What is the Future of phpBB?

[warmweer]

Personally, I feel like everything has gone downhill since 3.0.

I wasn't very fond of extensions initially, specifically because none of my modifications worked with 3.1 and I was just too lazy to study the extension system. But eventually I was able to use existing extensions and modify them slightly to suit my needs. If you look at the number of (recognised) extensions writers and extensions produced, the record's not that bad and many 3.0 modifications are now available as extensions.

At that time, there were also hundreds of modifications. Now you can be happy that validations are carried out every few months.

Every few months?
From what I've noticed, there's a validation spurt every month. This year's December may prove to be a rare break of that streak but I don't consider that particularly surprising (nor worrying).

Many of the former hard core (team members) have already left.

Isn't that part of evolution?
phpBB is almost 20 years old. Team members have left for other pastures, and new Team members have arrived and that happens all the time irrespective of versions (major or minor).

[3Di]

...

See here what I am talking about
viewtopic.php?p=15790281#p15790281

[bennybernaer]

....

No idea... I can't find the topics right now, but I've read a lot of disagreement in the past from extension authors that it often takes a very long time for their extensions to be validated. And those authors are then suddenly offline for a long time (although the latter can have various reasons).

Maybe it's also an idea, if a team member leaves or is "created" to report this in a topic? This way, users can thank them for their efforts, and we don't have to wonder why he/she is suddenly no longer part of it.

[warmweer]

...

See here what I am talking about
viewtopic.php?p=15790281#p15790281

The comparison isn't exactly unbiased.
The 2007 one is based on a 1 hour timeframe (currently it's 30 minutes), also the 2007 one is from half March, whereas now it's past half December and we're nearing the end of the year, traditionally a much calmer period. Also phpBB3 was in beta stage around that time and IIRC Area51 attracted a lot more attention (as a testing ground for phpBB3) which possibly also extended towards phpbb.com

[ssl]

...

See here what I am talking about
viewtopic.php?p=15790281#p15790281

Already answered here of the reason for the loss of world on these good old phpBB forums

[DavidIQ]

2007

olympus8000.JPG


Now


2021-12-19 20_43_25-(1) phpBB • Community Home — Mozilla Firefox.png

Basically proof that extensions have accomplished one of the main reasons for their existence: reduce support requests caused by mods.

[david63]

Every few months?
From what I've noticed, there's a validation spurt every month. This year's December may prove to be a rare break of that streak but I don't consider that particularly surprising (nor worrying).

Currently there is at least one extension that has been in the queue for 70 days and the average for the 16 that are in the queue is 43 days. That is one of the reasons why extension developers are leaving.

and new Team members have arrived

I am not aware of any "new" Team members for over 12 months.

[3Di]

... SNIP

Basically proof that extensions have accomplished one of the main reasons for their existence: reduce support requests caused by mods.

This is certain but not related to the descent in question.
As per the OP, this topic in fact IMHO slightly derailed, as expected, from the main topic.

As far as modifications and requests for support are concerned, I am amazed that there are still members of the teams who propose them (hard-coding) and not only where it is possible to obtain them, i.e. in the Custom Coding forum.

That seems like nonsense to me and indeed it is, I've stopped posting about it, I've had enough of doing that.

You know very well I don't talk in whispers so don't ask me for links either in public or in private, I won't get on that train.

[thecoalman]

As far as modifications and requests for support are concerned, I am amazed that there are still members of the teams who propose them (hard-coding) and not only where it is possible to obtain them, i.e. in the Custom Coding forum.

Extensions are one the best features implemented in phpBB over the years but there is limitations to them. They are especially useful for larger and more complex features in demand. On the other hand take this topic for example:

viewtopic.php?f=661&t=2608526

The user could of been sent to that black hole we refer to as the extension request forum never to be seen again. Instead they were given a simple one line edit that helped solve the issue. The chances of someone taking this up as an extension are about 0.

[Deactivated 1950056]

2007

Now

I haven't seen that many registered users on a board in a while.

As others have said, social media sites don't help and forums in general have lost their mojo.

[Lumpy Burgertushie]

It is not helpful to compare something like this support board to any other type of board.
By defintion, this board will have fewer visitors/members when the software is working without many issues.
when I first started here a post did not stay on the first page more than a few minutes usually. there were a lot of problems that the average
users had no idea how to solve. as mentioned above, there were the MODs that required a certain knowledge level that many newbies did not have.
In general, I imagine that fartbook and other social media have had a pretty big impact on bulletin boards like phpBB ( since I don't use any social media
I don't have personal experience with it).

However, as far as the amount of traffic here is concerned, I would say that is more indicative of the success of phpBB's evolution and user friendliness.

robert

[Deactivated 1950056]

There's more to this board than calls for help to solve problems. Questions about the software, requests, extension queries, ideas, etc. are all posted here.

I doubt the lack of problems is completely responsible for the drop in activity.

[Elias]

Interesting topic.

The way things are getting answered, I don't expect anything to change.
Was an interesting ride though!

[thecoalman]

Doesn't apply much here on phpbb.com but for a lot of mature forums everything has been asked and answered. If you have a well indexed site a lot of good content people have no need to register.

Can't speak for other sites but on my own site I have seen a steady increase in activity over the years. You need a niche and it's especially helpful if it caters to an older crowd. The younger generations are not using forums.

Facebook and other social media sites have most certainly had a significant impact on forums. Why bother with creating a forum if you can just create a group on Facebook with ready made users? Facebook makes doing this easy for both the "admin" and the user.

[david63]

Doesn't apply much here on phpbb.com but for a lot of mature forums everything has been asked and answered. If you have a well indexed site a lot of good content people have no need to register.

Can't speak for other sites but on my own site I have seen a steady increase in activity over the years. You need a niche and it's especially helpful if it caters to an older crowd. The younger generations are not using forums.

Facebook and other social media sites have most certainly had a significant impact on forums. Why bother with creating a forum if you can just create a group on Facebook with ready made users? Facebook makes doing this easy for both the "admin" and the user.

Sorry, but none of that has any bearing on the subject of this topic.