Well, thats a bit of a u turn from what you said earlier, no bloat however is an opinion, to some avatars etc could be considered as bloat
Olympus has the features. I was speaking of PHPBB2 of course. Although I see Olympus as a great venture with plenty of features I may not go to it until it has the mod database of PHPBB2. That's how it goes with any new release of any forum software. The forums I make, and mod, have more features than the standard vanilla, so I do not see how I made a U turn in my statements at all. I can modify a PHPBB2 forum to do whatever I want it to with the current mods available - this includes full integration with wordpress. PHPBB2 is not limited by anything but the limits of the modder's creativity - and it is free.
Well here I am another phpbb guy ... I am also providing phpbb SEO. Phpbb SEO Service Talking about phpbb2 ... Its one of the best forum software available. SPAM is not a problem if you taking your time to install Mods and other things. I know softwares like Xrumer are smart enough but if you have a look on my forum ... www.yahoofanclub.com I had over 35 spams a day in general section and 10 or more on other sections .... i installed a few mods and its all done. I am working the beta site and you'll see soon see a complete new site. Yes I will be using phpbb2. Whether you use Vb or phpbb .. The main thing is theme of your forum and traffic. I'll give you an example of worlds largest forum. Gaia online. And all you Vb lovers will be surpised that its on phpbb. The worlds largest forum on phpbb.. Shocked.. Yes you all are. Here is a link to it. http://www.gaiaonline.com with 1009773149 posts and 7017818 members Latest Stats on Gaia online: http://rankings.big-boards.com/ Check out its ranking. Also here is a digg post with 977 diggs and 79 comments about gaia http://digg.com/tech_news/The_worlds_most_used_forums So its not the forum software but the users attractive theme and interest. a monkey with Vb cant setup a forum like gaia but a man with good ideas can setup great forum with even phpbb2. So, you aint all monkeys its just an example. Also people are moving in a straight line like Cows ... They think if Digitalpoint/V7n/sitepoint are using Vb its the reason for their success. I know alot of people who started with that cow idea and dropped it after few months. I have been working on www.yahoofanclub.com from one year ( started on 2005 with a beloved friend ) and I am still working on it.
No need for that. At the end of the day, from the end user point of view, if you got used to phpBB then probably it's best for you to continue using it and heep your hair on To get an answer to another question of yours like what exactly can vBulletin do that phpBB can't, go to vBulletin.org mods page and see the number of extension possibilities this board software has got. Compare it against phpBB and see what it can do and phpBB can't.
You said that phpBB 3 would have features galore, I pointed out that phpBB3 does not have such simple features as quick reply and ajax for quick moderation. You didn't state earlier that you were comparing with vanilla, if that were the case you could say phpBB 2 has features galore. The forum world has moved on a tad since phpBB 2.2 (3) went feature locked. Thats not to take anything away from the new theme, which is in reality, the best mark up of any forum software currently available. The question is, will phpBB 3 be the first to release a stable that offers a tableless design first, from the position they are in, they should do. Hopefully phpBB 3.2 will address the lacking features like quick reply etc in a more reasonable timescale than the former 2.2 has done.
Also the usere here that say that the biggest forum is using phpBB have to keep in mind that it is a heavily modified version of phpBB (and running on 200 servers as well). So it's based on phpBB, but it's not phpBB anymore.
vBulleting for sure. I also use it on my own forums: http://www.pix-hoster.com/forums Great experience with it !!
As long as you use one file that maintains the PHPBB codes, it is still PHPBB. That means any of them. Even modified - you would need to code from absolute scratch for it to not be PHPBB.
So just because I use a Windows dll in a program I created, I created Windows? Personally I doubt that there is still much original phpBB code on gaia.
PHPbb is worse then everything and anything, Its a pretty lame piece of software. Unprofessional untidy and such a bad thing.
They started with phpbb ... the modification wasnt done in one day. Whether its modded version or whatever ... the urls are still same old phpbb http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26114171 Then how can you say its not phpbb anymore. They are using an extensive skinning and alot of changes. But its still old phpbb2. They modified the forum with their own needs but they didnt shifted to Vb. That's what the point is. My friend why dont you understand and then post around... gaia forum is completely based on phpbb .... the urls are still the default phpbb2 ones: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26114171 Using a single Windows file makes your software windows compatible but using Windows and adding a couple of skins or themes with some changes wont make a new Operating system ... if that was possible your way ... then we would have a new bill gates each day or maybe each mins. Do think before you post... Can you explain why phpbb is worse. have a look on gaiaonline.com its the biggest forum in the world based on phpbb.... and you say its worse ??
Just to bring the Gaia Online thing into perspective, according to a Mod at PHPBB - Link http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=500026&hilit= Gaia is very heavily modified and the guy who tweaked some of the coding admits having to rip out parts of the code, inserting "cheat" codes, and crippling various core features to have Gaia running as it is. Note this is not an an attack on phpbb, just on the using of Gaia being touted as an example. I believe Gaia would have grown to the same level with any decent forum software with the amount of modifications done. You may be interested in some of the modifications made for Gaia as told by the guy who did it @ http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=135383&highlight=gaia
phpBB is definitely better. Once you get, it is totally yours; you don't have to be bound by rules, you don't have to think twice before installing a mod, and most importantly you dont have to ADVERTISE for them. Vbullletin puts its trademark everywhere on your board. Even in the forum title... It is free advertising for VBulletin even though "you" pay for it. As for phpBB, you can even remove their little mark at the bottom of the forum. In short, if you get phpBB, it is your forum, but if you get VBullletin, even when you pay for it, it is not yours. And there are more ways of installing mods in phpBB. phpBB >>>>> VBulletin. Even if VBulletin was free, I would still get phpBB.
Those who claim phpBB is not good do so because they paid for VBulletin, and of course they do not want to talk badly about it. So see that forum Gaia, the guy above provided the link for! You can't recognize it is phpBB! Can you possibly do that with VBulletin? Hell no! They have copyrights to prevent you. Once again, if you want YOUR OWN original forum, get phpBB. If you want something that evryone has with the mark VBulletin on it, then ok, go for VBulletin. But keep in mind that you will never be able to have a very customized forum like Gaia and you will not be able to put your own trademark on it (unless you pay them huge amounts to get the copyright, which I dont know if possible).
Another phpbb lover .... well to use phpbb for free you need to put atleast one link back to the site. Or you can pay to remove the link. But one link is nothing for a free forum. phpbb Rules