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Re: PhpBB

#111

Post by iso1631 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #68
babypuncher wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way reddit's threads work with nested replies is also a vastly superior UX over the linear firehose approach of a conventional forum. So much so that pretty much everyone has resorted to copying it over the last 15 years. There's a reason phpbb went the way of the dinosaur and won't be making a comeback. The future is going to be something that learns from Reddit's mistakes without regressing to 2001 usability.

The flat sequential thread was a reaction to threaded messages as seen on Usenet and mailing lists. It works reasonably well if users are careful to quote the messages they're responding to.

The web based forum I ran in the late 90s was threaded, then things like UBB came along and the flat structure seemed to win out.

Re: PhpBB

#112

Post by epolanski »

alexjplant wrote: post #12

I was very into deploying and modding PhpBB when I was in middle school. I learned PHP because of it (though I didn't build any substantial mods) and how to work with RDBMSes, Unix filesystems, HTML, etc. The sites that I built never engendered much community interaction though. I was never a fan of Reddit and find traditional forums much easier to navigate. I also think that the slight friction involved in creating…

> I hope that these systems make a comeback.

Forums are as popular as they were 10 years ago to be honest.

Re: PhpBB

#113

Post by ljm »

dbbk wrote: post #37
Macha wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mods being distributed as manual diff application instructions and then auto mod installers became a thing. Also called all caps MODs to distinguish them from forum moderators.

This is the hardest nostalgia. I'd forgotten about the manual diff! I was doing this at 13 and was basically what got me started in PHP development in general.

And doing the equivalent of partial compilation by just dragging and dropping your php install over FTP and telling it to ignore the unchanged files. Then writing .htaccess files everywhere to tell Apache what to do if you had a 'front controller' pattern.

20 years later and people are doing CGI through WASM or lambda so they can use their language of choice. Full circle as always.

Re: PhpBB

#114

Post by ren_engineer »

babypuncher wrote: post #59
hbn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also way easier to build a community when the buy-in is clicking a "subscribe" button with an account you already have and are logged into and knowing you can unsubscribe at any time, as opposed to registering another username, giving a random site admin your email, verifying your email, trusting they're not gonna leak your info or password, etc. Plus everyone already knows how to use all the functionality, and…

The way reddit's threads work with nested replies is also a vastly superior UX over the linear firehose approach of a conventional forum. So much so that pretty much everyone has resorted to copying it over the last 15 years. There's a reason phpbb went the way of the dinosaur and won't be making a comeback. The future is going to be something that learns from Reddit's mistakes without regressing to 2001 usability.

not really, it results in people being forced to hijack the top comment if they want any chance of their post being seen. And upvoting mechanism typically make things worse as well

Re: PhpBB

#115

Post by iso1631 »

tquinn wrote: post #84
zozbot234 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The flat sequential thread was a reaction to threaded messages as seen on Usenet and mailing lists. It works reasonably well if users are careful to quote the messages they're responding to.

Super interesting, I didn't know it was a reaction. Looking at Usenet thread screenshots, I think the UX issue with their threads is that they actually listed the title, not the actual message in a branch format. Whereas Reddit has the actual message content in a branch format. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversation_threading#/media/... VS https://preview.redd.it/r7k2gf1kav6z.png?auto=webp&s=9fd7a0b... I think th…

I'm sure slashdot showed the messages in threads (at least in some modes) at least 5 years before reddit was a thing.

In fact here's a screenshot from 2005

https://www.flickr.com/photos/third/18260796

Re: PhpBB

#116

Post by burntsushi »

deanc wrote: post #39
burntsushi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. But for vBulletin. I then went on to build my own forum software (because who didn't?): http://web.archive.org/web/20040523030817/http://www.webtric...

Same. Used to moderate the official vbulletin.org with some good people. This got me started in my career and I would not be where I am today without all that time spent learning the internals of vBulletin. Of course, it's a shitshow nowadays after the company took it over and the majority of good people (including developers) created XenForo. I have not been involved for over a decade :)

That's amazing. I spent a fair bit of time on vbulletin.org (I think) back in the day. Wasn't a huge poster, but lurked a lot and remember reading Kier's posts.

