Basically you guys are running a 10 year old forum software and it really really shows, implementing features is harder then it needs to be, there might be major security risks just around the corner?(we over at Minus World faced a big one a couple years back when we where on phpBB dealing with deleted posts) The other big issue is making skins/themes is the worst thing and is much harder then it needs to be on phpBB. With MyBB that all changes, new features are relatively easy to add, themeing is much more simple, its got a constant update cycle. The final thing that might entice you is [url=https://mybb.com/download/merge-system/]this[/url]. That tool basically lets you port up posts, users, skins(I believe) the whole kit from phpBB to MyBB to make it as painless as possible to move. MyBB also has a site full of user-made mods that may or may not be beneficial for MFGG, it's hard to tell. I know someone is gonna shoot this down by saying "but MFGG3" and well, that's gonna take a long while. MyBB would be a good thing that we can do now, quickly as a sort of stepping stone into MFGG3. MyBB can also do everything Minus World does, which is pretty impressive. A final thing is I'd like to step up as a Tech Admin, this is regardless of whether or not you decide to move to MyBB, as you have next to no Tech Admins.

No complaints as long as things like badges and other "user" things carry over somehow.

[s]Stop reading my mind Yoshin![/s] [b]Short answer[/b] We should give some serious consideration to replacing our current phpBB software with a more modern MyBB system. Without upgrading, we will be severely limited in the functionality we can add to the current forum system. [b]Long answer[/b] [spoiler]A couple of days ago, I set up a test board for experimenting with changes and improvements to the current MFGG forums without affecting the production system. I wanted to install some useful mods that would support new features that various staff members and regular members have proposed (for example, a like system). Unfortunately, some of the mods I wanted to install are incompatible with phpBB 3.0.x, the version that the MFGG forums use. Also, phpBB 3.0.x [url=https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2373956]is no longer officially supported[/url], so we can't expect any software updates to be released in the future. I'm not aware of any glaring security weaknesses in phpBB 3.0.x, but there certainly could be - and these holes probably won't be fixed in the future. We could upgrade from 3.0.12 (the current version of the MFGG forums) to 3.0.14 (the latest - and final - version of phpBB 3.0.x), but my understanding is this is a small patch, and modern extensions still wouldn't be compatible with 3.0.14. We could upgrade to phpBB 3.1, or more likely 3.2. This newer version of phpBB would support modern extensions. Unfortunately, upgrading to 3.1 or 3.2 would break currently-installed styles and mods. I don't know how much work we'd have to do to make them compatible with 3.2. At this point, it might be just as easy (or even easier) to replace the aging phpBB system with the more modern MyBB.[/spoiler] [b]What would we have to do to upgrade to MyBB?[/b] [spoiler]1. Install the software. Obviously, we'd have to download MyBB and install it on the server. This is pretty straightforward. 2. Port over current database. When we set up MyBB, it would be nice if existing posts and user accounts were ported over, so we wouldn't have to make everyone re-register. Fortunately, MyBB has tools designed to do just that. 3. Port over skins The current phpBB skins wouldn't work in MyBB without some modification. I don't know how this would work. 4. Add mods for badges and Wiki integration The current MFGG forums don't have a lot of custom mods. However, there are some features we'd want MyBB to have. I don't know how difficult it would be to port these over to MyBB: [list][*]Badges. This is the most important custom feature that we'd want to have in MyBB. [*]Mainsite integration: Currently, you can link your mainsite account to your forum account so you can get certain badges based on your mainsite activity (like Submission and Super Reviewer). [*]Wiki integration: The MFGG Wiki can interact with the forums to see a member's rank and their badges.[/list] We also have an automated system for dispensing Happy Heart badges, but the current warn system is broken and difficult to understand. It would have to be scrapped or revised in a new system. The forums have limited integration with two other systems. I included a cute little Visio diagram because Visio was getting lonely. [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/s/dc4i5btcmxvhy3v/MFGGVisio.PNG[/img][/spoiler] So that's more information than you ever wanted to know about the current phpBB software. We're definitely going to consider upgrading to MyBB. If you'd like to speed along the process, you could always help by figuring out how to eliminate the remaining roadblocks! Or you can bribe HylianDev to finish the new mainsite software that would be super-awesome and would eliminate the need for parallel forum and mainsite systems. That works too.

[b]Badges.[/b] These are a MyBB default(only they're called awards this time around)! Or atleast, there are plenty of mods to do it. [b]Mainsite integration[/b] This shouldnt be too hard to integrate! Just reading information from one database and using it for another. [b]Wiki integration[/b] Same as above! As for skins, we should probably find a good MyBB skin to work off of for a base, and try to recreate some skins from this iteration. Of course it shouldn't be wholly needed to recreate them all. We dont have some of the ibp skins on this site and I don't even know what the ezboard site looked like so I can't comment about it.

Switching from phpBB to MyBB seems very doable. I don't think the current forum/wiki mods are particularly complex - it shouldn't be too much work to make them play nice with MyBB. I know MyBB has badge mods - we'd need to look around and see which one best fits our needs. Once we decide on one, I could probably analyze the database structure they use and then write a script to copy over the current badges. MFGG's badge system is a custom system, but porting them to a new badge system doesn't seem like a difficult task. The EZBoard seems to be missing from the Wayback Machine right now, but it wasn't the prettiest thing ever (red and yellow is not a good color scheme!). There's a "good" emulation of it on the IPB, though. If anyone needs a copy of an IPB skin, just let me know.

it'd be cool to have an ezboard skin recreation on MyBB(and one for the IPB main skin too)

Yeah, an EZBoard recreation would be cool to have. Also, I successfully installed a MyBB test board this afternoon. It's not yet ready for a public beta test, but everything seems to be up and running.

oh damn nice

I don't know much about MyBB but I'm hoping there are plugins that'll help highlight important things like ongoing competitions and so on, and a way to display them better than this board could. There's a plugin called Mysupport that sounds like it has a lot of useful features.

Baby, MyBB can do everything you want and more! Heck it'll wake up early and make you breakfast!

I take my eggs hard boiled and the bacon had better be crunchy.

I successfully set up a MyBB test board yesterday. After experimenting with some of the settings and plugins, I can affirm that MyBB can do [i]almost[/i] anything you would ever want it to do. I'm still trying to get the Perfect Breakfast plugin working just right, though!

Super disappointed.