phpBB

I made a forum in 2003 with phpbb as I considered it the best, at the time. Of course, I had to stick with it since due to the users wanting to carry on with it. phpbb is a pain to update, though a bit better now. I screwed up moving it from one host to another as it's pretty tricky to get it right, screwed up at least one software update. The admin settings are a nightmare which only happened on version 3. Version 2 was way more simple. Fending off the spammers has been improved but was once a full time job. Then recently the AI bots properly hammered it, and I think, other rogue bots. It was nearly game over that time as the forum had 6 million hits in a short period and the web host turned it all off. They said I had to control the bots or they would turn it off for good. I realised then how wide open the phpbb software is. I implemented Cloudflare, which saved the forum. Another problem is extensions do not get updated. So if you do upgrade the phpbb software you need to go through the pain of making sure the extensions work again and making sure you get the updated versions. Sometimes you simply cant as the extension is abandoned. One example was the a gallery extension, we couldn't get un update and then the extensive gallery was simply lost. phpbb is ok, and it is free, but there are swings and roundabouts with it for sure. The experience isn't seamless.

Users have control over their online status with User Control Panel, "Board Preferences", "Edit global settings", "Hide my online status".

I'm not sure if some phpBB versions have problems...