Technical question about this forum's software

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AlanM
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Technical question about this forum's software

Post by AlanM »

The game forum that I've been a moderator of (along with dozens of others) is closing down.
Some of us moderators are considering on creating several replacement forums.
Split up to cover different hardware implementations of the game.

Anyway, I'm curious if the software for this site, phpBB, has been kept up to date or if the copyright date is accurate.
Or does that 2007 date cover current releases.

We would be installing addons to accept images and imbedded videos.

Are there any web knowledgeable people on here that might recommend a different forum package.
BTW - I think what the other Ohio gun forum did is a disaster.

The software that the gaming forum is using was developed in house and is used by several of their gaming forums.

BTW - the game I am/was involved with is Minecraft, specifically I play on a PC.
AlanM
There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men. - RAH
Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo - use in that order.
If you aren't part of the solution, then you obviously weren't properly dissolved.
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sodbuster95
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Re: Technical question about this forum's software

Post by sodbuster95 »

Looks like phpBB is still active, updating, and free: https://www.phpbb.com/

It seems to work just fine around here so, were I looking to implement a new forum, I'd definitely give it a shot.
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AlanM
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Re: Technical question about this forum's software

Post by AlanM »

In doing my research I found a forum running phpBB that has over 200 million posts, amazing graphics, and a huge number of attached images.
I guess it all depends upon the hardware it's running on.
AlanM
There are no dangerous weapons; there are only dangerous men. - RAH
Four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo - use in that order.
If you aren't part of the solution, then you obviously weren't properly dissolved.
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sodbuster95
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Re: Technical question about this forum's software

Post by sodbuster95 »

AlanM wrote:In doing my research I found a forum running phpBB that has over 200 million posts, amazing graphics, and a huge number of attached images.
I guess it all depends upon the hardware it's running on.
Not sure what kind of hardware you have but, if you're in the market, I'd recommend looking at a Synology NAS. I have a 918+ running DHCP, DNS, Webserver, Fileserver, and Mail Server (among other things) with zero issues all using either native apps or community-supported free apps. phpBB is one of the free apps available for the platform.
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techguy85
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Re: Technical question about this forum's software

Post by techguy85 »

If you are going to run a high-traffic forum you will need a pretty good server somewhere. You'll need someone who is a reasonably experienced system administrator or will need to buy a managed server from somewhere. Personally I have a server at https://www.linode.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (one of their 4GB VPS plans) in their Atlanta datacenter that works pretty well. But it does take some work to monitor and maintain.
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Re: Technical question about this forum's software

Post by ArmedAviator »

Regarding software:

I've used phpBB for decades. It's solid and works well on any platform. It's a little slower-paced when it comes to feature additions. Simple Machines Forums (SMF) is also free, open source forum software that I am fond of.

Regarding hardware:

phpBB, vBulletin (paid), SMF, and so on will work on just about any hardware or virtual machine provided it has the prerequisite PHP, MySQL/MariaDB (or other support database) backends, and a popular web server such as Apache HTTPd, NGINX, lighttpd, or IIS. I prefer Apache HTTP as the most capable and documented, but unless optimized, is also not fit for a HUGELY trafficked forum/website.

One of 4 ways to go, and this can be changed later with a little know-how or assistance:
1. Get a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Dedicated Server and administer it yourself.
2. Get a hosting account with a reputable web host, such as BlueHost (I currently use them. I used to be a web host a decade+ ago and still host in-house projects at home).
3. If you have BUSINESS internet, which allows you to serve traffic (check your ISP contract and also UPSTREAM bandwidth!!!), host on physical hardware in your home, or a place of business.
4. Buy hardware, colocate it, you'll administer it such as method 1, but you can save more money depending on factors.

I use a mix of option 2 and 3 these days. If you need to buy hardware, there's tons of Dells, HP, and IBM/Lenovo servers in addition to countless Supermicro servers on eBay. I use Proxmox on my hardware which hosts numerous virtual machines which do everything needed - and in a load balanced, highly-available setup.
Good luck and stand fast, true Patriots.
TDwin
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