Hi all. Quick intro to me - I've been a PHP developer for the last 11 years and have experience creating and maintaining systems much more complex than a forum. I've also ran a couple dozen websites over time, and currently serve as the server administrator here.
I've been frustrated with modern forum software for the last 5 years and have been wanting to upgrade ES to something modern forever. Based on my research and poking dev's brains, it looks like this is going to crawl to another 6 years or beyond.
I'I sketched out a new forum platform called quickBoards years ago and have sat on the idea since... and recently decided to make this software a reality out of sheer frustration.
I'm currently looking for php and js coders who also follow my mentality of low abstraction, quick code to help me with this project. And also testers, high fives, and financial support.
This project is designed to serve ES's needs first but will benefit the web as a whole. It's designed to completely supplant PhpBB and also hopefully eclipse all other forum softwares as well.
Here's where it'll be different than phpbb:
1) easy image uploads and auto-recompression aka filesize management for images.
2) WYSIWYG editor - no BBcode to write or deal with - more like using microsoft word. This will use an existing component such as CKeditor or something like that.
3) 5 user types: company, moderator, knowledgebase editor, administrator, and regular. The 'company' user is designed to clearly mark commercial users, keep them out of main DIY discussion, and also give them some benefits and recognition too.
4) 6 topic formats:
+ Regular - just like any post on phpbb.
+ Personal - only OP can post to it. Good for announcements or build logs.
+ Knowledgebase - a type of post that only OP and verified knowledgebase editors can edit.
+ Company - Only members of companies may participate in these posts.
+ Sales - these are time-limited posts that can get marked as sold.
+ Question/answer - these are intended for troubleshooting/fixes type posts and can be marked as answered/unanswered.
5) varied subforum types:
+ Regular - just like any topic on phpbb.
+ Sales - only sales posts are allowed in a specific initial post format.
+ Company - users connected to a company are allowed to post topics in this section ( they can't post elsewhere )
+ Question/answer - only q/a posts are allowed.
+ Knowledgebase - only knowledgebase posts are allowed.
+ Offtopic - topics can automatically be deleted after a specified number of days of inactivity, much like 4chan.
6) Full emoji set support instead of predetermined bbcodes.
7) Users can upvote/downvote, as well as tag posts as offtopic, offensive, spam, against rules, useful, articulate, supportive, and exciting.
8) Statistics engine which uses these votes to automatically flag malicious users, especially new ones.. as well as reward users who post the most valuable/helpful content.
9) mitigations against downvote squads ( reddit still hasn't figured this out ).
10) admin specified time limit for editing one's own posts to prevent malicious re-edits.
11) desktop first design; gracefully degrades on mobile and tablets.
12) admin specified icons for both subforums and topics.
13) much improved moderation tools that give moderators less intrusive options to edit and move individual posts.
14) reddit-like filtering options of a subforum - see the most upvoted posts, the most active within a certain time period, or newest.
15) knowledgebase system is built into the board.. a team can be assigned to edit any knowledgebase posts.
16) brute force login attack prevention included.
17) themeing is similar to phpbb in ease of modification and structure.
18) javascript based frontend that uses ajax and such.. no more submitting forums and waiting for a page to reload.. designed very much like a modern social media site.
19) Written in low level PHP 8.0 with minimal abstractions using a tiny framework. In theory, will have dramatically lower resource usage than PhpBB due to the elimination of the chunky Zend framework, for starters.
20) Desktop-first design to support wide screens first :thumb:
21) modern messaging like social media sites instead of PMs... you can send your dissertation over email.
22) Speed not in terms of how snappy it is, but how fast/easy it is to navigate around the site. Ease of use is the #1 priority and the difference between which software is used and which isn't.
33) Localization support and UTF to support all languages and emoji sets..
What it won't do:
1) Plugins/extensions. Everything you need for a small to mid size forum is included in the core. A plugin system would require a shit-ton of abstraction and induce some loss of performance, as well as a burden to support these APIs.
2) Integration into various services. This is not enterprise software.. and never will be. Maybe we'll tack on a quick/easy blogging engine for the front page later on.
3) swiss army knife type features that only large forum admins take advantage of.
That being said, here's a screenshot of the skeleton to show you i'm at least moderately serious
Now on to business..
What i'm wondering is if anyone is willing to either donate:
1) a small monthly donation via a patreon page to support development costs.
2) php coding time.
3) testing or QA time.
