UseBB Community

How big is UseBB compared to say IceBB, XMB, etc..?

I like the simplicity of UseBB a lot.

You could perform a Google query and check the number of hits?

Actually, I don't really care about the popularity at this time. The project is in some sort of hibernate state until we finally get around to complete v2. Myself, I don't have the time right know to work on 2.0 every month.

I am still waiting to see a UseBB forum listed here.
http://www.big-boards.com/

Hi Dietrich,

I only want to express something that quite a lot of forum software users think, if you have something that works great, why try reinventing the wheel instead of only improving on the existing code base and only implementing more features (mods)?

I was (and still am) a phpBB 2.0.22 addict for when the need arises to put up a more complex forum (than what useBB is meant for and I love it for simple and fast boards) for all the available Mods made for it plus the fact that I'm comfortable making modifications to it. Now that there are thousands of users and hundreds of modders for that version, they decide to release ver. 3 which is entirely different in coding and structure from the previous version. This has created a lot of confusion amongst users and mod authors alike. When looking at the various posts on their forum, a lot of users complain about the complexity of it (even the ACP has a steep learning curve) and say that they'll stick with the older version until there is no support for it.

Darn thing is, it's no criticism but it is quite frustrating that when you have modded and fine tuned your forum to your liking, a complete new version comes out and the user has to start from scratch all over again.

My thoughts,
Gene

UseBB 1 is classic software with lots of design flaws and limitations. Also, it has been written in PHP 4 which is nearing its end of support. It's no use continuing to develop v1. It will remain supported until a few months after the release of UseBB 2. So, there are still many months (if not years) v1 will remain supported.

We also only have a very limited number of mods and modders, so the impact of migrating to v2 and abandoning v1 is much less than with phpBB 2.

Thanks for the answer.

I know that developers have to play "catch-up" (PHP4 which is being dropped for a new version, etc.) and I guess it is quite frustrating for both software writers and users alike.

So, until version 2 comes out, there will still be "design flaws" corrected?

I love useBB for it's speed, ease of use and all the configuration options in the ACP (some which are standard in useBB and aren't in phpBB).

Gene

All forum software has their strong and weak points, guessing it depends on individual needs what a person ends up using, for others and me UseBB is quite sufficient, what that said, sure when UseBB 2 is released and time someone will have a site listed on the big-boards site.

The plans for UseBB 2 have existed long before PHP 4's end of life announcement. Many design flaws were discovered in 2005 and missing features have been added to this list. With "missing features" I don't mean yet another small feature that could come in handy, but features that require major changes in the way UseBB is implemented (for example, threaded topics, a plugin system, etc). If I would correct all this in UseBB 1 it would take many months of rewrite work. Eventually, you will have a clean system but one that is still written in non-OO PHP 4. Rewriting everything in OO PHP 5, taking care of the possible flaws and enabling that new functionality to be built in is exactly what UseBB 2 is meant for.