyBB etc. Competition would seem to be one of the reasons phpBB has lost market share. Another would also be the explosion of social media and, in particular, facebook.

In my mind social media sites and forums serve different purposes. But facebook is easy where as setting up and running a forum may not be for those who are less tech savvy.

[AmigoJack]

You were trying to be smart

When people tell me that I usually hit a nerve about their contradictive views: you entitle it "phpBB", yet mean BBSs in general. You write about engagement, but "didn't mean the development or engagement". How about actually writing what you mean? When people mix up essentials with details I'm just taking them less serious.

possibilities to build a community or have people getting engaged

by dead I didn't mean the development or engagement

Or are you talking about different engagements? Like producer versus consumer?

this thread ... HOW it can evolve

One thing would be to implement threads in contrast to topics only - reddit does so and many seem to enjoy it.

Another approach would be to get aware of the audiences: BBSs were never meant to be chat-only platforms, nor do they seem to be nowadays. But most people tend to just do simple things nowadays - meeting that would mean to flatten phpBB even more.

I also observed that a good amount of people want to be notified about this and that, even in such a lazy manner to include the whole content into the notification object (i.e. e-mail) already. This can lead to even more activity loss when everybody's only lurking instead of participating. Now and then there was the idea to post to phpBB via e-mail - currently I'm unaware of any BBS (or social network) that allows this - you still need to go to the website.

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

I believe that most social media users don't have a website or want one or even really understand what one is.

they simply want to be able to share with the world what they are doing at any given second for whatever reason.

if you do not have a website to create and share your content, then you have no control over that content.

I personally beleive ( hope ) that this need to publically and instantly share every moment of your life will soon fade away. It has caused way more problems for people than they even realize.

robert

[kaspir]

I personally believe ( hope ) that this need to publicly and instantly share every moment of your life will soon fade away. It has caused way more problems for people than they even realize.

robert

Never made Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, all of the above, personal account in my life! I strongly agree with this statement. And it will Lumpy.. it will...

[wadie]

I personally believe ( hope ) that this need to publicly and instantly share every moment of your life will soon fade away. It has caused way more problems for people than they even realize.

robert

Never made Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, all of the above, personal account in my life! I strongly agree with this statement. And it will Lumpy.. it will...

Totally agreed

[mrgtb]

Other people joining and using forums has certainly declined over the past few years since social networking sites came along like FB. Look at other free forum software now like SMF and MyBB, those sites are a shadow of what they used to be like used by people (using the software).

Problem I see is that new younger people coming on web now are not interested in forums, they head straight for Facebook and other social media types sites used by millions of the people already on it. Times have changed and forums are no longer what interest new younger people coming on web.

Getting new users on a forum now (that have never used a forum before) is near on impossible. It just seems to be the same old people that have used forums for many years doing to same circuit still. But new users coming on web ain't touching them joining, and the old long-time forum users are a dying out breed.

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

if that was true, then I would expect the number of forum installations to have been drastically reduced.

I have not seen evidence of that. as far as I know, phpbb is still downloaded and installed many thousands of times a day. I am sure that smf and others are still being installed in similar numbers as well.

I agree that FB etc. have made a dent, but I dont think it is a huge dent yet. If you create a board and can not seem to get anyone to visit then that is most likely going to be because you don't have content that is of interest to many people and /or you have not figured out how to let them know you are there.

remember, when someone uses their phone to search for information for something, they click on the links provided. If that information is available on a bulletin board then that is where they will go for it.

They may then move back to FB or twitter or whatever to share that info but they have to find it first and one of the most likely places for quality content is on forums around the world.


robert

[kaspir]

Why not use social media to promote rather than player-hate. It's too big to go anywhere, might as well get cozy with them. Integrate social media sharing buttons and profile links, draw bits of traffic away from social media. Little by little, we'll cut them down! Let's go.. we can do it! (yea, right)

[potku]

This is an interesting topic. And I agree, the title should be about BBS in general, not just phpBB, but that's not of utmost importance.

Although social media as a term usually refers to Facebook and the like and not BBS, I agree that BBS are social media, too. The term just wasn't around 15 years ago (AFAIK). That's not important, either, just as long as everyone understands the terms the same way.

I also agree that BBS and other social media can coexist. Although they serve some of the same functions, they also have their differences. In BBS, users are posters among other posters, whereas in newer social media users have their own personal page. That's one huge difference and one that tips the scales toward the newer social media. It feels good to be the king of your own page, and there's nothing wrong with that. We are human beings.

Information overflow and especially "information" overflow is staggering nowadays. That's a problem unless one knows how to handle it. That definitely works in the favor of BBS.

Another difference related to the above is the visibility of information (or "information"). That's where BBS take the cake. You can read posts from years back with ease using BBS. With newer social media, it's all just about gone usually in a matter of hours or days.

And there's a problem. One of the founders of our site recently logged back in after a long hiatus. He has been around the Internet since the days of newsgroups, and he is a man of words. Even he said that this newer social media has shortened his attention span so much that he cannot participate in BBS anymore. He wasn't happy about that.

The future and phpBB? I would think that tagging users and liking posts and topics should be a part of the core of phpBB. Those functions are very popular in, say, Facebook. They were very popular on our phpBB 3.0., and our users miss them.

Another welcome change would be incorporating some sort of phone notification method. There was an EXT in the works for this, but unfortunately (and understandably) it was abandoned recently.

We have WordPress, phpBB, a Facebook page, a Facebook group, and a WhatsApp group. They do not work flawlessly together, far from it, and they serve different functions, but I think some sort of bundle like that works the best in today's virtual world. phpBB has always been and still is the heart of our site and community.

[david63]

Let's just turn the question slightly.

What would happen if Facebook added a BB option tomorrow?