A Couple of things I would like to see if phpbb4

[DavidIQ]

I think you're missing the point of this forum. It is NOT so you ask for every feature under the sun to be included in phpBB4. It's not going to happen. More than 3/4 of what you've said so far has been things that YOU want and not ways to improve phpBB4. I think you missed this part from another user:

Please think about what YOU WANT and what MILLIONS NEED.

Maps, reputation system, friendly URLs, poll enhancements, etc. ALL of that should be plugins and not something that is in core again because they're things YOU want and not what EVERYONE needs.

[Nelsaidi]

Seconded,

Also remember there are only so limited resources - when you step over the line of a forum there will always be something competing, you cant be as good, look at vBulletin 4, it has a new CMS, its far from a Drupal clone, its basic CMS and not much more. Their project management system hasnt been ported to vB4 and will be released as open source for people to develop and port themselves, I assume because there are better stuff people are using. So limited resource should be invested properly, into an excellent forum system which does exactly what it says on the box, provide a platform for discussion. Based on Symfony and hopefully a proplery plugin system - the needs of every forum admin can be met, be it a map, reputation system or poll enhancements - they can be done via plugins and mods.

I'd rather most resources devoted into making an excellent forum system with an excellent plugin/hooks system as opposed to a standard forum system with some average extra features.

The main thing I would like is to share the same forum orientated features as other forum softwares have.

[Highway of Life]

Maps, reputation system, friendly URLs, poll enhancements, etc. ALL of that should be plugins and not something that is in core again because they're things YOU want and not what EVERYONE needs.

That’s why I think a feature request voting system could be extremely helpful.
For example, I think there is a vast majority of people who ask for friendly URLs, just as Quick Reply was a highly requested feature. There are some extremely popular MODs for phpBB, I suspect that is because nearly everyone does want them. Assembla has a voting system for new features where everyone is allotted a certain number of votes to vote on the features that they want.
The developers then work on incorporating the most requested feature.

How are we going to know what users really want? Sure, we can assume that most are not going to need a certain feature (Quick Reply immediately comes to mind), but in reality, that is our own preference, not the preference of the community at large.

I’m not sure I see a point in this topic, which is a mass collection of “wants” from certain individuals. This topic is going to get lost in the masses and I don’t think we’ll see anything here incorporated unless the developers take notes and store it somewhere. It would be better to open a new RFC topic for each feature.

[Sam]

The problem with creating a feature laden core is that not everyone is going to want those features. Taking a light approach allows users to install things as they see fit, with very little clutter from their standpoint. Packing the core with this stuff will consume resources within the scripts, resources not everyone has or is willing to give up for things they do not need. For example, no forum I own has any practical application for Maps, in which case I would probably turn off or attempt to remove because it's existence there is consuming resources that can be spared. The phpBB approach has always been directed towards giving the core main, essential features to run the forum and allow for modifications or some sort, and that's something I don't want to see go away with Rhea, both as a MOD author and a user, but instead improved on, i.e. plugins.

Instead of looking for features, what should be looked into is more of the framework that allows for plugins, modules, and things of that nature. Sure, people want features, but will they ever not? What is junk to someone may be a main feature or element to someone else's board. The ability for very precise customization is what makes phpBB so great. Sure the system is not perfect, but that's why we are having this discussion: to make it better.

[Highway of Life]

@Sam: I think you actually nailed on the head with one of the things you said: You’d turn the feature off.
We can’t assume what everyone would or would not want, but if you add on/off switches to all features, you allow the administrator to choose exactly what he does and does not want. More than features, I’d like to see a focus on usability: Simple and easy. Browsing, posting, moderation should all be much easier in phpBB4. You could easily add more features without increasing the complexity of the system, when all the features are actually plugins, then a download might look more like what jQuery UI or KohanaPHP have for custom downloads, or you could release different packages, each with a certain set of features like Assembla has. I agree that core is most important, but that doesn’t mean skimping on features either.

[keith10456]

Maps, reputation system, friendly URLs, poll enhancements, etc. ALL of that should be plugins and not something that is in core again because they're things YOU want and not what EVERYONE needs.

That’s why I think a feature request voting system could be extremely helpful.
For example, I think there is a vast majority of people who ask for friendly URLs, just as Quick Reply was a highly requested feature. There are some extremely popular MODs for phpBB, I suspect that is because nearly everyone does want them. Assembla has a voting system for new features where everyone is allotted a certain number of votes to vote on the features that they want.
The developers then work on incorporating the most requested feature.

How are we going to know what users really want? Sure, we can assume that most are not going to need a certain feature (Quick Reply immediately comes to mind), but in reality, that is our own preference, not the preference of the community at large.

I’m not sure I see a point in this topic, which is a mass collection of “wants” from certain individuals. This topic is going to get lost in the masses and I don’t think we’ll see anything here incorporated unless the developers take notes and store it somewhere. It would be better to open a new RFC topic for each feature.

I agree... The voting system is definitely a great idea.

As Highway of Life implied, without some sort of voting or user input system, how can the developers truly know what the community "wants" or "needs" for that matter?

At the very least you will get useful feedback and statistics from the community at large.

[naderman]

Voting is easily possible on the 3.1 tracker. phpBB 4 is simply not in the state of actual feature discussion yet so no point in voting on particular features at this point.