So has anyone used this yet? how does it compare to previous versions considering user/admin functionality?
I've been playing with Betas & Release Candidates for over a year now. Version twos' ACP is a joke compared to version threes. The people who can't figure out the new permission system in a day or less need to seriously consider having someone more experienced running their forum. The new UCP system is very nice. So is the moderator control panel. Both the UCP & ACP use a module system that makes adding modes to them very easy. It's a matter of adding a couple of files & running code to add new permission types in some cases, instead of altering the existing scripts. There's already an ACP module for adding new profile fields. One of my favorite things is the BBCode ACP module. Adding new BBCodes is almost idoit proof now. What's really funny is all the times I've seen people mention how "slow" phpBB3 is during Beta & all the release candidates, I even noticed it a little. But as soon as they turned off debugging, stale template checking, & released Gold, it sped up dramaticly.
I think phpBB3 has really big improvements, I agree with joebert. I find the admin/moderatorCP very useful, and I think it has really gone very far from the previous releases, major improvements since v2 and I am running it on one a forum, I think it is a great forum platform. Definitely one of the top ones! Meti
I think, out of all the forum softwares, phpBB3 has had the biggest improvement than the last version. I love the default style. Loads of features.
I think the permissions are ridiculous...unless I'm doing them wrong. I just find it stupid that you have to go through each forum for each usergroup and add them to the forum to view, reply, etc. I've only used it for just a little bit so maybe I just haven't looked at it long enough but that's one thing I don't like. Other than that, it's just been bloated with features most sites won't use but they want to make it look like it has more features than IPB and VB. If you have the money, I say go with vB...especially with the big improvements coming in v3.7 and then the upcoming 4.0 (should be table-less...FINALLY). phpbb is great for a free board and I don't see how anyone could really complain about this version if they can't afford anything else.
I still prefer vBulletin over phpbb.. phpbb is the best free board out there, but IMO it doesn't compare to vBulletin. You get what you pay for.
I use both phpbb & vB and prefer vB because I can do more than I expected. PHPBB3 has less features but it's almost compying with all my needs and hope will go improving over the time. I need more time to configure it than vB. vB is very flexible, the best, the most used. Regarding IPBoard I don't like their service support and don't like that we need to even ask permission to use the demo! My votes: 1) vB 2) PHPBB 3) SMF
phpBB2 is just fine board. Still not faced any problem with phpBB2 and because of 15-20 installed mods i do not see any reason to upgrade board to version 3x. Losing all nicely mods that i have is unacceptable for me at this moment.
Currently using phpBB3 and vbulletin. I think the new phpBB permissions system is a bit confusing and like joebert said, play safe.
I have been using and testing the software for quite a while now and so far i'm still impressed with how it all works. I have yet to have any real problems with it either let alone any spam problems like I used to have with phpBB2. Also, i've found the permission system really easy to use. Simple just add permissions to the category if you have a group of forums you'd like to restrict, or as mentioned above just copy the permissions from another forum. I find it stupid how people will come here and post about how something sucks but never give reason for it. It just seems to be wasting space in a thread like this one.
I haven't used by being an admin yet, however posting on some candidate versions. I wasn't to impressed, I just wasn't getting hang of it. I love phpBB 2, I guess I just need to use phpBB 3 more.
I've got tones of spam as admin of phpbb2, I suddently saw hundreds of new robot members in my bb. I hope phpbb is better in this regard because it almost destroyed my community!
phpBB 2 did lack spam control, however there we're ways to avoid them. I am guessing they must have improved this, its a key factor.
They have improved it significantly. At the moment one of the forums I administer gets 0 spam registrations per day compared to before when I was getting anywhere between 5 to 15.