Opinions on phpBB Forum Software

[eric]

I've been looking at forum hosting software for a project that I'm working on, and looking to get some feedback from other folks who use some of the major variations out there.

There are three options that many of us are familiar with:

• VBulletin (used here)
• Invision Power Board (used by Elvas Tower)
• Invision Community (used by FlightSim)
• phpBB (used by Railroad.net and UKTrainSim)

For the most part, it seems like the functionality is interchangeable on all three, but I'm landing on phpBB selfishly because it's open source and essentially license free. Both Invision and VBulletin seem to be shifting away from perpetual licensing and towards a subscription model where you're locked into paying an annual ransom.

Does anyone have strong opinions either for or against phpBB ?

[R. Steele]

There's a soft spot in my heart for Open Source...also an intellectual bias towards that type of software and community...if it is workable for the task at hand.

Knowing nothing about phpBB --- is it "work in progress" or currently alive and being updated and responsive to the user base?

[eric]

It's alive. They just issued a new release last week.

[seagoon]

Anything Open Source is preferable, so phpBB in that case.

[ftldave]

Anything Open Source is preferable, so phpBB in that case.

There are plenty of criticisms and ethical questions, debate, about Open Source software, all probably beyond the scope of this forum.

If phpBB is the better choice for ease of use, functionality, manageability, then great. But just because it is Open Source does not automatically make it a "better" choice.

[seagoon]

There are plenty of criticisms and ethical questions, debate, about Open Source software,....

The pros and cons could be kicked around until the cows come home, Dave.
Opinions, whether informed or otherwise, are still opinions; It's up to Eolesen to select.

I can only offer my opinion based on my use of several Open Source and/or Freeware/Shareware software packages over the past 30 years and that is that I will always choose Open Source that is widely used.

Nothing is perfect but some packages are less imperfect than others.

[eric]

Thanks for the feedback -- I'm of the same opinion that Open Source is a preference only because it's easy to extend or fix if the original authors disappear, something we've experienced too often just within the community.

Another reason for bringing it up here.... This forum's software (vBulletin 4.2.5) was declared end of life back in 2017. Something will have to be done for this site eventually as well.