6 ms·

I miss the ubiquity of phpBB forums.

capableweb 4y ago
Hackers and spammers too. Famously bad security (which somehow got PHP got blamed for, rather than specific software) principles.
- amenghra 4y ago
  PHP got blamed for because it handed developers guns to shoot themselves in the foot with.
- cauthon 4y ago
  Yeah, I’m not a web dev, but I assumed there were one or more technical limitations that led to its decline. I liked the interface, and the familiarity when seemingly every small-to-medium forum online was built on it. Plus they were all scrapable. There’s a ton of information that’s hard or impossible to find now that these conversations are typically siloed in slack or discord.
- ocdtrekkie 4y ago
  I remember how many mods for phpBB were installed by literally doing find/replaces on the source files. Absolutely insane we had people out there doing that who didn't know any PHP!
- Zak 4y ago
  In fairness, early PHP often made it much easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing while simultaneously targeting beginner web developers.
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  While there are still forums using old software, and more importantly, not moderated, which are overrun by spam, surely this isn't the case for those that keep up ? (I'm also wondering how much field-specific registration questions help there, and what are the non-GAFAM alternatives to Captcha ?)
EGreg 4y ago
Why not Discourse? It has 34% of the discussion market now
- __derek__ 4y ago
  Can you link to research behind that? I'm really curious how this defines the "discussion" market.
  - EGreg 4y ago
    https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/forum-software https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/forum-software
    - __derek__ 4y ago
      Oh, that's disappointing, but it answers the question of how the market is defined for the quoted statistic.
    - phendrenad2 4y ago
      Yeah so it's not 34% of the discussion market, it's 34% of the top one million sites that use a discussion platform. The distinction is important, because the top one million sites are likely to be run by corporations as product Q&A platforms, which is very different from what you want from a Google Groups clone.
- SteveMoody73 4y ago
  Only used discourse in a limited way but it lacks the searchability of the old forums. I can't imagine how much useful information has been lost when some of these sites have shut down. Discussions on a well run forum would be on topic with various people adding to a conversaion, discussions on a single topic seems to get lost on these chat apps
  - syntheticnature 4y ago
    You're thinking of Discord, not Discourse.

Hackers and spammers too. Famously bad security (which somehow got PHP got blamed for, rather than specific software) principles.

amenghra 4y ago
PHP got blamed for because it handed developers guns to shoot themselves in the foot with.
cauthon 4y ago
Yeah, I’m not a web dev, but I assumed there were one or more technical limitations that led to its decline. I liked the interface, and the familiarity when seemingly every small-to-medium forum online was built on it. Plus they were all scrapable. There’s a ton of information that’s hard or impossible to find now that these conversations are typically siloed in slack or discord.
ocdtrekkie 4y ago
I remember how many mods for phpBB were installed by literally doing find/replaces on the source files. Absolutely insane we had people out there doing that who didn't know any PHP!
Zak 4y ago
In fairness, early PHP often made it much easier to do the wrong thing than the right thing while simultaneously targeting beginner web developers.
BlueTemplar 4y ago
While there are still forums using old software, and more importantly, not moderated, which are overrun by spam, surely this isn't the case for those that keep up ? (I'm also wondering how much field-specific registration questions help there, and what are the non-GAFAM alternatives to Captcha ?)

EGreg 4y ago

Why not Discourse? It has 34% of the discussion market now

__derek__ 4y ago
Can you link to research behind that? I'm really curious how this defines the "discussion" market.
- EGreg 4y ago
  https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/forum-software https://trends.builtwith.com/cms/forum-software
  - __derek__ 4y ago
    Oh, that's disappointing, but it answers the question of how the market is defined for the quoted statistic.
  - phendrenad2 4y ago
    Yeah so it's not 34% of the discussion market, it's 34% of the top one million sites that use a discussion platform. The distinction is important, because the top one million sites are likely to be run by corporations as product Q&A platforms, which is very different from what you want from a Google Groups clone.
SteveMoody73 4y ago
Only used discourse in a limited way but it lacks the searchability of the old forums. I can't imagine how much useful information has been lost when some of these sites have shut down. Discussions on a well run forum would be on topic with various people adding to a conversaion, discussions on a single topic seems to get lost on these chat apps
- syntheticnature 4y ago
  You're thinking of Discord, not Discourse.