What is the Future of phpBB?

[tvm]

There are more internal forums on this board than public ones from what I've been told. I don't think there are hidden team groups though, or at least, not many. The sad thing is that image boards aren't what they used to be, from diminishing interest as well as large social media companies, things in general are not looking bright.

You are right about that, however, there are more to the web than just people who discusssing with short comments rather, than forums like mine - which is targeted towards sportsbetting and reviews, for this reason alone bulletin boards such as phpBB should live on, and people still have new ideas, but i dont think they are aware of the fact that they can use a forum for alot of their needs, integrating phpBB for your site is a pain, I remember back when phpBB1 where you simple include a site-header and a site-footer.

When i mention legacy code, i refer to simple php coding, not object based coding, and people have left because of stricter guidelines when it comes to this, mods might be the past, but can it also not be a part of the future, like less strict verification with a warning like "used at your own risk"? I feel this is what sets people off. I mean, for wordpress anyone can make a module without any verification needed. I dont understand why more things are not built into phpBB3.3.8 right now, it was released in June, but still user friendly url's, meta description which is critical right now is not built in.

While people will probably scream no, no, no, this is like going back in the future, I think it should be up tot he user to decide, like "find line 120" replace that with this in this file, etc. We are all people with different opinions, and just having the possibility of making a forum better with these "mods" might make people reconsider why they should choose phpBB. Obviosly we are going into the core of the phpBB filesystem now, and webdevs wont need much php skills to add a mod they want, they will have to be aware of that mods like this may break forum updates, so they should always make backups of the original core files before adding /re-doing code.

Also, I am not a villain here, I just think things have become too strict and I think the people who makes descisions here should at least consider it.

My 2 cents.

Br,
Thomas

[[Dimetrodon]]

mods might be the past, but can it also not be a part of the future, like less strict verification with a warning like "used at your own risk"? I feel this is what sets people off.

I'm in the minority here for sure and, there are good people here that I respect whom will disagree with me on this, but I do see a case for MODs still existing. That being said, if given the choice between coding something as a MOD or Extension, Extension is the best and safest option for the end user. Therefore Extensions should remain favored, even if the customization db was to once again allow the addition of new MODs.


That being said, time does bring changes, and changes are here to stay, and that means more stringent code organization and layout requirements. Even if MODs are brought back officially, it is not feasible for phpBB to revert exactly to the way it was during the phpBB1 or early phpBB2 era. I'm not going to treat you as an enemy nor villain, but honestly, you'd probably like the idea of contributing to phpBB2refugees.com a more enjoyable endeavor.

[tvm]

Why would I help someone who's not moving forward? I beilieve in the future, and future of coding of course, but for me it seems to be more strict than it should be. I would rather help this team getting more devs by donations if necessary, but I would also like for the team to be more open to ideas of a different future than envisioned.

Also, I can take criticism very well, and i wont be offended if someone disagrees, I've been on phpBB since 2001 and have alot to thank the team for as my site has become company out of having it.

[[Dimetrodon]]

Why would I help someone who's not moving forward? I beilieve in the future, and future of coding of course, but for me it seems to be more strict than it should be. I would rather help this team getting more devs by donations if necessary, but I would also like for the team to be more open to ideas of a different future than envisioned.

Also, I can take criticism very well, and i wont be offended if someone disagrees, I've been on phpBB since 2001 and have alot to thank the team for as my site has become company out of having it.

I understand. While our visions of the future certainly conflict, I am not fond of the current plans either. Chameleon is a no go and phpBB4 has pretty much stalled.

Just out of curiosity, what phpBB version do you run?

[tvm]

I'm running 3.3.8. PM me if you want to see how far ive come with my version of it.

[[Dimetrodon]]

I'm running 3.3.8. PM me if you want to see how far ive come with my version of it.

Nice. I have a demo site that runs phpBB 3.3.4 and an admin on a board running 3.3.7 (yes, we need to update.)

[Mick]

This is especially true when boards would require multiple updates after it is transferred to 3.0

But that’s the whole point, someone with a bit of nouse on the subject could maybe fix some of the existing convertors to convert directly to 3.3 or even write new convertors?

But we must not pretend this will cause a boost in phpBB adoption or interest

Nobody mentioned increasing membership numbers but even one new member who has managed to convert to phpBB successfully is a bonus in my eyes.

[david63]

but I do see a case for MODs still existing.

I would actually argue the case in a slightly different way. Yes for some simple changes MODs are probably a lot quicker and easier but what I would like to see is a hybrid system which combined code edits with extensions. There are many "old" MODs that cannot be converted to extensions simply because the MOD required a minor code edit that is not able to be replicated with an extension.

Having said that I fully accept the problems that code edits create when updating/upgrading which would only be compounded when the Advanced Update is removed.

[tvm]

But that’s the whole point, someone with a bit of nouse on the subject could maybe fix some of the existing convertors to convert directly to 3.3 or even write new convertors?

How would that work since most converters would just backup the db and adapts the new db-structure? While with 3.3 they would have to build the rest of the site back together with the templates, and do some core changes as well? And people who are on 3.0 probably are scared to update since they know their mods will be gone, and having to be rebuilt into the core?

[Mick]

What are you on about, I’m talking about convertors from one software to phpBB not upgraders or whatever?

[tvm]

What are you on about, I’m talking about convertors from one software to phpBB not upgraders or whatever?

I guess i misread, I am not familiar with any other bulletin boards.

[Mannix_]

Why mods need to be "officially" allowed/recognized by phpBB dev team? Who is there to stop you creating phpbbmods.com and share your code there.

[tvm]

Why mods need to be "officially" allowed/recognized by phpBB dev team? Who is there to stop you creating phpbbmods.com and share your code there.

Simply because people wont browse for mods they dont know exists unless phpbb.com either links specific to the site in question or have a work-around mod section on their site for people to contribute.

[Mannix_]

Why mods need to be "officially" allowed/recognized by phpBB dev team? Who is there to stop you creating phpbbmods.com and share your code there.

Simply because people wont browse for mods they dont know exists unless phpbb.com either links specific to the site in question or have a work-around mod section on their site for people to contribute.

There are sites having extensions not available on here and people manage to find them. Googling ain't that hard

[tvm]

There are sites having extensions not available on here and people manage to find them. Googling ain't that hard

You are missing my point, if they have to google for it, they would know what to google for. if mods are made public here they will see what they get to choose from to begin with.