Why do so many 'developers' use phpBB given how awful it is?

[LotusJeff]

It is a matter of perspective, whether you call PHPBB awful or not. If you've never used anything else and it get the forum job done for you (which it can), then it isn't awful at all. If you've seen and used better software, then you might have a slight distaste in using PHPBB.

As for why devs use it for their OS projects? It might just be a popularity contest. The devs might see from the other devs that they are using PHPBB and just follow suite. It could be they see it as the first result in Google and go with it. Who knows?

Scott

Or it could be it met our needs. I was an Invision Power customer when it was an open source product. When the IP team decided to move the product to a commercial based software, I went through a selection process to evaluate the various forums available. At the time, VB and phpBB were the major players.

As with all software, 80% of the core features across the various products are similar. So the question is, "Will I use the 20% that is unique?". For my needs, the features that were unique within the various products were not critical for my forum's success.

This reduced the final decision to being cost based. The major expense of any software is the ongoing maintenance expenses. Both IP and VB have ongoing maintenance costs. phpBB does not. It was a simple decision.

What is interesting, I get faster assistance via the phpBB forums than what the commercial providers state. Additionally, add up what you have spent in maintenance expenses with your commercial software. That is money that is in my pocket.

I have kept my eyes open for alternate products and routinely evaluate alternate products. I think the most interesting product is the Discourse, but it is still early.

LotusJeff

 

[P8i]

I started out on phpbb and quickly moved over to vBulletin. I thought the admin panel was awful. I couldn't begin to tell you why people use it still. Maybe its set-up is easier compared to other services, who knows?

 

[S1n]

It's pretty cool, using it now. Why hate?

 

[GTB]

Seriously, I never understood this.

Go to almost any support forum for an 'open source' script, and it's pretty much guaranteed to be using phpBB. Same with any other free or 'homebrew' or 'hacker' made software.

But why? It's an absolutely terrible piece of software that's already been beaten by about two million equally free and open source alternatives, so why not use one of those?

Is there something hobbyist developers actually like about this godawful thing?

But that's your view, you might not like phpBB3. But not everyone feels the same way as you, I actually like it.

 

[Gie]

I like it, it's something that i have used the most.

It's quite simple. I have always wanted to have a vBulletin but since its around 250$
it's abit too much for me right now. phpBB has nice community from what i have seen and used it,
it is simple enough to do alot of stuff and there are some nice themes for it too.
I don't understand where you get that "awful" part, i haven't had anything complain about it yet and probably never will.
I'm saying this all from members POV, since i have never actually had my own forum (which is a shame )
and therefore can't really tell much about the admins point of view.

 

[GTB]

I don't understand where you get that "awful" part, i haven't had anything complain about it yet and probably never will.

Honestly... I wouldn't take too much notice of what Cheat Master says, he seems to be a HATER of most free forum software, especially phpBB. Yet, he's posted tons of times using multiple accounts on my forum running it, but claims he wouldn't use a forum running phpBB. So... huh, take what he says with as pinch of salt?

 

[ZiggyM]

Of course, this is completely subjective.

In my case, I don't like phpBB at all. Why do I dislike it? I cannot say for sure. I don't really know; I just do.

I'm in no way saying it's a bad forum software. It just... well... I just don't like it, simple as that. It just never... clicked with me.

 

[GTB]

Of course, this is completely subjective.

In my case, I don't like phpBB at all. Why do I dislike it? I cannot say for sure. I don't really know; I just do.

I'm in no way saying it's a bad forum software. It just... well... I just don't like it, simple as that. It just never... clicked with me.

That's perfectly fine. I don't like IPB forum software, doesn't mean it's crap, just means I don't like using, is all.

But some... adopt the view, just because they don't like it. That it must be rubbish then, like the person who created this thread.

 

[JoshyPHP]

I've got to say that it's one hell of a loaded question used as thread title.

I might be a bit of a cynic but I take the position that if it's popular then by definition it's not bad. Its function is to serve people, it serves people therefore it fulfills its function == it is good.

