I hate phpBB

[dfabulich]

I hate phpBB, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

phpBB sucks because it doesn't have any way to see who's replying to whom.

In the rest of the wide world, we call that feature "threaded discussion"... but phpBB perverts that nomenclature. What phpBB calls "threads" aren't threads at all; in a 100 post "thread", there's no way to tell if people are replying to the 99th post or the 20th. "Threads" in phpBB are really just mini-forums sorted chronologically. It's total chaos, and it's almost illegible.

Even worse, there's no way to link to a single post; you can only link to "threads" (i.e. the entire mini-forum) and use inline anchors to find individual comments. In a large thread page, inline anchors don't work very well, making real linking impossible.

I know it's too late to bitch about it now, but I'd like to be the first to bitch, so long as I'm here.

(Meanwhile, I'm just going to go sign up to have all posts e-mailed to me so I can at least search for individual posts at my own leisure.)

[joostp]

phpBB sucks because it doesn't have any way to see who's replying to whom.

Yeah, impossible to tell.

[tabacco]

Personally I'm just fine with phpBB. It's not as nice as vBulletin, but it's free!

I can't stand threaded discussions in any case.

[joachimeberhard]

I can't stand threaded discussions in any case.

Yeah, me too.

Threaded Discussions are awfull to read.

See Ya!

Joachim

[clem]

Thinking of the old ScummVM forums people frequently replied to the wrong post, but then again the sf.net forum system is a mess.

My favourite board layout is that from retrogames (like at http://www.retrogames.com/cgi-bin/wwwth ... trosupport )

why isn't it possible to just include all possibilities and let the user select the layout in the prefs

clem

[Krest]

Nah, this kind of frorum is way better imho

[DaVince]

The original forums were a bitch to navigate for me because FireFox kept saying that the document was empty. Also, it was butt-ugly while this is SMOOTH!

[Florob]

The original forums were a bitch to navigate for me because FireFox kept saying that the document was empty. Also, it was butt-ugly while this is SMOOTH!

Always worked for me (tm)
But I like phpBB way better, too.

[dfabulich]

Moderatorial: Post removed. Clear violation of forum rule #4.

[frin]

phpbb is imo better than "threaded" discussion (like the url clem posted), because u open thread once and there's no need to click again to see a reply, tho I agree phpbb is not the best choice

[dfabulich]

Moderatorial: Post removed. Clear violation of forum rule #4.

I wonder whether the moderator thought my post was clearly insulting or clearly profane. I guess I did use a scatological term starting with c, but that's not generally regarderd as profane in the USA, and I was using it to refer to phpBB's features, and not to any individual. Of course, there's no record of what I said, so there can be no further discussion on the matter, which is totally awesome.

Anyway, the point I made was simply that even when people quote, there's no way to find out from which post they're quoting. In trivial single-page threads you can try to use Ctrl-F, but on large threads spanning multiple pages, it's impossible. joostp's sarcastic post was incorrect in spirit, and frankly undermines his own point. (Quick... which post am I talking about?)

[Kaminari]

dfabulich, read your initial post again and you'll realize that your point is extremely confused. You keep talking about how phpBB "doesn't have any way to see who's replying to whom". Oh yes it does, and very clearly:

> Originally posted by dfabulich

So technically, you failed to understand Joost's slightly sarcastic post.

Now the real point of your hatred against phpBB (and probably vBulletin, since it works the same) is that the quote block doesn't display any quick way to go back to the original quoted post the way Invision does. In the rest of the wide world, we call this feature a "snapback link".

So phpBB sucks because it has no snapback feature? Ignoring the fact that I personally don't see a need for it at all ("A good quote is a short one" -- Steven Seagal), one could simply answer that phpBB is free, while Invision is not. That sounds like a valid point to me.

[dfabulich]

You keep talking about how phpBB "doesn't have any way to see who's replying to whom". Oh yes it does, and very clearly:

You can see which persons are replying to which persons only when the replies use quotes, as I am, and as you did. To whom is frin replying? To which post? Are you replying to my top post or my second post? To whom is DaVince replying? To which post? Krest must be replying to me, right? Or is Krest replying to joachimeberhard?

If this post were on the second or third page of posts, how would you know what we were even talking about? You'd have to go back and re-read the entire topic in order to get context for the discussion.

Now the real point of your hatred against phpBB (and probably vBulletin, since it works the same) is that the quote block doesn't display any quick way to go back to the original quoted post the way Invision does. In the rest of the wide world, we call this feature a "snapback link".

Actually, the rest of the wide world doesn't use web boards. The rest of the wide world has had NNTP for years, which has always supported linked replies. That allows you to view a threaded discussion in a reply tree. Even most modern mail readers will let you do this on e-mail mailing lists.

So phpBB sucks because it has no snapback feature? Ignoring the fact that I personally don't see a need for it at all ("A good quote is a short one" -- Steven Seagal), one could simply answer that phpBB is free, while Invision is not. That sounds like a valid point to me.

Usenet is also available at no charge; there are numerous free web-based Usenet readers. Yahoo groups are also free. So are Google groups. There are a lot of better options in the world than phpBB and vBulletin.

Of course, it's too late now.

[frin]

To whom is frin replying? To which post? Are you replying to my top post or my second post?

normally when I reply without a quote, it concerns the thread in general and not a particular reply:) however if it is impossible to confuse my reply with any other reply than the last, I don't quote it.

I guess you just have to get the knack for it:)

[Ender]

Usenet is also available at no charge; there are numerous free web-based Usenet readers. Yahoo groups are also free. So are Google groups. There are a lot of better options in the world than phpBB and vBulletin.

Of course, it's too late now.

I'm sorry that you dislike unthreaded forums. Personally, I don't care either way, since it's about context and anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out what the majority of replies are in response to with context. No offence.

None of your suggested alternatives take into account one of the main reason we changed forum software - decent administration functionality. Although even I don't know what you originally said in that moderator'ed-out post up there :)

To loosely misquote the Vogons, "There's no point in acting all surprised
about it! All the planning charts and demolishion orders have been on display at your local scummvm-devel planning department in Alpha Centuri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to file any formal complaints, but it's far to late to start making a fuss about it now!"