Does Chief Delphi enjoy wasting money, or haven’t they heard of phpbb.com …
Ahh, the wonders of php, and hey, it’s free, open source, and really, really awesome.
Anyone like thinking about philosophy? Anyone heard of Humanism? Anyone enjoy learning new things? Email me… I am working on a project right now you may be interested in…
*Originally posted by dubya404 *
**Does Chief Delphi enjoy wasting money, or haven’t they heard of phpbb.com …
**
When we purchased vBulletin, phpBB2 wasn’t released, as far as I know. vBulletin 2.x was a lot better than the old phpBB, so we went with it. You get what you pay for, and I am 110% happy with how vBulletin has held up the past few years.
vBulletin was only $160, and its $30/year for upgrades. Thats really not alot of money. I’d pay it, if the team were to refuse to fund $30/year.
I understand that as far as reliability is concerned, it would probably be a wise choice to buy a product…
For cheapskates like me that think one shouldn’t have to pay for anything online, just kinda ‘swap services’, I also understand why some like phpbb. 
If you haven’t already, check out the newest version at phpbb.com , it is really looking great. There are a lot of features with the main program, but if that isn’t enough for ya, there are a ton of mods available. Plus a huge community willing to help ya if you have problems.
I would highly reccomend it for at least personal sites, that are planning on doing some interactive things, but I’m not so sure (after what you pointed out) I am 100% sure I would reccomend it to everyone…
Although, there is controversy as to how fast improvements come in traditional capitalism forms (buying software) compared to the high natural selection that goes on in communities like phpbb.
Take care 
Dan
-still, anyone interested in thinking for yourself? email moi
*Originally posted by dubya404 *
**I understand that as far as reliability is concerned, it would probably be a wise choice to buy a product…
**
Pfft. Who makes the commercial SQL server that is prone to thousands of attacks? No…it’s not MySQL AB…but Microsoft. Get what you pay for? I certainly hope not 
Reliability has nothing to do with whether you buy it or not. Just thought I’d point that out (since down with Microsoft, and all :D)
Pffttt… it’s not a waste of money. Apparently, the use of it by thousands of first members prove otherwise. I talked to Brandon online and he told me the pricing a while back. I thought it was quite great for a full license of this software and being able to do w/e you want… I think if Delphi asked, FIRST would even pay that money cause it’s so popular and helpful for FIRST members
Originally posted by dubya404 *
**
If you haven’t already, check out the newest version at phpbb.com , it is really looking great. There are a lot of features with the main program, but if that isn’t enough for ya, there are a ton of mods available. Plus a huge community willing to help ya if you have problems.*
I agree. I’ve looked at the code, even attempted a hack (Jack from 201 informed me I messed it up, as far as using the phpBB coding standards). I think phpBB and vBulletin are very close competitors, if you can say they are competitors. I think they both influence each other, making better & better discussion boards.
As for hacks & community – I think they both have quite a few hacks released for each (vbulletin.org forums release the vB hacks). I don’t know of any public place where phpBB hacks are released, I’m assuming on thier website. And, probably after looking at them, I would come to the conclusion that they have very similiar hacks made, each influencing the other.
I think Jelsoft will raise the bar another notch with vB3 and phpBB will have quite alot of work to do to catch up to them. … that is if vB3 ever comes out 
[they predicted Q2/2002]
I dont know if I made any sense here. I’m rambling. 
This is definitely my time to chime in seriously now!!
I’ve been using phpBB for the past year and a half. I have been developing, hacking (modding), and creating new code for it. As far as the phpbb hacking community is, I’m up there. There is a large amount of controversy in the phpBB community. Basically, everyone at phpBB.com are jerks. 
I hang out, and am a Support Team Member over at (ironically) http://www.phpbbhacks.com/ If you are interested… please check it out, and look for hacks and tutorials from me. In fact, many teams could benefit from my dynamic sites tutorial:
http://www.ajquick.com/programming/phpbb/tutorial/
Send a link back to AJQuick.com or CogSquad.org if you use it!
*Originally posted by AJ Quick *
This is definitely my time to chime in seriously now!!
I knew somebody was big into phpBB and did hacks/support. I just forgot who, exactly.
Hm… I like OpenBB. phpBB is good too though. Personally, I think OpenBB is better because it’s simpler, and… I dunno, i just like it. It’s also slightly faster, with less SQL queries :D. Not that I have any complaints with VBulletin or phpBB2
(Just throwing in my $.02)
Personally, the next version of phpBB (2.2) is going to be VERY close to vB 2. But… from what i’ve seen vB 3 is going to have more features that the next phpBB.
As Brandon said, the two influence (sp?) each other. phpBB found a few better ways to do things, and vB will most likely use those ideas in their next releases. However, vB has a team of paid developers to think away about new cool features that they could add. phpBB then takes these new features and adds them into phpBB.
If I had $150 to kill, sure, I’d buy vB. The sole reason is that I’d need to hack it less to get the features i want, because there allready there. (not to say that I wouldn’t hack it to begin with)
Jack
and heck… it’s all about what you like. :]
Of course, House Brand Forums are always good. They have everything you want, nothing you don’t. They dont cost any money either.