Weblogs Inc., to launch Message Boards
by Duncan
September 7, 2005
Jason Calacanis’ over at Weblogs Inc., is seeking a phpbb programmer to help with a new “message board” somewhere on the Weblogs Inc., network.
By total coincidence I installed phpbb last night for a new side project, but alas I won’t be hiring anyone at this stage. Its a nice script by the way.
If you won’t be diligent enough to patch up software with the latest releases, i.e. please upgrade to WordPress 1.5.2 for security fixes :) you might find more grief using phpBB. There have been numerous security patches so far this year, and there has even been an Internet worm designed to google out-dated phpBB sites for targets to attack.
All the best.
ewwwww@phbb. Nothing like choosing one of the least secure and useful packages out there!
ok, ok…what should I use instead of phpbb?
Depends on your needs. If it’s a small, secure community you’re after, there are a number of security-based bb’s around (minibb comes to mind, though there are several better ones that aren’t coming to mind). If it’s features you’re after, vBulletin’s king, though you’ll need to pay for a license.
Like buying a car, you need to know what you want before you get what you need.
PHPBB is kind of the Pinto of bulletin board systems (if Pintos were still being made). It’ll work. And it’s entirely possible it’ll work well. Until that one day when you get into an accident, and then it’s like God’s wrath poured down from above.
That’s a little dramatic.
Although vBulletin is better, phpBB can be pretty much as good for you, I’d say. I use it on the 6 (soon to be 7 – new one launching 9/9) communities that I manage. As long as you choose a good script (vBulletin, phpBB, some others are good scripts), it’ll be you that’ll determine success as the administrator.
I had to Google what a Pinto was, in case Darren or other Australians read this: think Holden Camira.
You can integrate bbPress with WordPress logins and more.
We’ve had a number of security breaches when using phpBB so I’mno longer using it. I’ve heard punBB is a good, compact forum script. There’s also InvisionBoard.
Actually, was looking to do an internal BB, but if Duncan says we’re doing message boards then we’re doing them! :-)
I can recommend SMF (available at simplemachines.org). Though I never used it in a big community or anything like that. It comes with a nice package manager and a built in update manager, so updating the software (in order to react to say security holes or something like that) is really easy. And it hasn’t such an.. interesting history as phpBB (do a search for phpbb on packetstormsecurity.org)
Just my two cents :)
Anyone try Vanilla yet? It looks cool from the outside, but not sure about the security or anything.