For those of you who are hosted on Trap17 and using phpBB3.0.x you might want to consider adding some mods...

Some mods which I extremely highly recommend to get is:

#1
"Anti-Bot Question" mod, which adds a question like "can you see through glass?" (not actual example, result may vary), according to many people who have tried the mod, it is REALLY useful at keeping low-medium level advanced bots at bay, although some extremely complex advanced bots may still get through... I personally don't have this mod, but I would install it if I have the time to...

#2
"Evil Quick Reply", it adds a quick reply to your phpBB forum, I find it very useful and almost renders normal reply completely obsolete once it has been modded to accommodate the tools... There are alternatives such as Prime Quick reply, those are still very good, but I personally prefer Evil Quick Reply, which while I'm at it, Evil Quick Reply is NOT evil, the Creator is someone called "Evil >3"

#3
"Categorize Announcements, Global Announcements, and Stickies" is a mod that categorizes announcements, global announcements, and stickies so that it is easier to se which is which, this mod although an extremely simple idea is VERY useful and makes a forum look many times neater

#4
"Change User's Warning Count", with phpBB3 you CANNOT change a user's warning count meaning that you can only wait until the warnign expires at a set time, what this mod allows you to do is reduce a member's warning count, effectively making the board 10 times better as people may have redeemed themselves and want a "warn-free" day/s

#5
"Highway of Life's Advertisement mod" the mod allows placement of Google Adsense advertisements after the first post and on overall_footer. This mod may be unnecessary for most forums, but for those webmasters who want to earn a little cold hard (soft and warm if it is very humid in the area you live in) cheques by Google... The mod is very easy to install and works beautifully, the advertisement mod was designed for proSilver and won't work well on subSilver2...

#6
"Highway of Life's AJAX shoubox addon" is an AJAX shoutbox that is placed right underneath board stats and above login module (for default), it auto-updates every five seconds so there is no need for refreshing the page... Not very necessary but your board's member will sure appreciate it!


to get these mods please check out
www.startrekguide.com (don't worry scifi haters, there's barely anything there about startrek!)
or
www.phpbb.com and click "community" NOT "customize"

don't forget to check out www.shadowflames.us their skins are better than eXtremePixel skins! (in my opinion, are even better!)

I personally think people would pay to get their FREE skin "Glacier" and maybe a bit less/more for their other skins

So check those out people!

I hope those links don't break rules , I'm sorry if I posted in wrong forum - If I did, please move to correct forum

This post has been edited by csp4.0: Apr 17 2008, 12:26 PM

i just took off my hosting thing but when i get 30 ill try it

The first one is a must. My friends forum has so much spam you could swim in it Thanks for the share Will come in handy for sure....

Very nice thread, interesting to read. I'll try a few of these on my phpbb3 forums.

Just a reminder, that this topic will have absolutely NO support for any of the styles/mods mentioned above, if you want to get support please post in the appropriate topic at phpBB's community or Startrekguide...

All of those mods are MODX which is a lot more easier to install than normal MODs...

Both phpBB and Startrekguide communities have guides/walkthroughs on how to open a MODX file, and use MODX installation files.

Getting "auto-MODX installers" are NOT recommended, if you do use them backup all files edited before using the MODX installer.

Remember to backup all files you're about to modify because if you do make a mistake (which is very easy to do especially on cPanel file editor (not saying it ain't good, it is very useful for quick edits, actually)) you can just backup the files. Also if you do have a phpBB 3.0.x RC board, you might want to consider upgrading to gold/olympus edition before installing these mods...

Not all those mods you need, remember. Having quick reply can also increase spam on your forums as people only need to do 1 click to reply instead of 2. #3, #5 and #6 are probably not needed by everyone, as they can clutter up a page (especially having a chatbox on the index page).

If you want some nice styles, they are also posted on startrekguide.com and phpbb3styles.com

One MOD I always use is the Forum Statistics one, which not many people know about. I think it can be found in the phpbb.com mod database, and I find the stats it produces to be quite useful, except I haven't figured out how to install it on subsilver2 based themes yet.

nowadays php bb 3 seems upgraded, little minnor bug or secruity fix.

You can change permissions so that only members can post in a specific forum, and if you have tight rules, member probably won't spam...

I find the categorize announcements, stickies, and global announcements really useful especially in a "Site Announcement" forum, as people would want to know what topics are announcements, global announcements, and stickies...

Shoutbox is (in my personal opinon) too high, should have a height of around 200px and might be better to place that in overall_header if people wish but then {forum_index}/chat.php won't display well...

The Advertisement mod is only for people who want to earn a little extra revenue, for those people who prefer a little more "functionality" such as... Ability to only display advertisements to guests, etc should get this mod "phpBB3 Ad-Management" which is available here:

http://code.google.com/p/phpbb3-ad-management/

But it is a little harder to install as some people (including me) get "You do not have permission to access ads.php" or something like that.

I don't like the phpbbstyles styles, most are subsilver base and aren't W3 standards compliant, yet most of the styles at startrekguide are and many are better than eXtremePixels styles...