PHPbb team : you have to catch up with the compition

[Graham]

Indeed converters are not any good really, they have a ton of flaws etc... I believe a pure version of phpbb is the way to go... patiance...

I converted an IPB database to a phpBB forum flawless. Granted, the design of the interface was horrible.

Speaking as one of those convertor authors, I'd have to disagree with both of you

Many of the convertors are quite good and convert most things between forums, but they all have a number of compromises in them, either to speed the conversion process or because bits of the data just aren't compatible.

Converting between most of the big name products is usually fairly pain-free as long as you have the time, but you will lose little bits each time you convert.

Regarding the original topic of this thread, what is the competition? To my mind each of the products targets a slightly different market area. There is certainly overlap, but just becase one product has a new release does not automatically mean the others need one too. In the same way, just because one product has a particular feature it does not mean that the others need it.

[hasten]

When it comes to "features," all of the boards are generally the same. They allow you to post messages, which is the basic point of a forum software.

It looks like the "features" from vB and IBP that people want in phpBB are not really features but tools. vB has a large admin CP. Is that really a feature? I would call it an administrative tool.

Look at phpbbhacks.org if you want admin tools; they're abundant.

This is kind of analogous to Windows or *NIX. Think of vB as Windows and phpBB as *NIX or Linux. vB will throw everything and the kitchen sink at you, which is good for users and webmasters who don't have much scripting or coding experience.

phpBB, however, requires a little more effort. There are numerous MODs avaliable to phpBB. If you've ever worked on a Linux server or workstation and complied your own applications, such as Apache+mod_php+mod_ssl, it's analogous to phpBB. It leaves it up to the webmaster to decide what tools or MODs should be installed. You have to do a little thinking to figure out what extra MODs would fit your needs, and you have to put in some webmaster elbow grease.

In the end, everyone who complains about phpBB always has the choice of switching to another software. No one is forcing you to use phpBB. If you like vB but don't want to cough up the $160 license, it's you're own problem that you're cheap.

Besides, have you looked at the vB or XMB code? What a mess.

[Shining Arcanine]

Indeed converters are not any good really, they have a ton of flaws etc... I believe a pure version of phpbb is the way to go... patiance...

I can vouch for that. I switched to vBulletin 3.0.0 (now at RC4) and found the thread read/unread marking system to be flawed, quotes aren't quite as good as they were in phpBB in threads along with weaknesses in forum administration and the lack of a database abstraction layer which makes porting the software a pain.

However, everything else in vBulletin 3.0.0 far surpasses anything found in phpBB. vBulletin 3.1 should fix (the devs are planning a new/improved read/unread marking system for 3.1) those problems. I'm not going to switch back to phpBB again.

[psoTFX]

Good for you ... and your point of posting this was what exactly? As for read/unread ... I'm sure they're looking over our code as we speak

[Shining Arcanine]

My point is that if the developers added those features, there would be no reason (besides being cheap of course) not to switch to vBulletin. Especially considering phpBB 2.2 is taking too long to develop. It has been in development for as long as I can remember. That was one of the reasons why I switched.

From what I understand they already had a read/unread marking system read to go for vBulletin 3.0.0 but they considered it to add too much additional load so they pushed it back to vBulletin 3.1.

[psoTFX]

Do you know how long vB3 has been in development? Hint ... more time than us Let me guess though, when you buy a hifi you go for one with lots of twiddly knobs and flashing lights don't ya? go on, I know you do

As for "load" ... if what some have written about vB3 is true it's a less than stunning implementation philosophy ...

[Shining Arcanine]

You can turn off several features and get 7-8 queries on every page. I have everything except karma turned on and the forum uses 9 queries per a page and 14 queries on forumdisplay.php.

[psoTFX]

That apparently (AIUI) doesn't include those which are cached ... ours does. Note that I'm speaking based on the word of others who've done a look-see so I may be incorrect. With that said you should also keep in mind that query counts are not the be all and end all of everything

[Shining Arcanine]

That apparently (AIUI) doesn't include those which are cached ... ours does. Note that I'm speaking based on the word of others who've done a look-see so I may be incorrect. With that said you should also keep in mind that query counts are not the be all and end all of everything

Actually, I used the vB3 Microstatus hack to get the query count (after the page is assembled it counts the queries and adds them to the bottom of the page). No one has posted on vBulletin.org claiming that it doesn't catch queries so I assume it gets everything.

[psoTFX]

I can't comment since, as I noted, I've not (and will not) looked myself. However, there was some "hoohah" levelled by a developer involved with a certain "alternative" forum concerning the level of caching in vB3. And how the "low" query count was only attainable because of that caching. Said developer and others have also questioned the methods of implementation of various features ... suggesting the "easy route" was taken rather than the most appropriate route. Again I cannot comment ... I'm merely paraphrasing what others have previously said the past few months.