The same goes for PHP. You can't read through programming forums without encountering a discussion where smug programmers hold their nose and wonder out loud why so many plebeians use PHP as *gasp* a programming language. The simple explanation is it's there, it's easy to use and it does what it's asked.

 

[SiteSplat]

An Awful piece of software? With 0 vulnerabilities and the core has never been hacked. 50%+ of the marketshare compared to 3% of mybb, largest communities on the net using phpBB for the very fact it has never been hacked. I could go on and on about what makes it special but you wouldn't like it regardless. Sounds like you had a bad experience with it. You should consider giving it a try and install a premium theme with some premium addons.. ;-)

 

[Shawn Gossman]

An Awful piece of software? With 0 vulnerabilities and the core has never been hacked. 50%+ of the marketshare compared to 3% of mybb, largest communities on the net using phpBB for the very fact it has never been hacked. I could go on and on about what makes it special but you wouldn't like it regardless. Sounds like you had a bad experience with it. You should consider giving it a try and install a premium theme with some premium addons.. ;-)

After reading about PhpBB 3.1, I have to say I am impressed by the new updates. I too thought PhpBB3 was bad looking and not very modern. Having to spend several hours installing a hack was horrible back in the day. I started my forum career with phpBB 1 so I am glad to see the project continuing. The security bit is quite amazing too. I think if PhpBB keeps it up, they could once again dominate the free software market.

 

[radu81]

I'm not a big fan of phpbb because when I started back in 2005 I've been hacked twice in a year and decided to close the forum and move on. Let's be realistic, phpbb is a good piece of software

I'll wait for the new version... 5days

 

[haqzore]

i love phpBB.

always have.

biggest install base (far and away).
biggest free support community (far and away).
biggest mod community (by leagues).
secure.

what is there NOT to like about phpBB?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I'm not a big fan of phpbb because when I started back in 2005 I've been hacked twice in a year and decided to close the forum and move on. Let's be realistic, phpbb is a good piece of software

I'll wait for the new version... 5days

How do you know phpbb was the cause of the intrusion? Most of the time it isn't. A lot of times is from some outdated addon or other script.

 

[Phillip]

How do you know phpbb was the cause of the intrusion? Most of the time it isn't. A lot of times is from some outdated addon or other script.

That's true, most only update the addon they want and think it will work...sometimes though, people can still use an outdated one to the point it will still work...I recently tried working on automod on 3.1 to see what it would do...files have been moved and such and it won't work.

 

[Hauyser]

You should never complain with anything that is "free"

We're just too used to using premium softwares.

 

[Marshalrusty]

You should never complain with anything that is "free"

We're just too used to using premium softwares.

I actually don't have any problem with people comparing us to paid software or complaining about stuff they don't like (which I prefer to read as constructive criticism). We beat the paid competition in a large number of areas.

As for the first post of this topic, there's nothing constructive about it. Nor is there anything factually accurate about it. As part of the developer, and especially open source developer, community, there is not a doubt in my mind that phpBB is by far the most widely used forum software within such groups. cheat_master30 seems to be suggesting that developers don't know why they choose the software that they do, which strikes me as the opposite of reality.

 

[Mopar1973Man]

Hua??? Ok, so using WordPress or Joomla is OK which are both freeware and everyone including big names companies using either Joomla or WordPress. But there is a problem with PHPbb forum scripts? Makes me kind of chuckle at the thought... Because I'm one of those people using Joomla (freeware) and Invision Power Board (Premium Software) on my site. I've got absolutely no problem with freeware when it meets my requirements for a site.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

The world's largest forum operates on phpbb. If it's good enough for GAIA, it's good enough for anyone who doesn't know the difference. I built a site which now has over 100,000 active members and over 10,000,000 posts with phpbb. It's really not awful, although there are better solutions.

Not to go off-topic, but why in the world is GAIA that popular???



That's got to be inaccurate somehow...

 

[Andrew B.]

phpBB is good software. The fact that some people trash it doesn't change this.