1 (edited by Smartys 2008-04-02 14:06)

Topic: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

punBB should get the 10 things right that phpBB3 got so, so wrong...

   1. Templates are now even more complicated
          * A new language was invented in earlier phpBB for templating. You MUST learn this in order to create templates. Why use this, when there?s a perfectly good one that we already know? ?called PHP!
          * Templates are split into three sections now, templates, imagesets and themes.
          * Editing files outside of the admin area is just asking for trouble, as any changes will not be noticed, as the system caches them. This means I can?t use my favourite text editor to develop this site.
          * Flexibility simply doesn?t exist, you?re restricted by all sorts.
   2. It?s STILL not SEO friendly
          * We were promised that there would be native friendly URLs in this version, yet no such luck.
          * URLs are nasty, they could be so much prettier and descriptive.
          * Carrying around the SID in URLs is UGLY! Everybody has a cookies enabled browser these days.
          * Page titles are still horrible, including the ?Index page?, very descriptive?
          * There?s too many links per page, it just causes issues.
          * No XML sitemaps?
   3. Modifications still aren?t any easier to add
          * Still not automated!
          * It?s now using MODX which is, instead of a bunch of instructions as it used to be, is XML based, which designed to be read by machines?
          * I?m sure most people would like to add in all sorts of gadgets and widgets, yet phpBB3 doesn?t have any such support!
   4. Still no RSS feeds?
          * RSS is a major part of ?web 2.0?, yet phpBB 3.0 still hasn?t mastered them!
          * RSS feeds ARE NOT DIFFICULT, it?s just XML!
   5. HUGE footprint, is it really justified?
          * phpBB2 was about 2mb when it was extracted, this phpBB3 is about 5 times that at around 10mb, ridiculous!
          * So there?s a new admin control panel (ACP), there?s a new default theme which looks a bit nicer, but really what?s changed that much?
   6. Too many whining copyright notices
          * Shut up about copyright already!
          * If you?re that bothered about it, why don?t you make it a commercial product or get people to pay to remove the copyright and gain support?
          * You?re probably not really doing yourself any favours by having people link back, they aren?t exactly going to be quality links, because all the quality links remove it or use something else.
          * Nobody really wants to keep these anyway?
   7. Quick reply
          * A feature that vBulletin has, and does very well, yet phpBB doesn?t have it.
          * This is a feature you?d have expected they would have added as a native option, yet again no.
   8. HTML is no longer accepted in comments
          * Unlike phpBB2, phpBB3 does not allow the use of HTML tags in comments, forcing administrators of large phpBB2 systems with many pre-existing HTML links to choose between upgrading to the new software or preserving their existing links
   9. Unprofessional
          * phpBB has never had the look and feel of a professional product.
          * The general userbase of phpBB is unprofessional.
          * phpBB is not taken seriously in the money making world of web development.
          * There?s no option of professional support, it simply doesn?t exist!
  10. I hate it, but you love it!
          * Unfortunately phpBB is one of the few notable forums out there, nothing else works quite like it.
          * They pioneered things like bbCode which means users can add easy to understand markup to their comments.
          * The search is fantastic, better than any other forum out there, even vBulletin, it just works very well. Egosearch is also very useful.
          * It?s open source and GPL so it appeals to all the freetards out there.
          * There?s quite a large community that offer mods, styles and support.
          * It works! It really works! What can I say? I godda hand it to them for that.

[snipped advertising link]

Good luck!

- HM2K <www.hm2k.com>

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

Moved to 1.3 talk

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

I removed the link to your site, since it reeked of self promotion (it still does, since this post has little relevance to PunBB, but I'm going to be nice and leave it).

1. PunBB has no template system in the way you're thinking of it
2. There are SEF friendly URL schemes, but some of the rest of your gripes are silly.
3. Extension system
4. RSS has been a part of PunBB since 1.2.
5. Still small
6. The copyright notice has been removed, but the Powered by link will remain. If you don't understand why the link back is considered polite, then you won't really understand.
7. Existed since 1.2
8. Not a problem, no HTML ever
9-10 don't make much sense.

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

I think you got it all wrong Smartys, hm2k seems to complain about phpBB3 pointing out a few useless features or missing features that instead PunBB has.

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

Nope, that wasn't the context of the blog post which he copy/pasted from and linked to wink

6

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

Strofanto wrote:

I think you got it all wrong Smartys, hm2k seems to complain about phpBB3 pointing out a few useless features or missing features that instead PunBB has.

He's right. The point was I've yet to try PunBB, I just hope it's not gonna fail where phpBB has let me down.

