phpbb is still right there https://www.phpbb.com/

@babe these things never went anywhere. #xmpp too. Just do it

@babe I hosted a phpBB forum for years, and it remained up and running for years after I forgot the admin password to the server it was running on. Legendary.

@babe RETVRN

@babe This is still my big unpopular take: if you demand all the latest features, then they have you.

We've gotta settle for independent and slightly rough around the edges, like fedi. Only 4 pictures at a time! Its a little inconsistent across platforms, ok?!

@babe

@nodebb is Fediverse-compatible too.

@babe cortex implant instance admin is actually hosting these, and we're using them, and it's great ! Also i'm building a roller derby club, and i'm gonna use a forum and xmpp as com tools !

@unlofl I like the rough around the edges.
Some stuff I'm involved with is janky as hell and hasn't changed much in over 20 years, but it's part of its charm

@babe
I still actively use a couple of surviving forums. Niche stuff, but alive and well, with 20 some years of post history. Then again, I never joined Facebook, so I guess I'm the weirdo.

@babe This is the way.

@babe bring back AIM

@babe I still use vim every day! Some of the oldies are the goodies!

@babe Bring back CoSy
(Which actually never went away.)
https://cix.uk/forums/overview

@babe For when WordPress just doesn’t have enough remote code exploits for your liking!

@babe I maintained one back then. Was fun!

@teajaygrey @babe this article was written in 2012, there’s been a ton of improvements to PHP since then

Edit: after semi-skimming the article, the majority of complaints seem to be “PHP works differently than x language”… well yes, it’s a different language.
I am confused by all the references to “(int) is not a class”? Why would it be? It’s a primitive.

@babe Even if I'm still not 100% on pivoting to IRC, forums desperately need to be more of a thing.

@babe I tried to convince a group leaving Facebook to just start a phpbb or other forum. They said it looked too old and people wouldn’t know what to do; so they moved to discord without me.

I hear they are struggling to figure out what to do now.

@babe back? I‘m still on IRC and reddit, discourse, stackoverflow, etc are all „just another forum“

Yes, the Eevee blog post is from 2012.

Jeff Atwood's response, is also from 2012, and if you read it you'll note it links to a previous, similar sentiment post from 2008, which in turn cites even earlier "PHP sucks" stuff.

I realize (painfully) that there are iterations to PHP, FB/Meta were a client of iSEC Partners, where I was previously IT Admin. However, even if I may concede that HHVM may have some "improvements (not a ton) there's the glaring reality that FB/Meta are so evil that even my former coworker at iSEC Partners, and FB CSO, Alex Stamos quit after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, so I'm kind of not interested in furthering code bases that are so heavily tainted.

Some may claim, erroneously, that "PHP is faster than C#" and yet, here's a blog post in 2022 with a rebuttal, showing that C is closer to 6-10X faster than PHP: https://dev.to/goaty92/in-response-to-yes-php-is-faster-than-c-2a2g and the post to which it is responding? Isn't even online anymore as I type this in 2026.

In general, I do not think there are any meaningful claims to cherry picked assertions that PHP or any interpreted language is a win over a compiled one beyond a prototyping stage.

I will always strive to encourage others, particularly programmers, to level up and go lower level, rather than get lost in higher level "easy" abstraction frameworks. Whether it's PHP, or Python, or Ruby? Start slow maybe, with Rust (more in vogue these days) or C, but getting down to nitty gritty with FPGAs and ideally, eventually PCB fabrication and maybe even taped out silicon, should be a longer term objective for those who are looking to hone their skills IMHO.

So, PHP's "improvements"? To me? Are not particularly worthwhile, even though I also concede that Python also had other marginal "improvement" implementations such as IronPython (I haven't seen this anywhere in production since 2006) or CPython (aka "Embedded Python" which has a runtime so bloated, it would make anyone such as I, who actually toiled with PIC level hardware design decades ago, go pale in the face for the minimum memory foot print being a far cry from any rational embedded design constraint).

There is no operating system implemented in PHP.

Just as there is no operating system implemented in Python. (Though my colleague Chris Palmer, often joked about "PythonOS" long ago; and the joke insomuch as Python was originally conceived of as a management tool for the distributed research OS Amoeba, is rather wry).

There are good reasons for that!

I realize, I come from a time when coding implied having implemented one's own linkers and assemblers and self hosting code; and many never bother to learn such skills. I lament and observe that as a shortcoming. There's more to be understood by collaborating with those upon whose shoulders one has been standing, rather than continuing to add to their weight and burdens.

So, c'mon down! Lend a real hand, if you dare.

Apologist for staring at clouds? Is a look that does not age well.

I am guessing, that your profile's professed like of Windows XP will, similarly, someday seem a bit sophomoric to you as you grow and cultivate your skills. I mean, OK, it's maybe not as horrifically anti-user as Windows 11 and it didn't crash as much as Windows 95, but it's long since been EOLed even among the larcenous for-profit plagiarists that are Micro$oft who cut off even their extended support 12 years ago now.

CC: @babe@glitterkitten.co.uk

@babe piffle and tosh! Back to telnet bbs where you memorised ip addresses because in the early 90s domains were an expensive hassle nobody needed.. if you could remember your families telephone numbers you could remember your favourite ip4 addresses!!