XMB was the first bulletin board package I developed with - way back in 2000. Things were great back then and so was XMB.
XMB is what inspired me to learn PHP and MySQL. It was one of the best open source/free forum packages back in its day and I was using it on a few sites. I began creating modifications for XMB, features which you’ll still find in the core package today and eventually moved on to be a part of the team. I met so many new people in the world of web development who taught me so much.
I bought some of the most important features XMB has to the system whilst I was developing code modifications and was on the development team. To name just a few,
- Email notification of new replies
- Pagination for the thread view
- Database stored template system
- “Code buttons” and clickable smilies
- Powerful banning and pruning features
In December 2001 Staff changed and the project was handed over to someone else and I stepped up to one of the lead development roles. From this point on, we released XMB versions 1.1, 1.2 and XMB 1.5. We were actively developing the next release of XMB 1.6.
Eventually the owner at the time then sold out, for some unspecified amount - of which we received nothing and were doing all the work (the owner did not develop the software but left it all to us). AventureMedia were the new owners of XMB and all of the existing developers including myself left the project to work on our spin-off, DevBB whilst we prepared early versions of MyBB for public release.
Now, AventureMedia did a bit of the work, but a lot of the development was done by people who volunteered for the project who had no affiliation with DevBB. AventureMedia turned XMB from a nice looking forum package to something horrible with a small fixed width layout and very small text.
AventureMedia didn’t stop there, they continued with the product and it eventually began to die out. They didn’t seem to be bringing anything new or innovative to the project and people seemed to be switching to other readily available solutions. AventureMedia began using XMB to exclusively promote their hosting company. The Announcements project was cluttered with “special offers” for web and email hosting and the site was littered with ads for AventureHost/AventureMedia.
In March this year, Richard announced that XMB was obtained by iEntry because AventureMedia no longer had time for the project. Finally, he admitted it. iEntry were announced as experts in the field of open source software. After the acquisition, a new plethora of advertising was plastered all over the XMB website and XMB forums for iEntry - general banner ads, nothing specific to their company.
2 months later, iEntry make their official acquisition announcement and state the future of XMB. They left their users in the dark for 2 months and during that two months they did what, nothing?
Jump forward to the present time and they’ve still done nothing with the project but have promised things will get underway soon but have done nothing but ensure the banner ads on the site are still running. Thankfully though, the community has started to catch on to this and aren’t happy that they’re being neglected. I can only hope for their sake that something is done soon.
Comments
.Lou (June 18th, 2007, 2:13 am)
You’ve done so much in the past, and it seems you weren’t treated with much respect. The guy that first bought the system seems to have been a complete asshole, letting you all do everything and then selling it to make profit.
However, all your work seems to have paid off, since you are now making mybb (along with the rest of the great team) and it’s becoming ever more popular. Don’t ever give up!
Tikitiki (June 18th, 2007, 11:09 am)
Just wanted to point out “ndrake” the main administrator has umm…. 19 posts. Can’t you already see the overwhelming amount of dedication?!
alephresh (June 18th, 2007, 3:38 pm)
Using others’ dedicated work to generate ad money for yourself = bad.
Getting mybb.com = good.
Tikitiki (June 22nd, 2007, 10:44 am)
Do you have 15,000$?
shadow82x (June 24th, 2007, 10:16 am)
Now that I look at it and registered on there forum it still looks like 2001 software Compare that to mybb
alephresh (June 25th, 2007, 9:16 pm)
O_O I meant by legal action or something!
labrocca (June 28th, 2007, 8:41 am)
Yes I agree that the layout is horrible. The small text and tiny icons are surely an annoyance. Web 2.0 is actually very contrary in concept to the XMB design. They are surely alone when it comes to visual appeal. I can’t speak much beyond that. I never knew Chris that you were a lead developer there. Interesting read as always.
jleq (December 13th, 2007, 1:09 pm)
Yeah, I volunteered on the Aventure XMB team for quite a while, but could never really get anything done. Richard’s head was shoved so far up his own ass he couldn’t see straight. Those of us who did have real coding talent were bitched at any time we made a change that Richard didn’t think fit “his” software.
The only thing I really accomplished there was changing the license to the GNU GPL… and it took a LOT of pressure to get that done. I still claim that XMB 1.11d was the best version ever… ridiculously fast & stable.
I should have listened to you back when you told me that Richard was up to no good. I feel like the developers who kept XMB in business got screwed over because, of course, Richard kept all the money to himself when it was sold.
Anyway, you guys have done an amazing job on MyBB… It’s the best forum on the market IMHO. If you’re ever in need of an extra developer or some server space, just shoot me an e-mail and I’d be more than happy to help out.
phocis850 (January 7th, 2008, 4:04 am)
Very nice read. I had no idea you were with XMB. I also had no idea all that went on because I was on the phpbb bandwagon.
I am now using MyBB and I do say that it is the best forum software that I have used. I don’t believe it to be the best though. MyBB is still missing a few features that you get from the other forums. I believe that with this next release, it will nearly equal the other forums out there feature wise.
However, an overabundance of useless features is something to stray from as well. That is why the plugin system for MyBB is essential to those looking to pick the other forums. With the plugin system you get exactly what you want and no bloat.
Thanks!
Imad (January 12th, 2008, 6:49 am)
Very nice article, after visiting their site it does seem like they are putting effort to make some changes. This is where one developer should come in and develop the entire thing from ground up, maybe even get his hands on phpbb 3 and start from there. It is under the GPL isn’t it.