This post is a request for input regarding thoughts on our forum.
As many of you are aware, we have been experiencing some issues, and we are now considering migrating the forum to another platform such as Xenoforo.
Please provide your thoughts and feedback in this thread.
FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
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isla
- Posts: 353
- Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:22 pm
FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
Isla S. - Email me for tech support, general questions, etc.
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Pyrian
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2025 1:31 am
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
I can't vote for some reason? Sooo yeah phpBB continues to be an issue, lol.
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5thHorseman
- Posts: 1668
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:29 am
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
Aw I missed the deadline but I would like to double the number of votes for Xenoforo. :D
PHPBB is aging poorly.
PHPBB is aging poorly.
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MantisManMike
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:29 pm
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
It might be helpful to list all the problems you've been having.
I very rarely use these forums, but I still think they are an important resource, especially because they are the de facto place to publish mods.
The problems I've noticed are that the page loading times are REALLY slow, and quite often you have forum crashes with a database error. I can't recall exactly what the error says, but it's something to do with too many connections / not enough memory to handle them.
I do web development for a living, so I might be able to provide some insights you don't have in-house, depending on your team and their skill set.
The first thing I'd question is your approach to the problem here. You're framing this as "should we use different forum software?", but I strongly suspect that's not the issue.
Using off-the-shelf forums isn't my area of expertise, so I don't have specific knowledge about phpBB or XenForo. However, I think it's quite unlikely that switching the forum software would solve your problems. Most likely it would just create extra problems instead, because you'll need to migrate data from one to the other.
You have a performance problem, and I think that's almost certainly a server issue not a software issue. Can you share details about your web hosting?
Are you on shared hosting, a VPS, or a dedicated server? What is the processor, disk space, and most importantly memory? Do you have server monitoring that shows how much of your allocated resources are being used?
In particular, I think it's likely your server is running out of memory.
phpBB is very well-established software, so it shouldn't have some awful performance issue. There might be more efficient options out there, but if you have a performance problem with phpBB there's a good chance you'll have the same problem under different software.
It's also possible that you do have a software issue, perhaps due to some misconfiguration of the software, or maybe running an extremely old version (like 10+ years or something) with no updates.
I very rarely use these forums, but I still think they are an important resource, especially because they are the de facto place to publish mods.
The problems I've noticed are that the page loading times are REALLY slow, and quite often you have forum crashes with a database error. I can't recall exactly what the error says, but it's something to do with too many connections / not enough memory to handle them.
I do web development for a living, so I might be able to provide some insights you don't have in-house, depending on your team and their skill set.
The first thing I'd question is your approach to the problem here. You're framing this as "should we use different forum software?", but I strongly suspect that's not the issue.
Using off-the-shelf forums isn't my area of expertise, so I don't have specific knowledge about phpBB or XenForo. However, I think it's quite unlikely that switching the forum software would solve your problems. Most likely it would just create extra problems instead, because you'll need to migrate data from one to the other.
You have a performance problem, and I think that's almost certainly a server issue not a software issue. Can you share details about your web hosting?
Are you on shared hosting, a VPS, or a dedicated server? What is the processor, disk space, and most importantly memory? Do you have server monitoring that shows how much of your allocated resources are being used?
In particular, I think it's likely your server is running out of memory.
phpBB is very well-established software, so it shouldn't have some awful performance issue. There might be more efficient options out there, but if you have a performance problem with phpBB there's a good chance you'll have the same problem under different software.
It's also possible that you do have a software issue, perhaps due to some misconfiguration of the software, or maybe running an extremely old version (like 10+ years or something) with no updates.
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isla
- Posts: 353
- Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2015 11:22 pm
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
Pyrian wrote:I can't vote for some reason? Sooo yeah phpBB continues to be an issue, lol.
Deleted the Poll. Discussion is more valuable anyway.
MantisManMike wrote:It might be helpful to list all the problems you've been having.
The first thing I'd question is your approach to the problem here. You're framing this as "should we use different forum software?", but I strongly suspect that's not the issue.
Using off-the-shelf forums isn't my area of expertise, so I don't have specific knowledge about phpBB or XenForo. However, I think it's quite unlikely that switching the forum software would solve your problems. Most likely it would just create extra problems instead, because you'll need to migrate data from one to the other.
MantisManMike wrote:phpBB is very well-established software, so it shouldn't have some awful performance issue. There might be more efficient options out there, but if you have a performance problem with phpBB there's a good chance you'll have the same problem under different software.
It's definitely a two part issue. We're working on the server side at the moment, but I made this thread because I figured this would be a good chance to discuss the forum software, too.
Maybe knock out both at the same time.
Isla S. - Email me for tech support, general questions, etc.
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MantisManMike
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:29 pm
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
I just got an error about exceeding the maximum number of database connections.
I meant to screenshot it but somehow failed to, sorry.
There are several possible reasons for this. I think it points towards an application-level error rather than (only) a server resource limitation. There are ways for an application to mess up and fail to reuse connections, for example opening a new connection with every query -- that would rapidly chew up all the available connections.
Either that, or you have extremely high traffic (unlikely), or are running on a rather limited hosting plan.
I meant to screenshot it but somehow failed to, sorry.
There are several possible reasons for this. I think it points towards an application-level error rather than (only) a server resource limitation. There are ways for an application to mess up and fail to reuse connections, for example opening a new connection with every query -- that would rapidly chew up all the available connections.
Either that, or you have extremely high traffic (unlikely), or are running on a rather limited hosting plan.
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MantisManMike
- Posts: 96
- Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:29 pm
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jicka
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2021 8:10 pm
Re: FORUM: Possibly migrating the forum to another software
Adding my thoughts. The modding community is still very active, and I feel strongly that having a space where mod info can be published for the long term is valuable. The game and its mods should still be accessible in a decade or two, if possible.
Yes, reddit and discord exist, but reddit is locking the platform down, and discord is less adapted to topic based long form discussions (as do happen when publishing a mod).
Looking at Xenforo, it looks like it is a license based proprietary solution. This would potentially increase hosting costs for a game that is probably not generating a lot of revenue anymore. I've never used xenforo, but maybe some self-hosted open source solution will be more viable in the long run?
(I know discourse (https://discourse.org/about )) but I don't know if they're the best option.
Thank you for asking for feedback, I hope these thoughts help.
Yes, reddit and discord exist, but reddit is locking the platform down, and discord is less adapted to topic based long form discussions (as do happen when publishing a mod).
Looking at Xenforo, it looks like it is a license based proprietary solution. This would potentially increase hosting costs for a game that is probably not generating a lot of revenue anymore. I've never used xenforo, but maybe some self-hosted open source solution will be more viable in the long run?
(I know discourse (https://discourse.org/about )) but I don't know if they're the best option.
Thank you for asking for feedback, I hope these thoughts help.