Re: PhpBB

#117

Post by hellcow »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #10
lockhouse wrote: post #8

Honestly, at this point I think the post Reddit internet very well could be a return to lots of independent PhpBB powered forums and Discord groups. Unlike when Digg destroyed itself there just really isn’t a single heir apparent.

If a bunch of independent traditional forums was such a compelling experience, you have to ask yourself why Reddit was so successful despite them. The hay day of even large forums like Neogaf and SomethingAwful has also passed. The reality is that registering to N forums to discuss M topics isn't very compelling. And even a large forum with a diverse off-topic section can't compete with the long tails of Reddit subre…

Potentially ActivityPub fixes this. I can comment and like on any Lemmy/kbin server from my own account on a totally different server.

If we wanted a forum, it would just need a new UI layer fit for purpose, reminiscent of phpbb, and be super easy to spin up.

Re: PhpBB

#118

Post by Solvency »

epolanski wrote: post #110
seydor wrote: post #36

Most people don't want to admit it, but running a subreddit is much more fun than running your own forum. Even if you magically had the users, you also have the FULL responsibility , up to the legal consequnces for the stuff that your users do, plus you have all the technical trouble. Reddit gives that for free to moderators. They can make any community for shits n giggles, break it, fix it, abandon it etc. and none…

Forums and social news media are radically different experiences, I'm not understanding why are we even comparing the two. A forum is made of long-lasting discussions, spanning months or years. You login and you see whether there's new messages in the discussions you have been part of. Reddit/Hackernews promotes a very different style of short lived (1/2 days at most discussion). There's just no way a subreddit out t…

That's irrelevant to what the OP said. You're describing the fundamental difference of the user experience for members.

OP is talking about owners/moderators. Reddit could completely change the subreddit UI experience + posting experience to behave like oldschool forums. The ability for anyone to make a subreddit and be its moderator is the topic at hand here.

Operating an entire forum, using existing forum tech today, is way way way different.

Re: PhpBB

#119

Post by chasd00 »

babypuncher wrote: post #59
hbn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also way easier to build a community when the buy-in is clicking a "subscribe" button with an account you already have and are logged into and knowing you can unsubscribe at any time, as opposed to registering another username, giving a random site admin your email, verifying your email, trusting they're not gonna leak your info or password, etc. Plus everyone already knows how to use all the functionality, and…

The way reddit's threads work with nested replies is also a vastly superior UX over the linear firehose approach of a conventional forum. So much so that pretty much everyone has resorted to copying it over the last 15 years. There's a reason phpbb went the way of the dinosaur and won't be making a comeback. The future is going to be something that learns from Reddit's mistakes without regressing to 2001 usability.

> There's a reason phpbb went the way of the dinosaur

my most beloved communities are still on phpbb. A "dinosaur" platform with a couple thousand tight knit members is way way more valuable than the nightmare we're seeing unfold with Reddit or any of the other social platform. When people prefer these platforms what they're really preferring is a high user count in their "community". Stable, quality, long term, online communities are better built off the major platforms.

Re: PhpBB

#120

Post by johannes1234321 »

epolanski wrote: post #110
seydor wrote: post #36

Most people don't want to admit it, but running a subreddit is much more fun than running your own forum. Even if you magically had the users, you also have the FULL responsibility , up to the legal consequnces for the stuff that your users do, plus you have all the technical trouble. Reddit gives that for free to moderators. They can make any community for shits n giggles, break it, fix it, abandon it etc. and none…

Forums and social news media are radically different experiences, I'm not understanding why are we even comparing the two. A forum is made of long-lasting discussions, spanning months or years. You login and you see whether there's new messages in the discussions you have been part of. Reddit/Hackernews promotes a very different style of short lived (1/2 days at most discussion). There's just no way a subreddit out t…

In most forums I know the long running threads are mostly the "tell a joke" threads, which collect some off topic posts. Most other discussions are short lived as elsewhere.

The main difference to me is that most forums are harder to find, thus more intimate groups where reddit invites others to stumble in.

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