[admin (no pm's please)]

Phpbb3 the new version of phpbb3 has now had its first official release.

Phpbb3 is a forum that quite clearly has a lot less features overall than the current myff offering.

But all the same a lot of people are going to see phpbb3 as the future.

In this view they are not exactly wrong as whilst myff is ahead on features, phpbb2 on the whole is not, and there are some features that phpbb3 has built in, that are add ons in myff that are essentially going to be a more flexible implementation when designed into a system as they are in phpbb3.

Therefore I think we have come to a conclusion on this issue. In the new year as phpbb3 begins to settle down, we will implement phpbb3 on one of our domains, and begin the process of porting myff template editing, web pages and portals to phpbb3. template editing, web pages and portals are not a part of phpbb3 and are basically the features that make us a much better forums system.

When we have recreated the best forums system on the net, but now with a phpbb3 heart, we will allow people the free option to move their forum to phpbb3.

Note that phpbb2 type forum templates are not compatible with phpbb3 templates and you will need to re-edit templates.

Note though that myff portal/web template have been using the phpbb3 template system for a long time and so will be compatible.

The time scale for this change could be as long as 6 months, but remember:

1) We are already a better forums system than phpbb3, moving will lose you features!
2) We have a track record of delivering new features to our forums.
3) phpbb3 took well over a year in its release process and may still have issues. So a little delay in switching over may save your forum from a whole lot of grief if the initial release has any security issues or forum wrecking bugs.

[Daniel(u1bd2005)]

Well since its going to be optional, Ill be sticking to PHPBB2 (or the current MFF version of phpbb2), not because the template isn't compatible, not because of the hacks I've added, but simply because of the fact that the PHPBB3 admin panel is completly rubbish, hard to use, to many pointless options, ugly, do I need to go on.

But its nice that people will have the choice. And if they want to its free.

Not for me but im sure many people will convert.

[admin (no pm's please)]

The admin panel last time I looked which was ages ago was very bad

But it has occurred to me that if push comes to shove we can alter the admin panel to make it easier.

But lets not kid anyone, this will be a market driven move, with the only benefits being very long term as people develop phpbb3 templates.

From an internal myff point of view phpbb3 is supposed to be quicker and hence we can place more on the servers, and as I have said a system with some of the features built in has some benefits. For example I would at least imagine that the way extended profile fields are done would be better, though frankly I would not place a bet on that   and I only mean the implementation may be better, I expect our profile fields offer more options for the user.

I expect even at the point where we allow people to upgrade, it will be in many ways more of a downgrade. We have spend years creating the features people really need, and I am 100% certain that our finger is more on the pulse than the phpbb3 team. They seem to have developed in quite an odd way, otherwise they could never have come up with some of the appalling complexity of the beta I last worked with

[Alz]

[admin (no pm's please)]

The comparison table is in an open thread, if you think it is wrong then post what is wrong!

[Manz]

Is this optional?

like we only move if we want to? or is every forum going to move to phpbb3 ?

[Daniel(u1bd2005)]

[Roy]

First i would like to say i will create a PHPBB3 forum for the simple reason of testing to see which one i like the most phpbb2 or phpbb3. I have already created a phpbbs3 forum with another host, and have began testing it ot, evenm made it look like its ready to go live but its not going to be made as a live forum since i will only ever make forums i will use with MYFF.

Admin if you want i can PM you the link to the forum along with the pssword etc so you can check out the admin panel, it hasn't changed that much really, still alot of things that to be honest are pointless, for example i was doing all the forum permissions and found that there are about 5 or 6 seperate categories of settings for permissions.

I'm not sure which release candidate it is but its not the gold version since the host has already said that all forums will be deleted when they start offering phpbb3 gold versions.

It took me around 15 minutes to work out how the category/forum set up works, i then found out hat in order even for an admin to see the forums you have to set the permissions up, i found that to be something many people will struggle with and i think its safe to saythe support forum will be buzzing with people asking questions like how do you create a category/forum, or they can't see the forums they created etc etc.

I wuld say a member of staff with experience with phpbb3 should type up an FAQ of answes for possible questions that will be asked alot, perhaps Codyt07 as she has been using phpbb3 for a while now a will be the best person to ask for help at this early stage.

Not saying that Symon, Nick, Bravo or even Admin will not know the answers just that Codyt07 has made public a test forum whichwas phpbb3 RC 7 or 8. So she would be perhaps th best person to ask.

[Manz]

[admin (no pm's please)]

Thanks for the offer of a test login.

Really though it is going to take me only a moments effort to set up my own test forum as part of the process of creating the myff phpbb3 system.

Our code is currently set up to allow the principle of creating a test version of a forum on phpbb3 before deciding to stick with it, but there will be no way of converting from phpbb3 to phpbb2. e.g. if you make posts on your test phpbb3 board and then decide its not for you, you will lose those posts.

I rather expect Roy is right about the admin panel, I would concede that maybe it is not as complex as when I saw it, but the principle remains that if you have a zillion useless options then the admin panel is going to be complicated.

As least with our portals they are out of the way of the standard forums options.

I am pretty determined not to get started until after the xmas hols, as once I start I won't be able to put it down and it will wreck the xmas/new year break.

Plus of course we have a fancy new feature in the shop/cash mod that needs attention currently.

Think of it as the Hare and the Tortoise  

[Nick(NR)]

I think I'm running the release candidate just before full release was made, personally for me there is still way too much crap in the admin panel that isn't needed as such and what is there is done in a attempted structure which fails to impress me into wanting phpbb3, whilst they've taken some initiative in adding a way to edit templates through the admin panel, even that is a tad a** about face. Can't see why admin and the other mods can't signup on there and use it as a test ground tbh? as I'll only be using it for templating and would make an announcement to not touch a certain one, but other than that it don't matter what it's used for and NO, I wont be letting someone use it for their personal forum, for those members thinking about asking.

[Alz]

[CodyT07]

[Roy]

Hahahaha oops, erm sorry Codyt07

Is it any different to the RC8 you has, for example is it any easier to create forums and categories or is that still the same?

I know only 3 or 4 bugs was fixed from RC8 but not sure if any changes was made to improve the way you can do things, because it was difficult to understand alot of stuff.

[CodyT07]

[Roy]

Ok thanks Codyt07.

I'll sign up in a few minutes time.