phpBB replacing prosilver
- Thread starter Gio
- Start date
They posted the thread 2/18, made the official announcement 9/18 it looks like, and seems like it still has some more work to be done.
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Bryn
Yuck. Looks like Tapatalk, only worse. Too much white everywhere 
I wonder how many people still use phpBB with all these paid platforms, and all the Social Media stuff these days. I used to love phpBB but I hate forums these days due to preferring Facebook.
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Bryn
Also that phpBB gets swamped with spambots very easily... and I know this from one forum I was on under the platform (but that was until a sortables CAPTCHA was put in, which drove nearly all of them away).
Yuck. Looks like Tapatalk, only worse. Too much white everywhere
It's a default theme the majority of people typically don't stick with the default as far as I know and you're likely able to modify it.
This old debate. Also the people that use phpBB or free forum platforms are those that don't want to or can't dish out ~$200 for software.
Any forum platform can get swamped with spambots easily if you don't have anything in place. My Xenforo forum got swamped prior to enabling a few anti-spam measures.
My own reply to the thread
I quite like that phpBB is bringing their default theme style into a more modern era. With a fresh look and feel I will feel much more confident about using phpBB in the future. I still was looking at using them for another project I have considered starting.
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Bryn
Well yeah, that's true. But still, it could've been better ffs. Also, one person did tell me that phpBB is more vulnerable with spambots than any other forum platform. And that was @SarahGirl by the way.
It's good that they are finally going with a default responsive and mobile-first theme, that is essential today. That forum view looks like IPB's grid view tho. 😉 But like others have mentioned here, the post is from early last year and we still haven't seen a working demo which doesn't give me much confidence. Have they stopped developing it?
Probably not, being that phpBB is a free software I doubt the devs get paid anything. I also think a part of it is how much reworking they are doing and probably building the theme from scratch. It also makes me wonder if this is going to come out with a major release of phpBB.
Sure, I am aware of that, but there hasn't been much activity from phpbb in recent years, and think this goes to show that phpBB has lost a large part of its former developer team - and relevance.
Yeah I hope this is true, because phpbb is badly in need of some major re-working. Frankly, there is no real reason to go with phpbb these days, there are many other, more modern and better options to choose from.
I actually mentioned this a few months ago. It's nothing special, just phpBB pretending to be hip when it's even more conservative than XenForo.
It's pretty much a clone of free long established themes which have already been around for a long time, but a hundred times worse. phpBB wouldn't know what innovative meant, if it slapped them in the face and yet they act like this is world changing.
The most "innovative" thing there is probably the SMS like styling on the chat interface, but I really don't like it. It's messy and hard to follow with how some users appear on the left and others on the right.
It is simply an awful, awful interface. And many have tried grid interfaces for forums and have usually backed away from them, as they make the eyes dance up / down, left / right rather than quickly scanning to find what they want, not that I'm particularly a UX expert.
Plus, for something apparently "innovative", they still have many classical anti-features like birthdays, largely useless brag statistics, static footers instead of widget docks, etc.
Discourse is innovative. NodeBB is innovative. This. This is almost insulting to the word innovation.
NodeBB is basically three Canadians doing all the legwork, if I recall, it isn't some international giant which has been around for decades. You could even argue that it's *too innovative*.
Something without Zuckerberg is always nice.
It's pretty much a clone of free long established themes which have already been around for a long time, but a hundred times worse. phpBB wouldn't know what innovative meant, if it slapped them in the face and yet they act like this is world changing.
What a joke, this is probably a more up-to-date theme than the infamous prosilver (what isn't?), but they're deluded, if they think this is even remotely groundbreaking. There is probably no less than a hundred 3.x themes which look twenty times better.
The most "innovative" thing there is probably the SMS like styling on the chat interface, but I really don't like it. It's messy and hard to follow with how some users appear on the left and others on the right.
It is simply an awful, awful interface. And many have tried grid interfaces for forums and have usually backed away from them, as they make the eyes dance up / down, left / right rather than quickly scanning to find what they want, not that I'm particularly a UX expert.
Plus, for something apparently "innovative", they still have many classical anti-features like birthdays, largely useless brag statistics, static footers instead of widget docks, etc.
Discourse is innovative. NodeBB is innovative. This. This is almost insulting to the word innovation.
NodeBB is basically three Canadians doing all the legwork, if I recall, it isn't some international giant which has been around for decades. You could even argue that it's *too innovative*.
Well, Facebook does force people to disclose their real identities and to even surrender their ID (e.g. passports, drivers license), if it thinks anything is suspect like someone not being real.
Something without Zuckerberg is always nice.
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Bryn
But why though? That's just asking to get doxxed if you ask me, nevermind being stalked. I was on Facebook before with just a variation of my real name and they never hassled me for it, and still go with it. If they ever do this to me however, well, up them.
Anyway, I think phpBB's new idea could've looked better imho.
Marie 1988 Forum
Resident
This is my first time back on the scene in a while but I'm looking at opening my own forum again and phpBB is top of the list of platforms to check out.
That's the thing I'm most intrigued about, but it's hard to tell from screenshots how it'll work and feel.
If you're starting a new forum today there are much better options to choose from than phpBB. In fact, phpBB would probably be at the bottom of my list of platforms.
Marie 1988 Forum
Resident
I'm not starting today. Waiting to hear back from an old friend of mine who has helped me out in the past.
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