Gentoo Forums Management

Kluster · n00b Joined: 21 Jun 2005 Posts: 29

I noticed these forums run phpBB2. I guess this is really to the administrator: How is it going? The Gentoo forum seems to be significantly more functional than the other phpBB forums I use. A lot of my favorites use IBP and vB, so I would like to get your opinion and experiences with phpBB.

I'm going to be in charge of a rather large forum operation soon, and I've talked to a lot of administrators who've told me that phpBB sucks - and moreover for pre-v3 releases. I'm not expecting that you have experience with other software since, as an open source endeavor, Gentoo would understandably want to support phpBB, but do you think phpBB can be made to be as good as IPB or vB? Thanks.

muhsinzubeir · l33t Joined: 29 Sep 2007 Posts: 948 Location: /home/muhsin

not being a fan or so...its the first forum ive installed on the server was phpBB en its just as awsome as it can be...its still on default on my server, but i think with the source code in hand u are only limited to ur imagination...u can make it better as far as u can go

_________________
~x86
p5k-se
Intel Core 2 Duo
Nvidia GT200
http://www.zanbytes.com

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2608

I have experience with phpBB, IPB and VB. I greatly prefer phpBB because it is opensource (as muhsinzubeir pointed out). IPB has some nice features as well, but I don't think that any of them compare to the feature-rich modularity of phpBB.
_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

danielcs · n00b Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Brazil

I never worked with phpBB 3 so I can't compare it, but between IPB/vB and phpBB 2 I would certainly pick IPB or vB.
I've been running an IPB forum (with MySQL) for over 3 years now, we currently have 6000+ members and it runs great, very easy to maintain.

phpBB3 is probably better, but the one thing I hate about phpBB2 is the search feature.
Just try it here at the Gentoo forums... it just sucks, it removes some characters and you get a lot of useless results.

IPB/vB are not open-source but they're still PHP.
You can open the files and tweak the code as much as you want. There are also a lot of mods (sometimes called hacks) around that you can install to extend it's features.

NathanZachary · Moderator Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 2608

The comparison between phpBB2 and IPB/VB is definitely different than phpBB3. The search feature is much nicer in phpBB3, and several other aspects have been greatly improved. The administrator control panel on phpBB3 is remarkably better. Your best bet would be to install and try phpBB3 firstly, and then if you aren't satisfied you can install one of the other non-free boards.

_________________
“Truth, like infinity, is to be forever approached but never reached.” --Jean Ayres (1972)
---avatar cropped from =AimanStudio---

zyko · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 11:51 pm Post subject:

I agree with Kalos. phpBB3 is lightyears ahead of phpBB2, especially when it comes to administrative functions. In contrast to phpBB2, it already contains a lot (!) of useful features, so it will need very little modification. In fact, I have only added 4 lines of code to the php.

It has also been 100% free from automatic spambots, at least until now. I had approximaltely 50 spambot registrations per day with phpBB2.

tylerwylie · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:22 am Post subject:

The spam is getting worse and worse now =\