- HM2K <www.hm2k.com>

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

hm2k wrote:
Strofanto wrote:

I think you got it all wrong Smartys, hm2k seems to complain about phpBB3 pointing out a few useless features or missing features that instead PunBB has.

He's right. The point was I've yet to try PunBB, I just hope it's not gonna fail where phpBB has let me down.

ok then us your suggestions clearly .. not some phpbb whatever ...

tell us like there must be a rss feed .. there is rss feed big_smile

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8

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

SuperMAG wrote:
hm2k wrote:
Strofanto wrote:

I think you got it all wrong Smartys, hm2k seems to complain about phpBB3 pointing out a few useless features or missing features that instead PunBB has.

He's right. The point was I've yet to try PunBB, I just hope it's not gonna fail where phpBB has let me down.

ok then us your suggestions clearly .. not some phpbb whatever ...

tell us like there must be a rss feed .. there is rss feed big_smile

If what you said made any sense, i'd come back with a witty remark... smile

- HM2K <www.hm2k.com>

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

Don't bother, he rarely makes sense.

10

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

hm2k wrote:
Strofanto wrote:

I think you got it all wrong Smartys, hm2k seems to complain about phpBB3 pointing out a few useless features or missing features that instead PunBB has.

He's right. The point was I've yet to try PunBB, I just hope it's not gonna fail where phpBB has let me down.

If you have not tried punBB yet how can you suggest anything, as Smarties wrote, most of your remarks have nothing to do with punBB

elbekko wrote:

Don't bother, he rarely makes sense.

That's quite right tongue

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

yemgi wrote:
elbekko wrote:

Don't bother, he rarely makes sense.

That's quite right tongue

are you guys talking about me

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12 (edited by Jérémie 2008-04-03 12:04)

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

hm2k wrote:

punBB should get the 10 things right that phpBB3 got so, so wrong...

Another, largely recognized as poor, forum software suposed wrong doesn't mean Pun _should_ correct it. maybe it's not under Pun's scope, for example? No?

* Page titles are still horrible, including the ?Index page?, very descriptive?

That may be a good one, I haven't checked it myself... I'm sure a lot of other people have but still, I'll look into it for my own curiosity and possible improvement reports.

* No XML sitemaps?

Given that's now a de facto standard, and more or less open, and given the fact 99% of forum user will want their forums indexed, having it in the core would indeed be a good thing.

Beside, it's not long or difficult to do.

* RSS is a major part of ?web 2.0?, yet phpBB 3.0 still hasn?t mastered them!

RSS isn't a major part of anything, and there's no such thing as ?Web 2.0?. On top of that, RSS specs are inexistant, to the point where some RSS author have given up and switched to Atom. Atom is good, but it isn't a major part of anything either.

* Unfortunately phpBB is one of the few notable forums out there, nothing else works quite like it.

Thank god most software don't work like phpbb.

But there's plenty of other forum software, some incredibly faster, ligther and more secure than phpbb. Pun is one of them, or maybe just The One.

* They pioneered things like bbCode which means users can add easy to understand markup to their comments.

bbcode is another thing phpbb will have to answer to when it's dead. bbcode that's just a lame, lazy developer who, once upon a time, thought: ?oh, allowing html is bad, it can break things. Ok I won't bother filtering out the bad or in the good, I'll just forbid everything <>. Oh, user are asking for some feature... bah, let's now use [], and some über limited syntax of a tiny part of the current html. Someone will fix this whole thing in the future?. And it stuck.

* It?s open source and GPL so it appeals to all the freetards out there.

Not much to do with philosophy. True open source software tend just to be cheaper to create, support, use, and overall of better quality.

There's exceptions everywhere, of course.

* There?s quite a large community that offer mods, styles and support.

Community support is vital for an open source internet software. Pun has quite a good community.

Overall, before spamming your things, and talking phpbb-ish only, maybe you should inquire yourself about where your post, and what it's about.

Re: 10 things punBB v1.3 should get right...

Punbb is already the most flexible and easily customizable forum software. With the new styles 'per template' and hook/extension system tat will come in 1.3 it will literally leave the concurrence (if we can call it tat) miles away.

This, however does not mean, that it will ship bloated with a million features from which you would use like 3 or 4 of.
Important thing in punbb 1.3 will be: it will be possible to do pretty much everything you want in a proper why. By properly i mean, without touching the source code and in a way that your database also holds your mods.
AFAIK no other forum software does this.

Some very commonly requested features will be included in the core like: xmlfeeds, fancy url personalization, and some other stuff i don't know of.
Some quite popular requests, i hope, will be supported as official extensions.

Further customization can be achieved with other extensions.

I guess this answer to all you requests as punbb's flexibility will cover all that.

Ok, i ended up bragging about punbb as I always do.