The future of phpBB(4)?

[Dog Cow]

dont be so sure... i still remember when phpbb2 came out... but with all the upgrades that phpbb3 has... i dont know if there will be anything left to add

Yeah there will 'cuz people always get new ideas. Back in 1980's with USENET, people hadn't even thought of something called an avatar.

phpBB4 will have stuff that we won't have thought of now, but later on it will seem common.

For example, as the web progresses and computers get increasingly quick-witted, I'm sure we'll have video avatars that grab the users web-cam feed and show it in place of the static avatar image.

[asmith3006]

I'll have to start doing my hair!

[XyonN]

1) We were the very first who had this through EasyMod.
2) A version checker and file update will be provided with 3.0.x.

But punbb was the first to have it "build-in".

[NNO-Stephen]

some things I'd like to see...

quick reply (fat chance...)
a built-in IRC interfaced chat (see above)
a bit of DHTML on the polls to avoid a few extra page loads
better default smileys (i heard a nasty rumor about them being in olympus to debut with the new style as well)
un-deletion of topics for better moderation/administration. say you need a dead thread back, you can just revive it like in vB, the one feature they have that I freakin' love (other than QR :p )
better IM client support. for instance, use Skype as one of the fields, along with the skype://" target="_blank protocol, etc.
Karma (CC project)
WYSIWYG editor (CC project)

RSS!

and the fact that these are all, for the most part, minor things shows just how far phpBB has come. from 2.0 my list was this plus every feature that was added :p

[Ectoman]

I want RSS most of all.

[asmith3006]

This thread is about to be locked.... I can smell it!

PhpBB 3 is feature frozen. Everything you have suggested here has been mentioned many many many times. Search the forums and you'll find lengthy discussions about why each of them isn't in this release of phpBB.

[Joablen]

RSS is easy... just create a file that gets the lat 10 posts or something and writes them as xml... then on your theme create a link to that file...

[profpete]

Yeah, RSS is stupidly easy...

You can just add it as a script that queries the database - it doesn't even have to modify any files - means for easier upgrading

which reminds me - anyone know a decent easy to use XML library for PHP? (The built-in one sucks)

[jimmygoon]

This thread is about to be locked.... I can smell it!

PhpBB 3 is feature frozen. Everything you have suggested here has been mentioned many many many times. Search the forums and you'll find lengthy discussions about why each of them isn't in this release of phpBB.

Thanks. That why I didn't mention getting it included in phpbb3. Ya know, I want you to know that the rest of this rant is not directed at you but you've simple inspired me to go through with saying this.

This community surrounding this "product", "project" whatever... sucks. There is so much rudeness in so many posts, so much of people feeling like they are better than others, so much simple deragatory-ness when its not neccesary. Look, its General Discussion... Why can't I talk about phpbb3 features... even though I wasn't. The reason I use Linux and the reason I "support" FOSS is because of the community it promotes and because of the quality. Honestly, security issues that seem to be fixed rather quickly, phpbb3 has a huge base of mods and extensions and themes and it seems to have a number of built in features but... I'm in the process of building a community site for my school and I had pretty much planned on waiting 'till phpbb3 comes out for me to get started on it... but every day, I'm waiting... I accept the fact that this is a huge project and the fact that it is taking a long time is only a minor detail. I was more than willing to wait... but every day I see more FOSS alternatives getting better and better and I see open and more receptive communities and I'm tempted to jump phpbb ship... What else is there for me to stay for?

That having been said, I do appreciate what the developers do and I still look forward to the full release of phpbb3, but I would say that the attitude of a community like area51 and the main site goes a long way to make an impression on people... especially when it is the main/easiest mode of communication about the development of phpbb3....

[Uchiha Nick]

some things I'd like to see...

quick reply (fat chance...)
a built-in IRC interfaced chat (see above)
a bit of DHTML on the polls to avoid a few extra page loads
better default smileys (i heard a nasty rumor about them being in olympus to debut with the new style as well)
un-deletion of topics for better moderation/administration. say you need a dead thread back, you can just revive it like in vB, the one feature they have that I freakin' love (other than QR :p )
better IM client support. for instance, use Skype as one of the fields, along with the skype://" target="_blank protocol, etc.
Karma (CC project)
WYSIWYG editor (CC project)

RSS!

and the fact that these are all, for the most part, minor things shows just how far phpBB has come. from 2.0 my list was this plus every feature that was added :p

Quick Reply: even though I can see the usefullness of it, this is a 'do_it_yourself_feature'. which isnt that hard. just make a field which links to the file that works it through.

DHTML: maybe, though polls are IMHO not that hard for pageloads

Better default smilleys: you would like that- I for one love the current ones

Un-Deletion: making a special 'garbage' forum to move all the threads to is all you need. this simply uses resources which wouldnt be necessairy

Karma: now, this is a widely discussed subject.. Karma systems dont work. why? look at the way people are. ( I dont like you! neg reps. OMG but I DO like that character! nep-rep for ya n00b ) this is a pure example, I for one visit a lot of forums which use these kind of systems. and it happens.

WYSIWYG: apparantly you dont know about browsers and all. want to know why Dreamweaver/Frontpage are hated? because of the WYSIWYG part. WYSIWYG makes it look good in one browser, but in the other it completely sucks. aside from that, it changes existing code- which I hate with a passion. ( you try finishing a school assignment site- which MUST be made using DW. I accidently click on the site in preview, and there you have it- my whole code was screwed to death )
__

1) EasyMOD is good for that IMHO having it build-in... why not. well, not all people want to install mods, and if you see the needed 'install support'- which would heavily increase, that's a no-go I am afraid. besides, if I want something- Ill mod it myself

2) Auto-Updater. now that- THAT would be damn usefull. this helps webmasters who are not 24/7 available. I would love this. but- in combination with EasyMOD/MODs it might prove to be a disaster- changed code and all