[Meego-community] Meego Forum Software Choice

Thu Mar 11 15:20:51 CST 2010

Greg Schallert wrote:
> Interesting but I also see a similar security issue was introduced that was not
> patched.  The ability to view unapproved posts via the board feed is not really
> less critical than the bug patch you cite above.  The ability to view posts you
> are not supposed to be able to view is a bad thing.  Private forums or the mod
> queue, visibility should be restricted to those with authorization.
> http://www.phpbb.com/bugs/phpbb3/58695

It's only an issue if you explicitly define NO/NEVER moderator
permissions to the guest (or authenticated user), almost always you'd
use the permissions as a white list and not actually define any
moderator permissions for non moderators as the system denies by default.

> Which is why I assume you are ditching version 3 and authoring version 4
> from scratch rather than building upon the version 3 codebase.
> http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=32094#p203433

Well the 3 series which is an evolution (but turned out to be rewrite)
of version 2 has an architecture firmly stuck in the days of PHP4. While
we can write new functionality to use PHP5 language improvements, it'd
be a painful process. Which is why we are starting phpBB4 with a clean
slate, while the 3.x line will be developed and maintained alongside.

> I think it is fairly common knowledge that a modded phpBB3 is
> a nightmare to maintain because of the need to hack core files.
> http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1939935&p=11762585&#p11762585

Using version control reduces the headaches severely and it really
depends how modded, if you start editing everything then sure you will
get conflicts. But if you add functionality things like that are much
easier to merge.

> That is I believe the issue, there are no viable alternatives at this
> point in time.
> Sorry but I have to say phpBB3 is not even in the same league as the commercial
> options, and even if an OSS solution was desired above all else, there
> are far more
> advanced OSS bbs scripts available that have not even been proposed.

I mean there is MyBB (GPL now after pressure from KDE), Vanilla, PunBB,
FUDForum, the Drupal module, and others to boot, there is even SMF which
is a lot more free than vB. SMF and MyBB (perhaps some of the others)
even have advanced plugin systems.

> While it is nice to think you can exist and function within a perfect ideological
> world, reality and the practical necessities need to take precedence.

Indeed, if vB is the answer after evaluating the other possibilities, so
be it. I'm not going to lose any sleep if that's the case, perhaps the
opposite.

Chris

-- 
Chris Smith                                              phpBB Developer
<http://www.cs278.org/>                          <http://www.phpbb.com/>