Invisionfeatures: Most active in..., calender, birthdays

[Roberdin]

We're not rude, you're just thin skinned.

(Thanks to whoever's sig I got that from )

[jasidog]

I think that's one of the strongest things in phpbb's favour. You know where it's going, at least as much as you can with anything you rely on others for.

For reasons i won't go into i switched my boards to IPB about maybe a year ago. I won't for a moment suggest i've had a bad experience with the product. It's great and having used it for some times now i can say, yes there's a lot of things i'd like to see in phpbb which it has. I can also confirm some of it is, for me personaly, next to useless.

However it's significantly good enough that if it weren't for what IPS is and it's general ethos i would happily stick with it. That is if the were open source or maybe just maybe if they were and always had been fully comercial.

But they have a non paying userbase and being part of that base has shall we say been interesting. Knowing where you stand with IPS as a free user, well it's easy to make a good guess.

But even taking what motivates a project out of it and leaving ips out of it, i'm sure i'm not meant to be making even a remotely attacking post about other bbs here. When you look at just about all others projects their have been upteen differant developers come and go. Boards appears and dissapear.

Phpbb is quite odd in that it's stable and you know you won't be left high and dry. It won't suddenly go paid or even slowly. There's a track record. Even if phpbb it's self disolved the work has so much momentum now that due to it's license someone else would likely pick it up under the same lisence.

Oh yeah and usergroups, other boards still don't do that right.

Uregistered i'm sure no one wants to be mean. Still think on it from the other side, the people making phpbb have a planned route of development already in progress. How many times do you think they have heard people request features from the other big boards?

I've seen the requested features asked for in this thread being asked for many times before and answers given. It's easy for the same questions to become tiresome. Just put it down as one of those things and let it drop. Life's too short

At least one new post has been made to this topic. You may wish to review your post inlight of this.

Now that's a way cool feature.

[CLee]

Whats wrong with me giving a suggestio.

Nothing. But when you complain when the developers reject your or someone else's suggestions, it gets really annoying.

Suggestions useally mean someone suggest's something, and the person thinks about it..and either takes the suggestion, or disregards it.

So don't take it personally when the developers reject a suggestion. They know more about what they are doing then either of us. And yes, I have had a couple of suggestions rejected as well.

Also, have you ever considered maybe I just don't know what the hell you guys are talkin about?

It's quite clear that you don't. Yet you keep going off about it.

And guys, I will never give up argueing.

Then learn to give up when an argument is clearly over. It will save you face in the long run instead of making you look like an immature brat.

I can already tell you guys don't like people giving suggestions.

No, I just don't like it when people endlessly complain when a suggestion has been rejected.

[psoTFX]

Haven't I said this before? Sorry, yes, I know this has happened. Ok, anyway, so you guys don't agree with my suggestion? Well what you know! Thats kool. Just stop bashin me here! Its gets annoying! Also, it really makes me think everyone here is MEAN! And I am sure (I hope, at least), thats not true.

I don't think anyone is bashing you ... just being quite "forthright" in their responses which may appear somewhat "rude" or "nasty".

The problem is that we've stated the position re: features and that is pretty much it. We believe we've got a good feature set in place or planned for 2.2.x. It'll compare quite favourably with other boards IMO ... without appearing as if we're trying to be everything to everyone

At the end of the day, if that still doesn't please people and they cannot stand to add a Mod, etc. then I'm sure one of the other major boards will do their best to suit their need ... just so long as money becomes involved

[Unregistered]

Haven't I said this before? Sorry, yes, I know this has happened. Ok, anyway, so you guys don't agree with my suggestion? Well what you know! Thats kool. Just stop bashin me here! Its gets annoying! Also, it really makes me think everyone here is MEAN! And I am sure (I hope, at least), thats not true.

I don't think anyone is bashing you ... just being quite "forthright" in their responses which may appear somewhat "rude" or "nasty".

The problem is that we've stated the position re: features and that is pretty much it. We believe we've got a good feature set in place or planned for 2.2.x. It'll compare quite favourably with other boards IMO ... without appearing as if we're trying to be everything to everyone

At the end of the day, if that still doesn't please people and they cannot stand to add a Mod, etc. then I'm sure one of the other major boards will do their best to suit their need ... just so long as money becomes involved

I don't know where I said that, but I do believe I said "phpBB 2.2 looks like it will have everything I need..", meaning u are catching up with what I need. (I said it at phpBB.com i think).

