SurfiOnline

So it has been 20 days since we released MyBB 1.2 and I thought it’d be interesting to take a look at a few statistics and comment on a few different things regarding the release.

Download Statistics

• MyBB 1.2, at the time of this post, has had 22,409 downloads in since release.
• MyBB 1.2 has been downloaded 18,005 times this week.
• Our downloads system (collectively all downloads on the MyBB site) has served 29gb bandwidth since the beginning of this month.

Code Modifications & Plugins

I was extremely worried that with the massive amount of changes in MyBB 1.2, it’d adversely leave those using plugins “out in the cold” and stop them from upgrading due to incompatibilities.

I’ve been proven wrong. In less than a month there are 68 modifications for MyBB 1.2 over on MyBB Mods. This is compared to the 59 modifications for MyBB 1.1.x which was released several months earlier.

I also had the opportunity to dive in and write my first released plugin, a full rewrite of k776 Rules Page modification. It also allowed me to demonstrate the functionality of adding your own user defined ?action=’s to the scripts so you don’t need to upload additional files to the forum root directory.

Translations

I don’t really keep up on the translations – Tochjo is the expert in that area but I believe we’ve already got several complete translations with a few more currently progressing.

Our changes to the license agreement allow greater flexibility for translators too – they can develop their own MyBB support site and throw a modified copy of MyBB up for download on it completely localised – no more buggering about installing separate languages after you’ve installed MyBB.

Well then…

• We’ll be releasing a MyBB 1.2 update very soon which contains a range of bug fixes and fixes one or two low-risk vulnerabilities.
• Planning for the next release of MyBB is underway. I’ve got my notes taken from testers on our beta forums, I’ve read over the suggestions forum and we’ve began collaborating in our “super secret development area”.
  • You’ll be seeing a new Admin CP
  • Several front end features are going to be reworked – think Calendar and Member List
  • Lots of small features, tweaks and modifications to provide an awesome user experience in MyBB
• I learnt more from the 1.2 release than I usually would a normal release - we made some big changes including changing the character set to default to UTF-8 which caused quite a few problems, after all of the javascript issues we had with the new javascript based features there are still more, the upgrade scripts need to be made more flexible (refreshing shouldn’t break it, it should carry on at the next step to complete)

That’s about it – it’s essentially time for me to head back to bed. (these midnight to 8am shifts at work really screw with your body clock)

Sometime soon, I’ll be taking a look at some of the more integrated copies of MyBB running on sites and hopefully running through a little bit of how to do that on your sites as well.

So it seemed that sooner or later we’d have some problems with XennoBB stealing our work as they’re known to have done so in the past. (and continue to do so)

The developer of XennoBB, Marius Stanciu (aka Osgiliath and Kiefer Andrew Kale) popped up earlier this year with “Revo Forum” which was actually just a copy of PunBB with all of the copyrights changed. It was quickly spotted and BerliOS closed down the project. A few months later, XennoBB popped up with interestingly the same set of features, a developer with the same name, and still all of the internal copyrights changed to XennoBB.

Some of us, who support the GNU GPL and respect proper credit being given for peoples work, decided to take it upon ourselves to do something about this thief. Eventually the developer of XennoBB added back the respective copyrights to the forum package. Up until that point he had completely denied XennoBB was based on anything and claimed that it was entirely all of his work.

However as we dug deeper we also noticed that all he’d done to XennoBB was add in PunBB code modifications and plugins and continued to remove the copyright from them and claim the work all as his own. (Which he is currently also doing with his XennoCMS) He refused, once again, that he’d done this even though it was evident through simple code analysis procedures.

Things began getting full on, we contacted several developers of scripts such as phpMathPublisher, phpSpell for phpBB, and phpMultiSyn to notify them that they were being ripped off. Things slowly began to get back in to order and he began adding the copyrights back where they should have been.

But things didn’t stop there. The XennoBB Project Manager, Marius Stanciu began giving the MyBB and UseBB resource listings over at HotScripts invalid and low ratings. (and we suspect he is still doing so) He continued to rip other peoples work, deny it and fight back any claims. He also began insulting us, “MyCrappyBB”, “UnusableBB”, “NoOneCommune”, “Chris Bottom”, you get the point.

You can find a very interesting (and long) thread about all of what has been going on previously over on OneCommune – How to deal with content ripping? As well as OneCommune – Threads and problems from Xenno Group.

Now back to the point of this post, on 16/09/2006 I’d downloaded what was claimed to be “XennoBB 3.0 RC3″ and began analyzing the source to see which product was his next target to rip. Lo and behold, what should I find but the MyBB XML parser.

I wasn’t going to put up with this and his smart-ass little tactics. Immediately I contacted our legal representation who drafted him a nice letter to be sent via email and snail mail outlining that if the offending code wasn’t going to be removed then he’d be facing legal prosecution from us. Now obviously I can’t post the whole letter here but our code analysis identified the code as ours through:

• Consistent variable naming and default values ($collapse_dups, $index_numeric)
• Class constructor initializes and stores XML data
• Consistent function names (get_tree to Fetch_Tree, build_tag stays the same, get_children to Fetch_Children)
• Inner code workings and logic are exactly the same of the MyBB XML parser
• General code consistencies with removal of whitespace
• Clean_XML function is an exact replication of the kill_tags function, specifically designed for use with certain XML data types used by MyBB. Whitespace removed, minor variables renamed
• Code is missing copyright statement to Eric Pollman (http://eric.pollman.net/work/public_domain/) which the initial code was based off (a separate matter which will result in Mr. Eric Pollman being contacted)

2 days after he’d received the email (and probably even before the letter sent in the mail had arrived at his door stop), he’d released XennoBB 3.0 RC4 in which the offending code had been removed. Of course, rather than admit any of this to his users (well, his posse who tend to believe he hasn’t ripped anything or done anything wrong) he just explained it as being a bug fix release.

Obviously he didn’t think we’d find the offending code or when we did we wouldn’t have the kind of legal power to do anything about it (which he was completely wrong), or he just did it intentionally just to get to us.

Today I also discovered that this cheat, thief and liar had also decided that for XennoBB 3.0 RC5 he was going to take great inspiration from wtcBB. (his ‘inspiration’).

This is a continuing issue as he can’t seem get it through his head that what he is doing is illegal and is doing him more harm than good.

His response to us? We’re apparently doing it entirely because our software isn’t as successful as his. My ass. MyBB 1.2 is currently doing around 2,000 downloads PER DAY, resulting in over 11,000 downloads in the past week. With over 28,000 downloads combined from the MyBB site (25gb) so far this month, we’d be pulling at least three times as much traffic in a week than he pulls over a month.

If you want to read more on this idiot, his continual lying and theft of software at the following places:

• OneCommune – How to deal with content ripping?
• OneCommune – Threats and problems from XennoBB Group
• OneCommune – XennoBB.. Now ripping wtcBB
• Dietrich’s Blog (UseBB) – Keep Going
• Dietrich’s Blog (UseBB) – XennoBB, UseBB and others