both are leaps and bounds better than phpbb though, which is what this site currently runs on.
the core feature set of phpbb is pretty limited. you need an extension for almost anything. also, the extension community is hostile. it's a waste of time to even contribute anything. they make you jump through too many hoops and lock your stuff in "abandonment hell" if you're not on there all the time. i have also had pretty negative experiences with devs who won't accept very common-sense pull requests to improve their stuff. they're petty.
the discourse dev/support community is awesome in comparison.
if i had to guess, what's really holding phpbb back is resources though. they don't have enough dev time (either paid or volunteer) to improve it to the point of being competitive in the current landscape. i think they'd probably need to do a total rewrite.
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i've made good progress so far on migrating us from phpbb to discourse. it should happen in the near future.
about the impending imgur apocalypse...
imgur is cheaping out. on may 15, they will 'begin deleting' images that have been uploaded anonymously (without an imgur account). not sure if all of them will immediately disappear or what.
anyway, don't worry, the pics will be safe (even the ones in imgur albums) and stored on TF itself after the migration. looks like about 2.7GiB in case anyone was curious.
the migration is coming asap partially because of that. i'll keep you posted, but there will probably be hours or maybe even a day of downtime when the final migration happens. probably sometime within the next week, but i'm not sure yet.
about the impending imgur apocalypse...
imgur is cheaping out. on may 15, they will 'begin deleting' images that have been uploaded anonymously (without an imgur account). not sure if all of them will immediately disappear or what.
anyway, don't worry, the pics will be safe (even the ones in imgur albums) and stored on TF itself after the migration. looks like about 2.7GiB in case anyone was curious.
the migration is coming asap partially because of that. i'll keep you posted, but there will probably be hours or maybe even a day of downtime when the final migration happens. probably sometime within the next week, but i'm not sure yet.
I was wondering , if "We" the users of this platform can somehow help with the upgrade ? Maybe we can collect ( contribute ) some money together and buy some paid reliable / functional version of the engine ( forum platform. ) ?
I love the structure of this website , information gathered , people also seem to be well mannered ( no stupid fights like other forums have ) , but I feel frustrated to see it down like every day ( or at least each time I open it , getting at least once a day 504 welcome ) . Let alone this can happen while writing the post which is not gonna be saved and that's really discouraging.
I don't remember this issue before, seems like lately is quite more often. So is it the server provider issue? No option to transfer to another , more reliable one?
I'm probably asking stupid questions here ,but anyway, if I can help somehow , please let me ( let Us , the users ) know.
I love the structure of this website , information gathered , people also seem to be well mannered ( no stupid fights like other forums have ) , but I feel frustrated to see it down like every day ( or at least each time I open it , getting at least once a day 504 welcome ) . Let alone this can happen while writing the post which is not gonna be saved and that's really discouraging.
I don't remember this issue before, seems like lately is quite more often. So is it the server provider issue? No option to transfer to another , more reliable one?
I'm probably asking stupid questions here ,but anyway, if I can help somehow , please let me ( let Us , the users ) know.
Last edited by aet on Mon Nov 17, 2025 6:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I keep wondering if we should move to another site vendor.....because I have been here since the beginning and will stick through the gateway errors--but I worry it will discourage new members from joining or staying.
Because I'm dictating so much while on the phone, to avoid having to thumb type for various reasons, I usually end up preparing my posts in a simple note app, and only paste the finished post here most of the time. It may not be the best work flow for everyone, but might be worth trying when you're working on a longer reply.
I can speak as a somewhat new user that I initially thought I had issues on my end but the bad gateway error persisted and I knew it was site related. While it’s not deterred me I have noticed it being an occurrence with some frequency. I tend to just move on to my next item for the day and come back later to check in, no big deal really.