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[Sphynx]

Salam,

Ask! is a great forum, but I was wondering why phpBB software was chosen? Why not Invision Power Board (IPB) which most of the forums use? It's definitely better than phpBB.

Two differences I noticed:

\1\ In IPB, the thread's name in which the last post has been made is displayed along with the poster's name on the main page of the forum; while phpBB only displays the poster's name. As a user, thus, I'd not know which thread has been responded to unless I visit the forums.

\2\ Time. In phpBB, it displays the time of the last post, with the 'official time' - for eg. Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:54 am, but in IPB, it'd display as 25 minutes or Today, 2:54 am. This makes it easier to understand if any new posts have been made.

[abuali]

Welcome to Ask sphynx

for your kind words and advice.

When we started up in 2004, the main reason phpbb was chosen was because it was open source (read: FREE)

Obviously since we were not going to make money, IPB was not an option.

Personally I am all up for open-source softwares because they promote the sense of sharing and learning.

I also thought phpbb would be great because such a large and vibrant community of users and developers were adding value to it everyday.

The source is available and can be tweaked for custom use.

Of course to do so, Ask requires the services of a volunteer who is well versed with php-mysql development. We have had wonderful youths volunteer and handle the back-end of Ask since its formation.

I personally prefer this approach of phpbb as opposed to a limited number of employed people using their skills to develop a commercial product like IPB. Having said that, I agree, IPB is an amazing software.

As to the two shortcomings you have listed in comparison to IPB, I will take a look at phpbb and see if it can do the same with some custom programming or mods.

thanks for the ideas!

[abuali]

\1\ In IPB, the thread's name in which the last post has been made is displayed along with the poster's name on the main page of the forum; while phpBB only displays the poster's name. As a user, thus, I'd not know which thread has been responded to unless I visit the forums.

Once you are logged in and on the Board Index, you can click on the 'View New Posts' link to view individual topics that have been replied to since you last visited.

[Sphynx]

Once you are logged in and on the Board Index, you can click on the 'View New Posts' link to view individual topics that have been replied to since you last visited.

Ah, okay. Thanks for answering. Appreciated.

I have a question. What do the different 'Usergroups' mean? What does one do, when joining the group? For example, if I join the Art Exhibition Team, what would I be supposed to do?

• Art Exhibition Team
  
  Men
  
  Moderators
  
  Women
  
  Writers' Club
  
  the BIZ team

[abuali]

You are welcome.

The groups are for different purposes:

Men/Women groups are gender specific groups to facilitate discussion of issues that would be inappropriate to discuss in public, but necessary to discuss non-the-less

Art Exhibition / Biz groups are for organizing team members of the Shia Art Exhibition (which took place in July 2009) and BIZ magazine, in order to help facilitate organization of these projects.

Moderators group is for those members of Ask who are moderators of the forum.

Writers club is a group for those who are interested in exploring their writing skills. We are currently in a process of launching the writers club and inshallah plan on publishing our own collection of writings by members in due time.

[abuali]

\2\ Time. In phpBB, it displays the time of the last post, with the 'official time' - for eg. Sun Sep 06, 2009 2:54 am, but in IPB, it'd display as 25 minutes or Today, 2:54 am. This makes it easier to understand if any new posts have been made.

Here is how you can change the time/date setting to be relative.

Go to your 'User Control Panel'
Click on the 'Board Preferences' tab
The last item is 'My Date Format'
Change this to 'less than a minute ago...'

[Sphynx]

Thank you.