OH GOD NO!

[Shayne]

phpBB is by far and away the worst forum software you could ever use.  Its constantly in our security bulletins with bugs and such.  Its totally not uncommon to wake up and have the entire forum cleared of all its data.



Big mistake.



http://www.securityfocus.com/swsearch?query=phpbb&sbm=bid&submit=Search%21&metaname=alldoc&sort=swishrank



6 pages worth of vulnerabilities.



Not to mention the people that work on this forum have gotta be the laziest S.O.B.s on the planet.



Ive used it, lost everything.  So good luck with what you got going on here, and stay super up to date with the patches, like the second they are released.

[Shayne]

I'm not sure what you are actually looking for in a forum though.  Ive used www.punbb.org for the longest time, and its excellent.  Its not as bloaty as all these forums (vb, ipb, phpbb) but the code is super clean and easy to modify.



Gah.  Im just worried for you as, like ive said, lost everything (80K+ posts, 5K+ members) right in the middle of The Mars Projects prime.

[Melbosa]

Alright you have a better solution, let me know.  I understand the risks, but its either this or vBulletin (which isn't free) or IPB v2+ (which isn't free either). This was the only way I could get the old Forum data to work.  This cost me money on a new mobo, and new power supply as it is.  If you even begin to say "well you could buy some decent software..." I swear I will shut down the site for good.

[Melbosa]

Now is the time for me to make a change, so if you have suggestions let me know now.  I still have the old forum data that I can move to another spot, but that software needs to have a coversion tool to make it work.

[Shayne]

I didnt realize the issues that you were having. I do have a bunch of spare parts including my old game server (2500XP, 1gb ddr, 2x80GB SATA).  I just saw that it was down.   Though thanks for spending all your (or at least some of) free time on the issue.



I appreciate the effort and the sacrifice.  Im just making you aware that while sure its free, its also very poorly coded.  Just keep on top of the patches and do them as needed (easiest way is to subscribe to the annoucments forum over at phpbb.org and have it send to your primary email address).  I slacked off on this and got burnt, though they did get rid of the version number near the copyright, so at least they got security through obscurity going on.

[Shayne]

The first mod i would like to see is one with larger profile options, like the ability to turn off sigs and avatars (im assuming you will be adding avatars).



phpbb has a huge community, so im sure you will beable to make this board kick ass.  Just stay on top of security (have i said this enough?).



Gotta go to work now.

[Melbosa]

I didnt realize the issues that you were having. I do have a bunch of spare parts including my old game server (2500XP, 1gb ddr, 2x80GB SATA).  I just saw that it was down.   Though thanks for spending all your (or at least some of) free time on the issue.

A bit late now, but I do appreciate the offer.  The last server we lost the mobo on, and it was an AT Case.  So I had to buy a new mobo and case (cheaper than a new power supply believe it or not).  Didn't have a forum to post for help, so just did it.



You'll be happy to know that we went from a PII 450 Celeron, Cheap-ass intel crap mobo, 256MB Ram, 20GB IBM Deathstar, 10mbs NIC to a AMD 1.1GHz Thunderbird, ASUS mobo, 768MB Ram, 30GB Maxtor, 10/100 NIC.



Also latest MySQL and PHP, running on a W2K3 box.  So hopefully this is a nice upgrade for us.

[Mr. Analog]

How much is IPB? I'd be willing to throw in a few $$$ to get my fix every day...

[Melbosa]

How much is IPB? I'd be willing to throw in a few $$$ to get my fix every day...

$160 USD/year

[Mr. Analog]

As a moderator I'd be willing to chuck in $50/a

[Darren Dirt]

Alright you have a better solution, let me know.  I understand the risks, but its either this or vBulletin (which isn't free) or IPB v2+ (which isn't free either). This was the only way I could get the old Forum data to work.  This cost me money on a new mobo, and new power supply as it is.  If you even begin to say "well you could buy some decent software..." I swear I will shut down the site for good.

Or howzabit you do an account freeze for the complainers... don't shut down the site just because of some people being unappreciative.  :shock:



I for one applaud your hard work during this past week - and the BP's offer is still out there



*applause sign*

[Shayne]

Invision Power Board Perpetual License ? $185.00

This will give you a perpetual license to use Invision Power Board for one installation on all current and future versions. Selecting this option will also give you access to upgrades to the software for all future versions and one year of support is included



Invision Power Board Yearly License ? $69.95

This will give you one year license to use Invision Power Board for one installation on all current and future versions. At the end of one year your board will continue to run but will be unsupported and access to upgrades unavailable unless you renew service.

...not cheap.  Can we please have darrens avatar shrunk  totally @%&#s up the forums.

[Shayne]

phpbb is a good forum, and probably perfect for what RW needs in terms of features.  When you start to look at what the new IPB and vB have it really is a lot of bloat and contains a ton of stuff i dont see us needing (or perhaps im oblivious).



I dont think i would chip into a fund as their are great alternatives to IPB and vB, phpBB is a good alternative, just has holes from time to time  punbb is a great alternative, just very light on the features.



I vote for stick with what we got, see how it goes, do a few mods, fix darren and mr.a's avatars, and continue our daily banter.

[Melbosa]

hmmm that is weird, it is limited to 80x80 on the forums settings for Avatars.

[Melbosa]

Ahhh ok its cause they are linked outside my forum.  Gonna turn that off.