4) javascript knowledge/time.
5) at least a high five.
Let me know if you're interested in this cause!
I've been frustrated with modern forum software for the last 5 years and have been wanting to upgrade ES to something modern forever. Based on my research and poking dev's brains, it looks like this is going to crawl to another 6 years or beyond.
I'I sketched out a new forum platform called quickBoards years ago and have sat on the idea since... and recently decided to make this software a reality out of sheer frustration.
I'm currently looking for php and js coders who also follow my mentality of low abstraction, quick code to help me with this project. And also testers, high fives, and financial support.
This project is designed to serve ES's needs first but will benefit the web as a whole. It's designed to completely supplant PhpBB and also hopefully eclipse all other forum softwares as well.
Here's where it'll be different than phpbb:
1) easy image uploads and auto-recompression aka filesize management for images.
2) WYSIWYG editor - no BBcode to write or deal with - more like using microsoft word. This will use an existing component such as CKeditor or something like that.
3) 5 user types: company, moderator, knowledgebase editor, administrator, and regular. The 'company' user is designed to clearly mark commercial users, keep them out of main DIY discussion, and also give them some benefits and recognition too.
4) 6 topic formats:
+ Regular - just like any post on phpbb.
+ Personal - only OP can post to it. Good for announcements or build logs.
+ Knowledgebase - a type of post that only OP and verified knowledgebase editors can edit.
+ Company - Only members of companies may participate in these posts.
+ Sales - these are time-limited posts that can get marked as sold.
+ Question/answer - these are intended for troubleshooting/fixes type posts and can be marked as answered/unanswered.
5) varied subforum types:
+ Regular - just like any topic on phpbb.
+ Sales - only sales posts are allowed in a specific initial post format.
+ Company - users connected to a company are allowed to post topics in this section ( they can't post elsewhere )
+ Question/answer - only q/a posts are allowed.
+ Knowledgebase - only knowledgebase posts are allowed.
+ Offtopic - topics can automatically be deleted after a specified number of days of inactivity, much like 4chan.
6) Full emoji set support instead of predetermined bbcodes.
7) Users can upvote/downvote, as well as tag posts as offtopic, offensive, spam, against rules, useful, articulate, supportive, and exciting.
8) Statistics engine which uses these votes to automatically flag malicious users, especially new ones.. as well as reward users who post the most valuable/helpful content.
9) mitigations against downvote squads ( reddit still hasn't figured this out ).
10) admin specified time limit for editing one's own posts to prevent malicious re-edits.
11) desktop first design; gracefully degrades on mobile and tablets.
12) admin specified icons for both subforums and topics.
13) much improved moderation tools that give moderators less intrusive options to edit and move individual posts.
14) reddit-like filtering options of a subforum - see the most upvoted posts, the most active within a certain time period, or newest.
15) knowledgebase system is built into the board.. a team can be assigned to edit any knowledgebase posts.
16) brute force login attack prevention included.
17) themeing is similar to phpbb in ease of modification and structure.
18) javascript based frontend that uses ajax and such.. no more submitting forums and waiting for a page to reload.. designed very much like a modern social media site.
19) Written in low level PHP 8.0 with minimal abstractions using a tiny framework. In theory, will have dramatically lower resource usage than PhpBB due to the elimination of the chunky Zend framework, for starters.
20) Desktop-first design to support wide screens first :thumb:
21) modern messaging like social media sites instead of PMs... you can send your dissertation over email.
22) Speed not in terms of how snappy it is, but how fast/easy it is to navigate around the site. Ease of use is the #1 priority and the difference between which software is used and which isn't.
33) Localization support and UTF to support all languages and emoji sets..
What it won't do:
1) Plugins/extensions. Everything you need for a small to mid size forum is included in the core. A plugin system would require a shit-ton of abstraction and induce some loss of performance, as well as a burden to support these APIs.
2) Integration into various services. This is not enterprise software.. and never will be. Maybe we'll tack on a quick/easy blogging engine for the front page later on.
3) swiss army knife type features that only large forum admins take advantage of.
That being said, here's a screenshot of the skeleton to show you i'm at least moderately serious
Now on to business..
What i'm wondering is if anyone is willing to either donate:
1) a small monthly donation via a patreon page to support development costs.
2) php coding time.
3) testing or QA time.
4) javascript knowledge/time.
5) at least a high five.
Let me know if you're interested in this cause!