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The lightweights to consider are:
sNews
Textpattern

And yes, we've been down this road before.

I think it's more real world than testing off a localhost environment.

As for the adverts, use this link: http://demo.opensourcecms.com/fluxbb/

Just to do a quick test, I don't think Scott is going to mind. Just don't be running a test when the databases are being refreshed.

By the way, I've run these kinds of tests in the past but you have to tweak each forum to get the most out of them. Take the case of Phorum, where their caching system can be either file, memcached or APC based.

Nonetheless, it's a good internal test to see how well your software runs against someone else's but I wouldn't put up a bragging page unless you've tweaked the other apps.

By the way, Textpattern kicks Wordpress's butt

Incremental vs Major, that is the question.

Let me share what I've gathered over the years from following the support forums for six years, and from PunBB forum admins that I've personally contacted.

1. What do we really need?
a. Better search.
b. Stopping bot registrations.
c. Spam prevention.

2. What would we like to see?
a. Sub-forums.
b. Custom user fields.
c. Separation of template and core code.

Pretty short list, not much to ask for. That means that from an admin point of view, the current code base is fine, with just 3 bullet points that desperately need addressing and 3 more that would be cool to have.

There are plenty of other forum apps freely available for one and all to download and install. It's not like FluxBB is the only game in town. Should you require more bells and whistles, then Flux is not for you, and from the start it was never Rickard's intention to address everyone's desires.

What drove me to PunBB was not the features, but lack there of. With less code bloat comes speed, less points of failure and more security. I want to install a web app and not have to worry about it, just administer it.

On the what do we really need points, there are mods available for 1a, 1b and an Akismet mod for 1c that I've been using successfully. But they are mods, makes updating a forum to a new release something you leave for when it's raining outside and you have nothing better to do.

On the what would we like to see, code for 2a was floating around when work was being done on 1.3, don't quite remember who has it. 2b is a nice feature should Flux be used as a tie-in to a CMS, all registrations could be handled by Flux, letting the admin designate what information he/she wants from their users. That leaves 2c, the big enchilada, the one nobody wants to go near. It's the biggest reason, I feel, that forums end up getting modded.

So did I answer the question, Incremental vs Major?

No, I don't think the community can give the devs the answer to that question. You see we're the end users, we look at FluxBB from an operational point of view, we're not knee deep in the code, wishing that that algorithm over there was better written or thinking should the admin side code be re-factored to accommodate Ajaxing.

Whatever you, the current devs, decide to do, well that's really up to you, it's your free time after all. But as you contemplate your next move, step away from the code, be a user.

Spoke too soon, I woke up this morning to quite a number of registrations. It may have slowed things down for a day, but I believe spammers read Punres also.

IMHO, there's has to be an easy way for admins to turn on/off anti-spam/anti-bot measures.

Ignore the bots, and they will eat your project.

One person's junk is another person's treasure

I've never used the jump menu, in all the time I've used Pun. User ranks is another feature I leave alone, but board description and signatures I do use quite often.

Not to deviate this thread, but since we're talking about BBCode, I'd like to see an option one day where we could have a toolbar to assist us in creating posts. I'm very familiar with BBCode but there are days that I wish I could just highlight text and press a button. Yes, there are many mods out there but having something ship with the core, would not be a bad thing in my opinion. Of all the BBCode toolbars I've used on forums, the one in Phorum feels right.

Hey, if they can't take constructive criticism, then it's their loss. Before the sale of PunBB, I was a moderator also, but I asked to be removed from my duties.

People get involved with Open Source for various reasons, as an education, to make their resumes look better, or to do something with their time. Most communities are made up of really young people and older individuals. The young find girlfriends, or get bored with what they're doing, while the old scratch their heads wondering what happened.

Personally, I wanted to see PunBB succeed just for the thrill of it. Money never entered my mind, cause if money was my aim, I wouldn't be helping out projects, I'd be launching porn sites.

My $.02 would be to ship 1.4 with a new default theme, the work that went into 1.3's look and feel can be brought over. Just pick another element, like Titanium, Helium or Hydrogen. Heck, we can have a contest to pick the new name, the winner receives a free copy of FluxBB 1.4

Oh, how I hate bots!

Yesterday, I had 113 signups on one of my forums, this kind of activity has been the norm for some time now. I was going to apply one of your mods but I'm going to wait to see what you have to offer for 1.4.

Then I'll have to use this mod from a trusted user

Seeing progress being made, almost there.

One of the features i like in 1.4 is the ability to designate what groups can see the User List, it happens to be the favorite pastime of spammers these days, signing up and then going into their profile and adding a link to their porn, dating or fill_in_the_blank site of choice.

A while back I applied Smarty's mod, but they continue signing up, hopefully when my forums switch to FluxBB, they'll go away for good.