What is the Future of phpBB?

[warmweer]

[OFFTOPIC]

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.

Agreed, but as I thought, dbrewood was referring to browser notifications as board notifications for the items mentioned have been a default feature of phpBB since at least 3.0

[/OFFTOPIC]

[bennybernaer]

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

https://senky.github.io/pushnotifications/

[dbrewood]

Oh I'm aware of that Mod, but nobody (on the forum) wants to pay for it..... And most of my users are iPhone / iPad based and it's no good for those devices.

[DavidIQ]

Also requires some PHP libraries that aren't enabled by default and can be a server intensive extension, both reasons why this particular feature hasn't really made its way into the core.

[nou nou]

Oh I'm aware of that Mod, but nobody (on the forum) wants to pay for it...

Yes, well... I'd argue that generally that position kind of limits your options. That doesn't mean phpBB needs to have this in its core as every added feature will require additional maintenance. Better to have phpBB as a solid foundation to build on. Sure, some people will want to charge for their work. Wouldn't you?

[dbrewood]

Also requires some PHP libraries that aren't enabled by default and can be a server intensive extension, both reasons why this particular feature hasn't really made its way into the core.

Understood And as I run my forum on my NAS that is a big consideration!

Yes, well... I'd argue that generally that position kind of limits your options. That doesn't mean phpBB needs to have this in its core as every added feature will require additional maintenance. Better to have phpBB as a solid foundation to build on. Sure, some people will want to charge for their work. Wouldn't you?

I'm not arguing I've told the guys this I'm not bothered myself so if they wanted it......

[warmweer]

Oh I'm aware of that Mod, but nobody (on the forum) wants to pay for it..... And most of my users are iPhone / iPad based and it's no good for those devices.

I'ld refrain from using the term "mod" as these (modifications aka mod) have been replaced by extensions.

[dbrewood]

I consider myself duly corrected

[Deactivated 1950056]

only 10 or 15 forum remain most of them convert to xenforo. why? because of this phpbb situation present.

Same here in the U.S. as I know a forum owner thinking of moving to Xenforo citing his dislike for the community here. He did not like the judgements made by some members of this community about site customizations and how new ideas tend to be ignored.

[Mick]

why? because of this phpbb situation present.

I know a forum owner thinking of moving to Xenforo

I’d me more inclined to believe the reason the forums here are ‘quieter’ today is because the product has improved so much. The advent of extensions on its own has removed (guessing) 75% of issues users had with mods. See the post counts on all the historical phpBB versions and see what the main issues were that don’t exist today. Maybe the reason some phpBB users go to other software is they expect more movement in the (paid) dev departments, many try and many come back. Personally I don’t understand the constant clamour for new versions just because it’s been six months since the last one.

[david63]

Personally I don’t understand the constant clamour for new versions just because it’s been six months since the last one.

The first sentence of the opening post clearly stated that this topic is not about new versions.

[Mick]

Yes, I should have made that an aside.

[DavidIQ]

Note: just a response to the last question, even though it was off-topic

To answer that specifically, it appears that some of the major players in the tech industry are influencing the general public's expectations of many other projects with their update schedules.

A few examples:

- Angular has pledged to release a whole new version every year. (BTW they've kept up with this almost making it a full time job just keeping web apps updated)
- In response to that rxjs has had to also keep up almost at the same pace.
- Microsoft has a monthly "patch Tuesday".
- Google wants to churn out a new Android version every year.
- Apple seems to be doing the same with iOS.
- PHP itself is churning out new versions at a steady pace.

As a much smaller project we can't keep up with any of that. We don't have access to millions of developers like Angular and PHP have and we definitely don't have billions at our disposal like Microsoft does.

[david63]

And none of that has anything relevance to this topic

[DavidIQ]

And none of that has anything relevance to this topic

Correct, that's why I said:

To answer that specifically...

But I'll add a note to my post to make that clearer so there isn't any further confusion.