MyBB Community Forums

1. Try adding mods to phpBB.... after you're tired of "find this code, after it insert this code" go try to install a mod on MyBB. Yeah, there can be some code work, but mostly mod writers try to make their mods as plugins, so you can just upload the script and click "activate" and it just works - that's all.

2. Try altering the look and feel of phpBB. Oh yes, you can do it, and once you learn how it's not so hard really. But compare that to MyBB's built-in theme and template editor. There are no files to edit, it's all stored in the database and can be changed with a few clicks.

3. How many features would you like? Well there's TONS for phpBB...that come as mods which you have to add on yourself. The basic package is seriously lacking in features. They haven't released a feature upgrade in over 4 years and their next feature upgrade (phpBB3) is due.... well, they really won't say when it's due, but it's in "pre-Alpha" stages now. In fact, features that are considered standard for every other forum system are features that phpBB devs openly refuse to add (so they can be "different" I guess...).

I was a loyal phpBB "fanboy" for 2 years. I left because I was sick of seeing no progress from devs who blatantly ignore the community and treat their users like crap. The final straw came when I was reading their dev forum. Lots of people were asking that they make the quick reply box and "last topic on index" standard features in phpBB3. They're standard for everything else, so it made sense. The devs responded by locking those posts and threatening to ban anyone who mentioned them again. I went searching for software that wasn't developed by arrogant... well, make up your own expletive to insert here Even if the devs had been better, that still can't excuse the fact that everything other than bug fixes has stalled for over 4 years now and that phpBB is light years behind all of their competitors. The only reason they *are* so popular is because people don't know about MyBB.

I would have to agree. I downloaded phpBB about a month ago to try something, and it was lacking in features compared to MyBB or other systems. But as the previous poster mentioned, it does have a huge amount of mods available. You are able to find a mod for practically anything you'll ever need. But again, as the above posters mentioned, if you want to update the forum package, you will probably have to install all the mods again, unless you can use change files.
Of course, I'm slightly biased, so you should try both out first.

Oh absolutely, DO try out both systems for yourself first. I think you'll see what we're saying.

I will contest this though: "You are able to find a mod for practically anything you'll ever need." I wasn't able to find MANY mods for things, including some pretty standard stuff (like a reputation system). And other mods (like the attachments mod) are so complicated to install that the average user won't be able to do it.

I used phpBB for 6 months, and this is why I will never go back:

1) The Mods available were awful and took ages to install. Then, when I got the "Auto Installer" that some guy made, the mods never worked and came up with errors, so it was back to modifying it all "by hand".
2) The themes available, whilst high in number, were all rubbish and looked horrible. Most of the time the themes crashed anyway. Also, the themes affected the Admin CP as well, which meant if your forum theme screwed up, so did your admin panel, so uninstalling the theme was hell.
3) Difficult and non user-friendly theme system, and NO template system to speak of!
4) The Admin CP (http://www.phpbb.com/admin_demo/index.htm) lacks power and has about half as many functions as MyBB.
5) The Forum Settings (known as "Configuration" in phpBB) is one page of options. MyBB default is 17 pages of options (i.e. massively powerful)
6) In the 6 months I had phpbb it came up with errors on countless occasions and the lack of help at the phpbb forums meant I had to reinstall the entire thing. With MyBB, I have had one major error, but it was fixed by the great devs who work on it. Only last week I discovered a problem with one of the plugins for MyBB, and Chris (the head developer) offered to login to my ftp server and fix everything for me. These guys really keep user satisfaction up high.

The only good thing about phpBB is that is comes with a default Database backup system, but the eMODs for MyBB have a better one.

CHOOSE MYBB!


EDIT:
Just looked at the phpbb forum and found another reason why MyBB are better. Seems that a moderator CLOSED your "Comparison" topic on the phpbb forum, saying:

"phpBB Discussion: Anything else that is phpBB related
Anything else that doesn't fall into the previous categories usually fits very well in phpBB Discussion. Please note that comparative topics ("Is phpBB better than forum software XYZ?") are not allowed on phpBB.com and may be better posted on "neutral ground" on a third-party website. By contrast, questions like "Does phpBB offer feature XYZ" are usually fine."

and ends with a rather rude
"Good luck,

Closing"

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=389294

DrPoodle Wrote:EDIT:
Just looked at the phpbb forum and found another reason why MyBB are better. Seems that a moderator CLOSED your "Comparison" topic on the phpbb forum, saying:

"phpBB Discussion: Anything else that is phpBB related
Anything else that doesn't fall into the previous categories usually fits very well in phpBB Discussion. Please note that comparative topics ("Is phpBB better than forum software XYZ?") are not allowed on phpBB.com and may be better posted on "neutral ground" on a third-party website. By contrast, questions like "Does phpBB offer feature XYZ" are usually fine."

and ends with a rather rude
"Good luck,

Closing"

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=389294

Yeah, gotta say i was not very impressed with that...

Anyhow, as for themes, i could honestly care less about those, standard look is fine for both boards for my needs. The ability to MOD the board does worry me a bit, but in availability not installation. Like i said, i have a lot of coding background anyhow, and if i really get into this board i may find myself joining up with the MODing folks around here and attempt to make some of my own. But as far as availability goes, how would you compare that, disregarding installation ease.

Last night as i was going through the configuration options i did notice some "default settings" i wasn't too happy with when it came to permissions, like the fact moderators couldn't post calendar events but unregistered people could. Sure i fixed that rather easily but it makes me wonder what other strange options are there, so i'll be combing through all of them before long. So far though i've got to say i'm impressed with MyBB.

i think by now you would've gotten the clue that phpbb doesn't compare to mybb and never will.

mybb is just.. well.. mybb.. its the best freely available message board system ever.
i would say its even better then vbulletin with.

The plugin system is a big advantage.

Also community-wise, MyBB is quite small, compared to phpBB, so your voice has a larger chance of being heard

Quote:The only good thing about phpBB is that is comes with a default Database backup system

Never, ever, ever, trust the built-in DB backup in phpBB. I learned very quickly when I switched hosts only a few months after I started using phpBB that the backup system in the Admin Panel doesn't work so well. I had to start my forum completely over as the db was lost. Most users will tell you that the db backup is flaky.

Quote:But as far as availability goes, how would you compare that, disregarding installation ease.

Well, hands down, phpBB has a whole LOT more mods available than MyBB. I prefer quality over quantity though

Galen Wrote:Never, ever, ever, trust the built-in DB backup in phpBB. I learned very quickly when I switched hosts only a few months after I started using phpBB that the backup system in the Admin Panel doesn't work so well. I had to start my forum completely over as the db was lost. Most users will tell you that the db backup is flaky.

Well I had no trouble with it, but as I said before, the MyBB eMods one works perfectly.