PhpBB3 about to go RC

[Frost]

I just saw the announcement on phpbb.com about them about to go RC1

This is pretty good news for some of us who have been developing mods, themes, and hacks for it, but also raises a few questions about other developer plans.

I know several devs/sites that are developing their own versions, mods, portals, upgrades etc for phpbb3. Will the development of these projects become known to the public when RC1 is out?

Me and some others were apparently right on target about the release date, but I imagine the changes are more than they are letting on. With the resigning of theFinn there is no telling what direction phpbb will go. I am afraid all that was standing in the way of leaving originality, features, and possibly even the free nature of phpbb was theFinn.

After some pretty weird changes, and deterioration of the once "glad to help" nature of phpbb.com it isn't looking good.(In the eyes of the paranoid lol)

[ZacFields]

I will say I went to phpbb.com once and only once to ask for help. It was after I'd installed IntegraMod but before I started utilizing the support here.

My question was simple: Which is the earliest version of phpbb that is compatible with php5?

My question was answered by someone, and I followed up saying thanks for the info. In my followup post I mentioned that my reason for asking is that I run a pre-modded phpbb package and I'd like to upgrade it for php5 compatibility so I can move it to my new php5 server.

Then one of the mods, developers.... some bigwig over there completely reemed me. Told me that since I have a pre-modded phpbb package I need to stay off their forums and go find the support forum for my package.

I PMed him and told him I thought his comments were unnecessary because my question had absolutely nothing to do with what kind of software I was running, as I simply wanted to know what version of PHPBB I'd have to upgrade my forum to in order to be php5 compatible. I reminded him I asked of no support on HOW to do it, all I needed to know was what the version number was.

He responded to my PM telling me that if I ever contacted him again that I would receive a warning, and possibly banishment from phpbb's support forum since "You're not even running our software anyways" and ended his PM saying "I hope you enjoy your choice of forum software."

I"m not exxagerating this situation at all. I was never rude to anyone, nor was I asking a stupid question. Very legitimate question but once I let it slip that my phpbb wasn't exactly "stock" then all hell broke loose for this one individual.

Zac

[Helter]

the problem with phpbb.com is that most of the mods barely know phpbb, now throw in a hack and they are lost. phpbb is like a point and shoot camera...very very basic. If you are active on the site and read the daily support requests, youll see what I mean. I really believe that any of our members who have added a mod to IM or updated their IM version successfully are way above 80% of thier mods and members. Im not really slamming phpbb, but ive had several similar experiences. I was also threatend with being banned for replying to a request for a custom template. The post was 3 weeks old and the only reply was her own bump. Since pm's were disabled, I told her to contact me at forumimages. I recieved a pm from a mod telling me not to post my url. I couldnt reply because pm's were still disabled, so I followed up my post by saying that I wouldnt have posted my url if pm's hadnt been disabled. He called me a smartass punk and theatened to ban me. I have not been back since

[Frost]

Yep, same with me. I watch them occasionally to stay updated on security, versions, and mods or themes I might want to port.

Several times I have posted on their board to help someone or to ask general questions and not ONCE was I EVER talked to by staff in a manner other than rude.

After some pretty weird changes, and deterioration of the once "glad to help" nature of phpbb.com it isn't looking good.

A long time ago, back when the original staff was there, the support was good, the members were friendly, and you could get help almost immediately. Now all of that is gone. It seems like all that runs the boards now, are a bunch of geeks that got picked on a lot, and now they lash out on anyone because they are in a state of "authority". I don't blame the old generation for leaving, as I would have a long time ago. Phpbb.com will turn into a ghost forum eventually the way they are running things now. All that will be left are the ruthless staff and their strict "you either obey us or fuck off" attitudes.

I have viewed over 1,000 post's on that site that A) never got answered B) was locked immediately at the mention of another cms or C) told to read the ridiculous amount of documentation posted all over the server that half of the time is either so buried, non-existent, or down because of their lack of ability to maintain a website of that proportion.

My faith in phpbb.com was gone long ago, and every time I visit the site it just gets worse.

Their ending will not be pretty.

[ZacFields]

Honestly I think most of the pre-modded forums will be around a lot longer than phpbb itself. I can't believe there are others who actually experienced similar things to what I experienced. I thought it was just a fluke....like my post just got spotted by the wrong moderator or something.

But fluke or not, I haven't been back there. I think software development aught to run like a good business. The people in charge of "helping" others should be NOTHING but genuinely nice and courteous. The quality of the customer service will make or break a business. And more, the people in charge of the "business" should be on top of every one of their staff members. I run a local forum and I've booted some of my best friends from my moderator list for abusing their authority.

