Sign in Subscribe

Forum Archaeology

Digging up the history of internet forums — the software, the communities, and where they all went.

3 articles
RSS

phpBB vs. SMF vs. MyBB: Three Very Different Fates

Forum Archaeology

phpBB vs. SMF vs. MyBB: Three Very Different Fates

Forum Archaeology #2. Three free PHP forum platforms started from the same premise a generation ago. One got hit with a CVSS 9.8 authentication bypass this June. One had eleven CVEs last year. One has stayed almost quiet. Same premise, three completely different fates.

The Slow Death of vBulletin, and Why It Isn't Over

Forum Archaeology Featured

The Slow Death of vBulletin, and Why It Isn't Over

Forum Archaeology #1: I built plugins for this software when it ran half the internet's communities. Sixteen years after the exodus that should have killed it, vBulletin is still getting hit with critical, unauthenticated remote code execution.

StackOverflow's Decline: From Community Help to Reputation Farming to AI Replacement

Software Development

StackOverflow's Decline: From Community Help to Reputation Farming to AI Replacement

How Stack Overflow went from the most useful site for developers to something people actively avoid — and what AI replacing it actually means.