MyBB Community Forums

I've been a bit out of the loop recently so this may be out of date, but the problem we had is that it's a bigger change than may seem obvious.

There's a few different things that people have asked for - native support for conditions in templates and a responsive theme being two of them.

The problem is that these will be quite big changes because the current template system isn't set up for conditions at all, and the current templates themselves are table-based, which hasn't been how websites have been built for like 10-12 years now. It's a legacy thing from MyBB's (and most older website's) origins.

To change it, means rewriting literally the entire theme. It's not "just a responsive theme", it's completely new HTML and CSS, and takes a lot of time to design and build. The other responsive themes, as far as I can see, mainly use CSS to make them responsive and still use table-based HTML. That's completely different to the theme you see on that link, which is rewritten from scratch, so we can't just drop that in.

This is part of the problem we had when 2.0 was originally planned - we wanted to rewrite the entire MyBB codebase, but it would have meant that every single theme and plugin would need to be completely rewritten from scratch too, and a lot of the community didn't want that. So we started to change things bit by bit, instead of rewriting the whole thing.

But, when it comes to the theme, it kinda comes close to the whole thing, because all the other PHP that sets values to the individual templates would all need to change, it's completely new HTML and CSS, and then plugin compatibility is completely broken because none of the template replacements will work any more, as the HTML is all different. There's no getting around the fact it's a big change, and a big change takes time.

As for why we don't just do what the other themes do, keep the HTML table-based and use CSS - well, it's because table-based HTML is ancient, and if we're going to do it at all, it needs to be done properly (after all, a lot of other complaints about MyBB are that the codebase isn't modern enough, so using table-based HTML in 2021 would hardly help that).

So, I don't know if this is still an accurate representation of things, but this is why it's not quite as simple as "just add in a responsive theme".

The main issue here is people who use MyBB among many reasons choose it because it is free of cost. Sadly, the free responsive themes available are not as frequently updated as active minor versions of MyBB. So the user will have to either use a non-responsive theme or buy one. There are a lot of people who cannot invest $30 + for a responsive theme. And, Google is now opting mobile-ready websites. All these could fuel the frustration of a normal user which they express here ( might not be allowed in paid software communities ).

To OP I will say. Please understand the people here in mybb are working as fast as they can. They are delivering all these for free. So, users have to be patient.

And even though Google is pushing the mobile responsive thing. I don't think it matters most. If you have a great community. People will still come and participate.

To the community I will say that I am not pushing you guys. But still I can use a good 'tag' plugin. The two which are already present here are not fit to my needs.

(2021-01-07, 01:49 PM)meetdilip Wrote: [ -> ]The main issue here is people who use MyBB among many reasons choose it because it is free of cost. Sadly, the free responsive themes available are not as frequently updated as active minor versions of MyBB. So the user will have to either use a non-responsive theme or buy one. There are a lot of people who cannot invest $30 + for a responsive theme. And, Google is now opting mobile-ready websites. All these could fuel the frustration of a normal user which they express here ( might not be allowed in paid software communities ).

Oh it's a completely valid concern don't get me wrong, and I'm sure all of the team want it to be supported as much as anyone else. It's just a case of the logistics of making such a large change. A lot of the paid software was already rebuilt since responsive design was expected, xenForo for example didn't even exist until 2011 by which time responsive design was advanced enough that it supported it from the start, whereas MyBB hasn't been rebuilt in that time (again, that was the original plan with 2.0). It's just been a case of lack of resources more than anything.

They (MyBB Team) do what they can do, we just must wait
As simple as..

(2021-01-07, 01:00 PM)Matt Wrote: [ -> ]I've been a bit out of the loop recently so this may be out of date, but the problem we had is that it's a bigger change than may seem obvious.

There's a few different things that people have asked for - native support for conditions in templates and a responsive theme being two of them.

The problem is that these will be quite big changes because the current template system isn't set up for conditions at all, and the current templates themselves are table-based, which hasn't been how websites have been built for like 10-12 years now. It's a legacy thing from MyBB's (and most older website's) origins.

To change it, means rewriting literally the entire theme. It's not "just a responsive theme", it's completely new HTML and CSS, and takes a lot of time to design and build. The other responsive themes, as far as I can see, mainly use CSS to make them responsive and still use table-based HTML. That's completely different to the theme you see on that link, which is rewritten from scratch, so we can't just drop that in.

This is part of the problem we had when 2.0 was originally planned - we wanted to rewrite the entire MyBB codebase, but it would have meant that every single theme and plugin would need to be completely rewritten from scratch too, and a lot of the community didn't want that. So we started to change things bit by bit, instead of rewriting the whole thing.

But, when it comes to the theme, it kinda comes close to the whole thing, because all the other PHP that sets values to the individual templates would all need to change, it's completely new HTML and CSS, and then plugin compatibility is completely broken because none of the template replacements will work any more, as the HTML is all different. There's no getting around the fact it's a big change, and a big change takes time.

As for why we don't just do what the other themes do, keep the HTML table-based and use CSS - well, it's because table-based HTML is ancient, and if we're going to do it at all, it needs to be done properly (after all, a lot of other complaints about MyBB are that the codebase isn't modern enough, so using table-based HTML in 2021 would hardly help that).