That's why when someone asks a question on here, even if I know it's been answered a thousand times in other topics, I'll post a link to a topic where the situation was resolved before and I'll even put in 30 seconds of my own time to explain how the solution works to them. I've seen this done over and over by mods/admin/devs here on IntegraMod and I think it's what seperates us from all the other premodded forums and what even sets us apart from PHPBB.

If I ever start up another stock phpbb, I'll provide my own support to myself or get it here <img>

Zac

[found it]

I just wanted to add though I agree alot of support is really bad especially in the mod writing section.....

I personally haven't had a bad time at phpBB, though reading posts etc some of the moderators are rude and disrespectful...

The most annoying thing I have found as I try and keep up to date as much as I can with new mods.... is the new era of mod makers, though the mods they are making are more up to date they do not seem to have any original ideas... they just keep nicking old mods and updating the code and changing the html and going cool and wow look at my new mod...

This I might add Is my personal opinion as I would like to see fresh ideas but even the mods I have seen for phpbb3 are just upgraded versions of phpbb2 but with no real wow factor.....

still enough ramble PHPBB have a long way to go to get the same sort of site that they had a few years ago ...and dont get me started on their crap search feature that can only hold 2 pages before it states no topics exist for your search even though it stated on the last page there were 4000 results....

PhpBB3 looks promising though I was running a search in a topic which had to pages listed and it came back with 2570 results ..so I don't know how that is supposed to work...

[Frost]

Ha! Maybe I should start a site that php coders come to for ideas

You are exactly on though in what you say, I'm tired of going to the mod db, or phpbbhacks.com and seeing the same damn mods with changed names. I know some of them are picked up from abandoned old mods, but still, if I ran some statistics it would show 10% of them are original.

Maybe I should find me some php learning sites and how to mod for phpbb? That'll be the day...

[found it]

lol

Yeah I am in exactly the same boat I mod for my sites but have no idea what I did or how to explain... only that it works how I want....

I definitely need a php course and then I could offer a lot more...

[CaNNon]

I only know I looked around and checked out all the forums I could find, before I put my board up... and I'm really happy with my choice. <img>

[egdcltd]

Ha! Maybe I should start a site that php coders come to for ideas

That's not a bad idea. Coming up with original ideas can be just as hard as actually coding a new mod.

[Frost]

Already in the making

Basically it's a project site with the new idea of... ideas.

I am going to go back and re-do all of my mods/hacks and this time, actually write it down.
Then I'm going to build a premod (lite version) with said new ideas.

Of course it will have the basic "old" mods installed as they are the originals, and only ones of their kind. (IE; CH mod, XS mod, etc)

But the most important thing is the ideas! I am going to open it to ALL ideas and invite any coders to come and test their skills.

(I still need to get the idea submission organized for how I'm going to do it)
I was thinking something like pre-made idea submission sheets (similar to Helter's premade support thing)

Then have it monitored and seperated into types of ideas (IE; categories, similar to the phpbb mod base)

Then have the ideas voted on, and where coders can "call dibs" on a certain mod(s)

More, but I'm tired and going to bed

And to stay in the spirit of this idea site... ideas on how to do the idea site are welcome [/url]

Edit: I even threw in a special link in the header for the coders

[egdcltd]

I am going to go back and re-do all of my mods/hacks and this time, actually write it down.

If you haven't already heard of it, WinMerge can be very helpful working out what you've done to a file. As long as you have a before and after version that is.

[Frost]

I use winmerge sometimes for supporting users here and such, but my problem is, I just open files and start coding until I get what I want

Plus, my memory is hit n miss because of my huge amount of activity online

I will just see what I have on all my sites, then recreate what I did, and jot it all down, then have someone go in and make it all "Mod Compliant" <img> .. I hate doing that

[viragotech]

I dunno why phpBB don't work with you guys or embrace this mod community like they should.

They got a good product but its to hard to use for most. The thing comes with nothing and they expect everyone to know how to edit code or even feel comfy doing that.

Member when I had to pay to add file upload to phpBB and even then it took the guy about 6 hrs.

We need their core program but other then that they can su...... hehehehe

[Coder]

I've seen many poor support forums in my time, and i have to agree, phpbb takes the biscuit! Questions there either don't get answered or they get a smart ass brush-off from some .script-kiddie that really doesn't know any better than the person asking the question, but his post count is more important!!!

For those interested in learning more about PHP, I would thoroughly recommend phpfreaks.com! Its a well established site and with a very active user base that actually help each other, and can certainly help with any questions you may have, if only to point to where you might find an answer <img>

Hope that helps someone ^^