Of the ones you listed, these are the ones that stand out for me:Maybe veterans will like this, but what about the new generation? I don’t think so. I visited the Reef2Reef forum, and OMG, felt like I was teleported to the bright future:
- Functional editor that easily allows you to add images
- Tags
A majority of my site's members use a mobile phone, so optimizing to that platform makes sense. I list the other two above because bbCode is clunky in a world where most posters expect WYSIWYG editors. For new members, the image/attachments UI is a constant source of confusion; despite my step-by-step instructions including screenshots, I have to manually correct posts or explain via PMs how to use it several times a week.
On the plus side, on a well-tuned site, phpBB is incredibly fast. The extensions are easy to install. Customizing it, if you know PHP, is fairly straightforward. If you're not a programmer, I can see why anything beyond the standard installation + extensions is where you'd stop.
The future of forums given the 800 pound gorillas of the Internet like Reddit and Facebook is hard to predict. If I were starting today instead of 2005, I think building a sustainable membership would be much, much harder.
Some members chide me about the "dated" appearance of my site. I think that's a little overstated given my customization, but admittedly my HTML/CSS skills are limited. I look forward to a modernized version of phpBB and thank the developers in advance.Version 4 of phpBB is in preparation with a new style, no doubt you will be pleasantly surprised.
Fair point! I have a lot of core modifications that would make nice extensions. I keep telling myself that I'll refactor these out into extensions; a lot of them are doable, but not all because there's no extension API. If only I didn't have a full-time job...Unfortunately, we have arrived at a time when people only take but rarely give back.
Statistics: Posted by HB — Sun Feb 02, 2025 3:30 pm