[Graham]

I think I want to repeat something that I said elsewhere; the different forum products have different userbases with different requirements so just because something is in for example vB does not automatically mean that it is right for phpBB or say UBB.

phpBB is first and foremost a forum and some of the features people are requesting (such as calendars, picture gallerys etc) are not IMO features that you need for a forum since they will only be used by a small percentage of users. And that basically is the philosophy you will find at phpBB to include the feature which most users will want and make sure that they are implemented well rather than throw in the kitchen sink and add features that the bulk of the userbase will not ever use. If you as a forum admin want a feature that is not included then it is probable that someone will have written it as a MOD or you can do it yourself and add that feature to the forum.

In my experience, most forum migrations are carried out because the requirements of the forum change (eg you outgrow your current software or your host bans you from running it or whatever) or support for the current software ends rather than because one forum has added a flashy new feature.

[SamG]

... the different forum products have different userbases with different requirements ...

That really is the key. The active forum product spectrum runs from the very straightforward discussion forum products like WWWBoard (Google reports 3,700,000 hits on the keyword "WWWBoard" as of this writing) all the way up to Teh Big Three.

It would, I think, be difficult to target all communities with a single, efficient, well done product. Not that it's bad to be aware of the "weaknesses" of various products as an end user, but that it becomes difficult to determine what a genuine weakness is from a development standpoint.

For example, I consider post icons very nearly useless. If I were writing a forum product I would likely view all forum products that had post icons as being just a hair bloated. "Clean things up and get rid of them useless icons!" I would be thinking. Obviously, not everybody sees post icons as useless, so my own evaluation of a forum product weakness goes right out the door.

So for phpBB development to revolve around the overall expectations of the phpBB community does make some sense and may in fact be the only realistic way to do it. I think the developers have seen the phpBB community grow even as they've followed that general path. Even if the growth is due in large part to a growth in forum deployment as a whole, phpBB 2.0 is still proving itself to be useful to a significant segment of the Web-based discussion forum "movement."

I'm not too sure what all I'm saying there, except maybe that at this point in time, it's unlikely that any one product could make the majority of Web-based discussion forum admins happy. The market expectations for forum products is almost certainly going to remain diverse for the foreseeable future, I think.

[Roel]

They have different base and differ in a lot of places, but surelly a calendar, a chat (or chatterbox), a photoalbum and/or some other features wouldnt be ugly to this forum. Especially for my forum i created a chat, a photoalbum and much more. It has nothing to do with the rest of my site. Just my forum. And about 2000 people a day come to my forum. A majority ASKED me for a chat; WANTED a photoalbum. Now you tell me you know better?

Just because you are developing? Then please, and in GODS name, dont ask for suggestions. And dont start b****ing about those suggestions, just because some of them are also available in invision or other boards.

[psoTFX]

Excuse me? Now tell me this ... you come along, moan and complain, become somewhat abusive ... why exactly should we listen to you at all? huh? hhmm? Well you've now set the precident so don't complain about the following.

I've said it in another response to you, I'll repeat it again (since you don't appear to have bothered to read and understand the numerous other times it's been stated). We are a forum, not a gallery, not a chat system, nor anything else. If you want those facilities either use a dedicated system (affording superior funtionality to any of the ad hoc things other boards may knock out to try and gain a few dollars) or use one of the available Mods (many Mod authors have already stated they will update their Mods to 2.2).

I'm becoming increasingly sick and tired of this "You don't listen to suggestions, why ask for them?". Rubbish, we listen to suggestions perhaps more than any of our competitors. How do you think this board came about? Scotch mist? For goodness sake.

We have limited time (something you lot seem to forget) and resources. We are producing something the majority will find useful (you alone do not a majority make). If you need something we or our community cannot provide you are perfectly entitled (indeed we openly suggest for you) to look at alternative solutions.

[R45]

but surelly a calendar, a chat (or chatterbox), a photoalbum and/or some other features wouldnt be ugly to this forum. Especially for my forum i created a chat, a photoalbum and much more. It has nothing to do with the rest of my site. Just my forum.

Incorrect, that is not a core forum feature.

Forum = System to post messages IMO

Anything else turns the system into something like a Portal / CMS. I suspect the phpBB Portal Project is intended to bridge the gap between core forum features and all those other addons. I believe Paul has stated on countless occasions that things not core forum features will remain as a MOD. That's the current policy, deal with it. I'm very much happy that phpBB remains bloat free, I rather spending my time add ing a few features to a nice bloat free forum base than having to remove a bunch of features that really aren't part of a forum.

Use mods or wait for the portal, I don't see what's so wrong in that.