phpBB3 under test

Last night I finally registered on the phpBB area51 forum which is running a CVS version of olympus – the new era of phpBB! Not being satisfied with the user side investigation of the features, I installed my own copy from the CVS onto my linux box so I could have a play with the admin functions. WOW is all I can say.

The improvements to existing phpBB features are really good and very welcome, but there are also a whole load of new features which have really made a dramtic impact. While many of the improvements and new features are in the admin panel and will assist greatly with forum administration, there are also some wonderful little differences for the average user such as:-

  • Adjusting the order threads are displayed in
  • Creating folders for PMs
  • Creating rules for dealing with incoming PMs
  • PMs to full inboxes don’t bounce, but get “held”
  • Ability to manage all user settings from one control panel
  • Subscribe to forums is built in
  • A watch list for threads and forums in the UCP
  • Loads of other goodies 🙂

Administration wise, there are lots of things that will save the time of Admins on busy boards. The long awaited ability to automatically can users who have not actiavted or posted anything after a preset amount of time is here, as is the option of setting very finite permissions from a number of angles. You can also create “custom” admin/moderator panels with access (or not) to different features, meaning you really can have a structure of control and management that is so much more than “all or nothing”.

Suffice it to say I am going to love using, modding and installing this new phpBB when it is released. While I won’t be upgrading existing forums due to the time taken to port mods, I will certainly be installing it for people who request new forums, and continuing to recommend the webs best free, open source, forum solution 🙂

Oh, and if you want some bits to read and play with;

 

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