What is the Future of phpBB?

[dbrewood]

Just my few thoughts. I've been running forums for 20+ years, phpBB, Invision, and a few other forum suites. I stopped running them about 4 years ago when costs for hosting grew too high versus the income for supporting them and users on site declined.

I retired 2 years ago and missed contact with friends from the 'good old forum days', and as I now had a NAS I looked to host a forum on it. I've ended up running a small forum with around 20 members (yeah not a lot), and of course running phpBB. Everybody who uses the forum loves it. Okay some parts feel a bit old school (editor etc), but we can actually find articles and posts we want to reference (which you can't of Facebook, Teams, or Slack) and it is a wonderfully relaxing environment to use.

So I for one support phpBB going forward, I'm not a developer, and have little free funds but I love phpBB and hope it stays around for a long time either in version 3 or version 4 incarnation.

[david63]

I have said before that I, personally, welcome folks to PM me directly if there is a specific matter that requires attention

I would take issue with that comment. I have, over the years, PM'd you on more than one occasion and am still awaiting a reply.

[Marshalrusty]

I have said before that I, personally, welcome folks to PM me directly if there is a specific matter that requires attention

I would take issue with that comment. I have, over the years, PM'd you on more than one occasion and am still awaiting a reply.

It has certainly never been my intention to ignore you. I looked through the last few pages of my PMs and didn't find one from you, but will look harder tomorrow when not on my phone. However the offer to get in touch is quite sincere, and if you asked a question and I neglect to reply, it is an unintentional oversight, possibly prompted by considering the response for a bit too long and getting pulled away by something. In this case, you would be well within your rights to resend the PM with a "????".

[3Di]

Furthermore, I have said before that I, personally, welcome folks to PM me directly if there is a specific matter that requires attention and you believe is being overlooked. You know this is the case, because you have done so, and I have always responded to you.

I do not remember having PMed you here.

[Marshalrusty]

Furthermore, I have said before that I, personally, welcome folks to PM me directly if there is a specific matter that requires attention and you believe is being overlooked. You know this is the case, because you have done so, and I have always responded to you.

I do not remember having PMed you here.

Wait, are we not currently speaking, and have we not on many occasions spoken, via Discord? In that case, someone is impersonating you. Or are you taking issue with PMs here vs. PMs on Discord? In which case, what's the difference? Use whichever method you prefer.

[3Di]

I just never sent you PMs on this site.
We only spoke in private on Discord... that's a DM, not PM.

[3Di]

Oh, forgot to say... I will be more than glad to reply point to point to your post very soon. Hoping it will be approved, ofcourse.

[david63]

I looked through the last few pages of my PMs and didn't find one from you

Try 16th November 2020 - I can forward it if you wish

[Marshalrusty]

I looked through the last few pages of my PMs and didn't find one from you

Try 16th November 2020 - I can forward it if you wish

I found it, and you raised excellent points there. You can expect a reply!

Edit: Replied.

[GTI]

Modern people seem to want more of a social site than a forum,

Classic people like a forum to be a forum,

Trying to cater for both isn't going to work, a few official extensions for a like button would be enough for a lot of people,


Modern people want sticky navbars and slimmed down sites for mobiles,

Classic people like it how is and would like a more up to date look but the simpleness to be retained

Striking a balance between the two may be difficult and when the phpBB witches to something modern and vastly different there may be a lot of people who refuse to upgrade, especially if the extensions they use don't get released for the new version,

Anyone who is experienced at running a forum will know that something as simple as changin a button colour can lead to members being disgruntled so when those users log onto a forum which is dramatically different to how it was last night I suspect administrators across the globe will be getting a bit of a headache hehe

[ssl]

The big problem with phpBB forums is that these forums have been supplanted by social networks, mainly Facebook.

The reason, young people like responsiveness, notifications of responses directly to their mobiles, which phpBB does not offer.

[dbrewood]

The big problem with phpBB forums is that these forums have been supplanted by social networks, mainly Facebook.

The reason, young people like responsiveness, notifications of responses directly to their mobiles, which phpBB does not offer.

Such systems are useful (and I'm 59 years young) but I decided to go back to using a forum as you have proper threading and can easily search for posts / data etc.

I agreed though that notifications would be very usefuil.

[warmweer]

I agreed though that notifications would be very usefuil.

Which notification types do you need/want?

[dbrewood]

For me notifications for subscribed threads and messages, using a Chromium based browser on Apple Mac and iPhone

[3Di]

If I may, let's try to stay on the main topic. That if you re-read it you will see that we are slightly deviating from that here... which will definitely lead to an off-topic discussion in my opinion.