PhpBB 3 User Reviews

Best Existing Forum Software
73% (608 votes)
Powerful and Smart
8% (68 votes)
Good for Everyday Tasks
5% (38 votes)
Interesting for Small Community
2% (19 votes)
Bad and Limited Features
5% (43 votes)
Unusable and Inefficient
7% (56 votes)
Total votes: 832

User Reviews (21) Write your Review

Unknown Picture

Best forum software ever

Best forum software ever created, no doubt! Easy to use and tons of features. All you could ever want in a BB software.

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Unknown Picture

Very powerfull. The only 2

Very powerfull. The only 2 very bad things :
1-No real plugin system like bbpress or wordpress, ...
2-Updates complicated if you have MOD'S and theme modification.

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"2-Updates complicated if you

"2-Updates complicated if you have MOD'S and theme modification."

Until I converted to SMF, I had no idea that mods were easy to work with and install.

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8/10

I have to agree with you on

I have to agree with you on that. But SMF's system is also really bad.

Wait for phpBB 3.1. That version has extensions Smile

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Unknown Picture

how can you rate the ease of

how can you rate the ease of management so highly for this monster? every option is listed at least twice throughout the acp, and they are listed in different ways. confusion is the best word to describe all versions of phpbb, new and old.

the visual customization is excellent, and the visitors side of things is very nice, but management completely sucks.

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Unknown Picture

I agree with Tommy. The

I agree with Tommy. The backend is horrible. Even what should be the easiest of administrative tasks are almost impossible. There is just no logic in how the backend was build. Big thumbs down from me.

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Unknown Picture

i agree with Damino. Updates

i agree with Damino. Updates might be very complicated if you have installed mods. The Administration Control Panel isn't very logic. But for the user, it's a excellent plateform.

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Unknown Picture

I just wondering if anyone

I just wondering if anyone can recommend some good backlinks service. I just made my site and I need to get good rankings in google. What do you think which is best service for getting backlinks. I want to build many links and want to get it as cheap as possible. Thanks Jay.

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Unknown Picture

Perfect easty to handle most

Perfect
easty to handle
most highest security
and
large plugin
the best over all

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Unknown Picture

crap software. Smf is best.

crap software. Smf is best.

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Unknown Picture

Comments like the backend is

Comments like the backend is hard to use, really just reflect how much experience the people making these statements have with forum software.
Once you have taken time to learn your way around the back end of Phpbb3 nothing is hard I would agree however the learning curve is steeper than say the likes of SMF.
There are FAR more mods around for Phpbb3 than SMF, MyBB etc. Also has a far friendlier support community, anytime you post a topic in the Phpbb3 community support forums, it is answered within 15 mins every time, in my experience every time.

Take the time to learn how to use the Phpbb3 admin section, it takes a far different approach to SMF or MyBB, but in the end I guarantee you will be far happier.

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The Admin section is terrible

The Admin section is terrible for small forums.Too many things to address.

However it does well in large forums,because of its scalability.Then you can finally use the bloated ACP decently.

SMF actually has more mods.It also has a very active support community.

I was NEVER happy with phpBB3 or SMF.I then found myBB and I am now happy.It fits with my small forum well.

There are a lot of people who had to leave phpBB3 because it was not keeping up with other scripts in important features.It can be hard or time consuming to add a mod.SMF and myBB does it much better on mods.

myBB and SMF has quick post feature,long before phpBB3 finally added one.Some of the post bit codes are way out of date.myBB exceeds both SMF and phpBB3 there.

You are just another phpbb drone.

