drixie wrote:That said, open source softwares are more accepted when they are easy to tweak.
For instance, in wordpress, all you have to do is put plugins in a folder and activate in the admin. No headaches, no hours spent over editing many files and then finding out it wouldnt work and then overwriting everything with a backup you made before modding. Thats prolly why [url=http://bbpress.org]bbpress[/url] and [url=http://getvanilla.com]vanilla[/url] are getting more popular.
I love phpbb, I really do but...
Each project serves their own focus. If someone likes Vanilla or bbPress, then by all means, they might as well use it. That's just part of the open-source philosophy, and is no harm to phpBB. (We would never let anyone hurt our favorite excuse to stay home and code.
)
The suggestion: How do we make phpBB easier and more attractive to use [modify/tweak] (like WordPress).
The honest answer on this subject: It's really more of a non-issue? o_O
First of all, these scripts all serve their purpose, and have different aims. (Note: If you've opened a WordPress file lately, the code is still a mess. So is that of bbPress and Vanilla.. I've known them both in a past life). But the real thing to take note of is that the model of a blogging system, especially as designed by a project like WP, that's really very much aimed at appealing to anyone in the low to mid level user-facing range, is different than that of, let's say, a robust and highly scalable, full bulletin board solution; phpBB. The products are just different. Blog, message board. Blog, message board. So there are different reasonable expectations that come with either.
I'm not saying that a good plugin/extn system isn't plausible, but I'd like to point out that it's not necessarily even needed. A tool like Blinky/PacMan blurs that line, minus a built-in MOD browser. And the problem you described is that the MOD itself is broken, not exactly the process of MODding your board.
To boot, let's try and put this in an even better context. An Administrator doesn't *need* to be intently interested in
how it works, but they do need to be an
actual administrator of their board and website. Which means learning some good basics, which really are very few, and anything more is at the individual's own discretion and as they progress towards larger goals.
If the individual either can't or won't read the provided documentation, and ask questions (actually a bonus that people would want to help them, but we really do
), then there's nothing that leads me to suspect that they'd have the time or curiosity involved in building or supporting a community. However large or small and personal that community would be.
Olympus is as easy to tweak or completely turn on its head as any other BBS available, if not more so. (Anyone want to take bets on just how much more so? ;P) So with Blinky in consideration and development to take out the hassle of editing a bunch of files (the real issue), maybe this complaint should be directed toward the faulty MODs department?
[url=http://startrekguide.com/community/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2]Linkage. XD[/url]Also, please think [img]http://www.infinityhouse.org/cboard/images/smilies/knierumbear.gif[/img] and not so much [img]http://www.infinityhouse.org/cboard/images/smilies/soapbox.gif[/img]? I wasn't trying to make such a long post. [img]http://www.infinityhouse.org/cboard/images/smilies/aheh_ehh.gif[/img]