Funny world of software

Thinking to myself over the past few days whilst contemplating my site about how strange the world of forum software is these days. I mean if you want "THE DOGS B******" in forum software what do you buy?

I remember a day when this question was oh so simple. If you wanted something free, then you used phpbb or invisionfree. If you wanted the best software on the market that did everything you forked out some cash and bought vbulletin.

So what have we got these days?

Free: We have phpbb, mybb, smf which are all pretty good bits of software for the price (free obviously lol), but which do you choose and why?

Paid: Feature wise vbulletin is still king, but is it the most stable/fastest? xenforo is extremely stable but lacks the featureset as of yet and then there is the question of lawsuit, stability of the company etc. And you then have halfway house which would be IPB which has a good featureset even if its not as featured as vbulletin, however is pretty stable,.

So have we seen the days of "You have to buy xyz if you want the best" gone out the window? Seems to me that we have. Todays forum software market has become more about personal opinion than solid facts, and to be honest its a shame to see.

 

mybb is an excellent piece of software. IPB for some reason or other I really never seemed to get on with. The guys over there are great and they do a lot of work, just wasnt for me.

phpbb is a bit of a wierd one to me. The software works well, it just looks..... well ... old

 

For paid software Burning Board is thought to quite good too but it is hard to find actual users to talk about it.Thus it remains in the shadows of Xenforo,IPB and vB.

For Free software I have tried a few and then found myBB and stopped looking for another one.Now it is generating a buzz that is absent at other software forums with the upcoming upgrade to 1.8 later this year.

phpBB4 development forum is so hard to follow that I gave up on it.They have to make a true change from their disappointing 3.0 series for them to start a comeback and that could be the 4.0 series but that remains to be seen.I sure hope they fix their silly mod system and simplify their over the top administration panel.Gosh it took me a few days to discover that I had to make the site administrator be a global moderator too before she could do her administrative duties.

LOL

 

phpBB4 development forum is aimed at developers and people wanting technical discussion, who know what RFC stands for, whats pull, merge or framework.

It took me few minutes. I simply looked up how my account groups are set up and did same for new admin. And yes, you need to do it because administrator group have no forum permissions set and so admins take them from global mods.

 

What to buy? That's a good question. Too bad the fanboys are running the show everywhere anymore these days. I feel bad for newcomers into the forum world. They can barely find straight answers. They see the same people following the same people saying the same thing over and over again on any site that might draw attention. I bet many decide to stick with social networks rather than get involved with forums after seeing all the forum admin drama.

Some of the replies on forum topics are pretty amusing considering some of the responses you see. Dissing XF, VB, IPB, phpBB, etc. (depending on which type of fanboy you are at the time and what business site you are on). Sometimes I wonder if their own forums are so dead that they continue to post fanboy comments out of boredom. Or they strive too hard to be a part of the in-crowd and want recognition. Ya all know what I'm talking about. You've seen it yourselves. It's actually more amusing than any other forum on the internet! Drama in the forum admin world! It's quite addicting! Sucks us in...

There's nothing wrong with hanging around the business forum to post suggestions, ask development questions, help others, even respectfully venting a bit, etc. But, it's another to linger on business forums just to post fanboy comments, attack anyone who disagrees with you or questions the business progress, and continue to bash the other platforms you are not happy with atm.

You see a lot of these people regurgitate harsh statements about other forum platforms being bloated, dead, unstable, run by idiots, etc. It's quite amusing to read these when I need a good laugh or two since these types of discussions are never ending and sometimes even moderated slightly to suit who the fanboys are on the site. Run to another site to read "They deleted/edited this post and here's the screenshot!" type of topics...lol. It's even more interesting when they aren't moderated. But, you won't see that as often anymore unless you come to an admin site like this one.

Just read the Cali case on XF and you will see how horrible VB, IPB, etc. are...LMAO! Here's an example page: california-case-update.10037/page-193#post-370596 (Can't post links yet.). IPB dead? Really? Freaking hilarious! Especially if you follow their development updates. VB, too. Wow! None of these forum platforms are dead yet!! Not even XF! We might not be happy with the developers' decisions at times (I'm not!) and we might even prefer one over the other for our own needs at the time (I do!), but the forum platforms are not dead YET. And they are all still selling copies!!

We are all forum admin experts, aren't we? Experts because we put our money into these companies? We all know what's best for everyone else? Really? LMAO!

Some of the fanboyish comments are what actually scare people away. Been there! You do more harm than good! It's better to help someone understand the forum features they might need than it is to tell them that all forum platforms suck except the one YOU like atm or tell them they don't need the features they DO NEED or to go hire a developer & hope he sticks around for every single update. It's their money you are wasting/stealing when you steer them wrong! Been there!

I've been a believer in the fanboy comments. I've been a follower. I've been a fanboy, too. But we all have to wake up sometime and use what's best for ourselves in the end. Follow development progress more than you follow the peanut gallery...you will sleep better at night. Only read the forum admin drama when you need a good laugh or two. Don't waste your money on what other people say. Use your own head, compare features, and make up your own mind. It's your money and your loss or gain in the end!

XF, VB, IPB, phpBB, etc. can all stand on their own if the owners choose to continue developing. Despite what people say, they all have their own strengths & weaknesses. They all can use some improvements. Choose what you need/want in the end...hopefully you won't have to dish out more money to switch later on.

Competition is good for all admins! It keeps things progressing! Let's hope they all continue developing...