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Unknown Picture

Pros: Excellent layout and

Pros:

  • Excellent layout and large array of designs available for it, plus very simple to create your own.
  • Large amount of available Plugins and Mods
  • Very very powerful Administration system and ACP that allows you to set just about anything you can imagine.
  • Great Support when you need it from the community

Cons:

  • No search function to search the ACP
  • Limited hooks so hard file edits required for most mods (to be fixed in version 3.1)

Summary:
I think phpBB really rocks in stability, features, and support. I also think MyBB is nice, however after seeing security issues in previous releases I've got more respect for phpBB instead, for having such a great security record in version 3 (unlike version 2). As for the people who put down the Admin panel, I think it rocks! I love being able to edit a lot of the features in the ACP, and if you think the ACP in phpBB is bloated then don't be looking at commercial or I should say "paid for" bulletin board software. If you don't like having so many feature settings available, just don't change them! phpBB works perfectly with all default settings. Only complaint I have coming from MyBB to phpBB is that it's ACP doesn't have a search feature to search for a particular setting.

All in all, phpBB is awesome and I'd recommend it to anyone!

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Unknown Picture

Summary: Switched away from

Summary:

Switched away from phpBB earlier this year.

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Unknown Picture

Pros: Plenty Styles Plenty

Pros:

  • Plenty Styles
  • Plenty Plugins (MODs)
  • Editable Language Files
  • Custom BBCodes
  • Many things you can change
  • TOTAL CUSTOMIZABILITY

Cons:

  • I had problems upgrading, but that was because the server was down and I couldn't upload changed files

Summary:
Best. Forum. Software. EVER!

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Unknown Picture

I've a 200.000 posts phpbb3

I've a 200.000 posts phpbb3 board. Lot of mods, and about 3 years experience. So, my opinion:
It's a great software, but:
- Upgrading when you have a different theme/template, and some mods is horrible. Horrible.

I used to have a customized template. Every mod had to be installed manually (mods are made just for the default theme "prosilver"). I finally created a prosilver-based theme (just modifying CSS and a few html lines), but there are still no guarantee hehe. I also have a different language (spanish), so every mod usually needs translations first, and manually edits.

When a new version of phpBB3 is released (I don't even care about MOD updates, I don't want to die hehe), just two words: guaranteed surprise Big smile

And there is another problem, which makes upgrading even worse, phpBB3 doesn't have some MODs you will probably need. Quick edit, topic rating, points/reputation/thanks system, users genders (really, why???), ACP manage attachments, referrals, image resizer...
You can install them, but that means phpbb3 wont care if they stop working, cause they are MODs.

Another problem, no AJAX. Yeah, we are in 2012 and the #1 forum software still not using AJAX. jQuery not included by default. CSS3 still nowhere... Sad

Now, the good things.
- Permissions: Really powerful. A bit hard at the beginning, but once you learn and configure some roles, it's easy.
- Good support, and a lot of information available (its normal, there is a lot of people using phpbb3 hehe).
- Tons of plugins (yeah, install +20 and then suicide when a new version of phpbb comes xD)
- Stability, security...

I want to try myBB and SMF, but phpbb3 is a good forum software.

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I've always appreciated

I've always appreciated phpBB3 and still do to this day. I am eagerly waiting for the release of 3.1 since it will include some new stuff like:
- jquery by default
- may include more css3
- hooks so plugins wont require hard file edits
I am considering switching to another forum software though on my board though, since I need something that includes more features and stuff like this now.

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SMF and especially myBB are

SMF and especially myBB are far better than phpBB3.

They are much easier to upgrade and myBB mods are easy and reliable to install.

I have used all three and while I prefer myBB I can use SMF and be satisfied,but phpBB3 NEVER!

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Unknown Picture

I've used a variety of

I've used a variety of different forum providers and on a whole PHPBB was good. The one thig I really had problems with was the amount of spam registrations we had to deal with and I was using things like the provided CAPCHA.

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That's why you should look

That's why you should look into AntiSpam ACP, other captcha plugins and things like Advanced Block Mod.

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Unknown Picture

From what I've seen, it

From what I've seen, it doesn't seem geared toward the end user. Most communities aren't tech saavy enough to use code to format text. In my opinion, unless you're a community of developers, the end user should never see code.

This is a heading

Quote:
This is a quote

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