So, I don't know if this is still an accurate representation of things, but this is why it's not quite as simple as "just add in a responsive theme".

I would make the default table based templates responsive now, then introduce the completely rewritten ones in 1.9.
There is nothing wrong with table based templates. Except they have gone "out of fashion".

I know this is a two months old thread but I want to share my thoughts about this whole thing right here. I know MyBB is a completely voluntary project, and we would still appreciate it if you release the next MyBB version 10 years later. But there have been a lot of approximately estimated dates throughout past decade. And this gave people hope about next MyBB version being released at the time they thought, at least me. And it didn't happen, not a single time. I've seen a lot of estimated release dates from both developers and other people, and I expected the new version that year, 2018, 2017, even 2011 there's some rumor about 2.0 lol. I don't know. This is just a little sad.

(2021-01-07, 10:22 PM)Michael_ Wrote: [ -> ]I would make the default table based templates responsive now, then introduce the completely rewritten ones in 1.9.
There is nothing wrong with table based templates. Except they have gone "out of fashion".

Nah it's just more confusing to use with tables going on. I've never used tables except for MyBB and it just confuses me everytime I try to edit something on forumbit.

In the credit of MyBB
1.8 is highly customisable.
There is no need for a mega-major upgrade just to get resposive theme.
Whoever is ready to get their hands dirty most of the things can be done on 1.8 as well.

As a basic template for my own needs i used free Netpen theme.
Probably it's not the best and with plenty of bugs.
So for myself without any coding experience took about 2 month to tune it into a something I wanted.
Whoever gets a proper paid theme things will speed up a lot.

For now my forum has more or less decent look. Even not everything on my road map is done.

I have:
Decent editor.
Good mobile look
Fb style likes.
Good alerts and notifications.
Good quoting styles.
Attachements added drag and drop or one click mobile any page you have editor.
Many other small things

So already ticks quite many boxes.
I wish to have some coding experience I could do it times better

As a down side none of them things came out of the box but in the process of constant patching, but no software is perefect. BTW not every software is free.

(2021-02-20, 01:13 PM)Nihility Wrote: [ -> ]I know this is a two months old thread but I want to share my thoughts about this whole thing right here. I know MyBB is a completely voluntary project, and we would still appreciate it if you release the next MyBB version 10 years later. But there have been a lot of approximately estimated dates throughout past decade. And this gave people hope about next MyBB version being released at the time they thought, at least me. And it didn't happen, not a single time. I've seen a lot of estimated release dates from both developers and other people, and I expected the new version that year, 2018, 2017, even 2011 there's some rumor about 2.0 lol. I don't know. This is just a little sad.

This is exactly why we usually say "it'll be ready when it's ready", but then that just annoys other people who see that as a cop out.

If we set a fixed date for a release, we may have to rush the release to get it ready in time which means it's buggy, and people will complain, or we'll release what we have at the time which may be unpolished, and people will complain, or we have to push the date back again, and people will complain. So, instead, we tend to try and keep our options open and say it'll be ready when it's ready, but that's not good enough for some people either and they complain. There was another thread somewhere recently where the "it'll be ready when it's ready" approach was criticised so essentially we can't win either way.

I don't know if anyone knows this but as far as I remember, there was never supposed to be a 1.6 or 1.8; after 1.4 the next version was supposed to be 2.0. But because that ended up being a bigger task, we pivoted to release 1.6, and then 1.8. The goal was then to focus on 2.0 again, but as we still didn't have the capacity, we pivoted again to 1.9. The team's always tried to have the best release possible in development.

The only way we can have consistent development output is to have consistent income to cover people's time, but in the 13 years I've been in this community there have always been people who don't think they should have to pay $5 for a plugin, so that's not going to be an easy sell either. Plus it's complicated to accept money as we're not a registered organisation (and the reasons for that are a whole separate conversation really).

So if anyone knows the secret to solving the problem then I'm all ears, but I've said it before and I'll say it again, the code's on GitHub and anybody can submit pull requests, anyone is a potential MyBB developer, that's the point of it being open source.

(2021-01-07, 10:22 PM)Michael_ Wrote: [ -> ]I would make the default table based templates responsive now, then introduce the completely rewritten ones in 1.9.
There is nothing wrong with table based templates. Except they have gone "out of fashion".

so for now instead of giving in to impatience or providing complaints that do not further any such projected release timeage, one could just simply make ones own theme for 1.8 that emulates 1.9 design as I noted here in the past is totally possible and has been done by folks already.... https://community.mybb.com/thread-223581...pid1335473 just sayin... also if say the exact emulation of 1.9 theme is not your overall desire and say a responsive core by default is your primary desire, then simply create one, as has already been done by folks as far back as ver 1808 (did one myself for giggles on vers: 1808 - 1809 - 1810 - 1811 - 1812 simply to show folks it could be done quickly and easily as requested in existing core by a user or the team without the need for waiting for an entire core rewrite and release as often projected (food for thought), and such an example was prompted by similar impatience you have noted you are currently having, lol ), again just saying... something to ponder on for ya....


Best of luck!  ~ V