>
> Hmm, an idea...but
> - it is not free
> - it doesn't resolve where to run it (e.g. extra machine handling forum)
> - PHPbb 3.0 or even 2.x is way behind...we might need to wait months since
> it's ready and somehow tested.
>
> If it is not a risk, i would be still for a read-only version of our ever-best
> phpBB.
>
Hi,
Ah sorry, last year, when I used the IB forum, it was free :o(
Well, I think the "read only" solution would be great, as it seems that a lot of users, including myself, need informations on the PHPbb forum.
bye

---

<a href="http://forum.boinc.fr/"><img src="http://petrus.homeftp.org/scripting/boincwapstats/counter_big.php?id=10891&amp;style=1&amp;project=climate"></a>

&gt; I note the main cpdn board is still down and that none of "the crew" has
&gt; bothered to update on any progress in this direction during the last week!

It's been rather disrupted and busy. In the last couple of weeks we've had: the stabilisation workshop; two visiting scientists; finalisation of some course materials; numerous press interviews; a handover of coordination activities**; as well as the usual stuff. The last time I heard from KMi they were still awaiting news about a patch for phpbb. I've emailed them today about this for an update and will let you know when I hear anything.

&gt; Many of the academics will have to pursue a career in the public sector one
&gt; day and will have to learn some valuable PR lessons on the way. Your users
&gt; deserve a better forum architecture.
&gt; regards disgruntled.

These are the BOINC boards, that go with the BOINC infrastructure. BOINC is open source...

**Sylvia is coordinating the project for the next few months. I am in New Zealand (largely for family reasons) for an extended period. I am still working on the project, but obviously it's a bit harder to coordinate things from here than it is from Oxford. [There are plenty of papers that need to be written, so I'm quite happy doing that for a few months.]

Dave

---

I emailed Paul at KMi regarding the phpbb forums, explaining that our participants were eager to resurrect the other boards, especially in view of the large number of newcomers. He replied:
-------------------
Hi Dave,

Not a chance mate, even the main phpBB site has been hacked now... see here:

http://www.phpbb.com/

The phpBB software just isn't secure, and I'm afraid I can't put it on the
network while this is the case. When they come back and announce a patch
that really does fix this problem I will look to restore the board.

Paul.
-------------------

Which we obviously completely support.

&gt; We all wish you well Dave during your sojourn in NZ. It must be great to be
&gt; back with your family to enjoy that southern summer. Yesterday we had further
&gt; news from Thyme's link in the Improved forum thread, re- those malicious
&gt; hackers.

Thanks Graham. The summer looks nice out the window. I haven't yet managed to get down to the beach, which is lousy given my proximity to it. Instead I've been working on figures, regressions and responses to reviewers. Will attempt to rectify the beach problem soon (Saturday, probably).

Dave

---

jeez, phpbb.com itself was hacked by an anti-Bush group in Brazil, well, I guess David Anderson was smart in making his own independent BOINC board system.

&gt; Not a chance mate, even the main phpBB site has been hacked now... see here:
&gt;
&gt; http://www.phpbb.com/
&gt;
&gt; The phpBB software just isn't secure, and I'm afraid I can't put it on the
&gt; network while this is the case. When they come back and announce a patch
&gt; that really does fix this problem I will look to restore the board.

I can understand Paul's view and your support for that, but I'd just like to point out that the hack of the phpBB site was not down to a security problem with phpBB itself. It's almost certain that the hackers targetted a vulnerability in a third party statistics package (awstats). Although I believe the phpBB team when they say there is no known security problem with the current version, it's sensible to wait for them to complete their investigation into what happened.

---

"The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In addition to what's already been said I think that whilst we all understand and respect the security issues, the phpBB forum has been and still is an important part of what makes CPDN what it is now.
BOINC may be open source but most of us crunch CPDN out of committment not out of any great love or understanding of BOINC.
The style of the BOINC boards does not allow for expression of the same kind of ideas and discussions, nor does it provide the same help as the phpBB did. The loss of the phpBB means that an essential element of the CPDN community is being lost and in the long term, given the complexity of CPDN compared to other BOINC projects it may well turn out to be detrimental to the project itself.

Marj

---

_________________________________

I would say that Pete B is also heading for an honorary degree. Not to mention all the volunteer emergency first-aiders.

Whoever wrote that phpbb page sounds totally p****d off.

BTW, what are awstats?

---

__________________________________________________

The forum drew me into this project. A few strange enthusiasts even got me involved (just a bit) in the forum. Now the fun/interesting stuff is gone. I'll finish these last two runs over the weekend and move to other projects for a while
Maybe later I'll drop in again. Hope the forum is back on line by then.

---

There was a lot of information on the old forum but there are things we can do here.
I suggested <a href="http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/forum_thread.php?id=1757#8480">this change</a> to improve searches.
But there are a lot of things you can do here using html.
e.g;, If you want to link to another message (which I did in the above link):
Write an HTML link:
Base address is: http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/
Add PHP query: forum_thread.php?id=THREADID#MESSAGENUMBER.
The thread address appears in the address bar. Just add # and the message number you want.
Could you tell us what you're missing so badly?
For my part, I regretted not being able to point new users to useful info but I think we can rewrite it when needed.
And I think there's a lot going on on these boards.

---

Forum search Site search

&gt; The forum drew me into this project. A few strange enthusiasts even got me
&gt; involved (just a bit) in the forum. Now the fun/interesting stuff is gone.
&gt; I'll finish these last two runs over the weekend and move to other projects
&gt; for a while
&gt; Maybe later I'll drop in again. Hope the forum is back on line by then.

I don't quite understand what people are complaining about --- what other project has as active participation on any style forum, BOINC or phpbb or otherwise? I've never seen a project with as much staff participation as CPDN. They have done a great job with PR and getting new users (something like 10K new). These people go all over and at all times to get PR for the project as we've seen recently with the "Nature" paper publicity. Just because they don't do exactly what a tiny number of vocal users want (i.e. jump back to a phpbb board) does not mean the staff/project/science is bad. And don't get mad, I'm an "ex-CPDN-staff member" speaking as a user now.

Hi Carl,
I don't want to comment on any of the persons involved in the project.
It's just that this forum doesn't have the user friendly touch that the other form has. In the 'good old days' I logged in to the board and picked up the new threads with just a few clicks. But next to that it just delivered that extra touch, it was almost fun to drop in to get the latest from the people hanging around here.
Maybe the same info can be found here, but it lacks overview, features and a pleasant interface.
So if in the end it comes down to just leaving the PC crunching 24/7 however usefull it may be, for the moment I don't see the personal 'return' to continue the (small) investment. As I've said, I'll probably join you again later.

---

well of course it's great that you found such a nice user community on the old board, but what a lot of "old timers" fail to realize is that the CPDN community is far greater than even the regulars on the old board socializing. And I think all on CPDN do a great job in announcing things &amp; answering questions etc. There's no other project that responds to personal emails &amp; questions like CPDN has done, even with 30-35K active users. It's just that the "old users" that "grew up" with the old phpbb board are used to it, but the tens of thousands of new users (whether "independent" or from other BOINC projects) similarly "grew up" with the BOINC boards. So I'm afraid the few vocal "old users" have a skewed perspective about the CPDN project because of the perception that we've "left behind" the old phpbb boards. And the old phpbb boards, in my opinion, have been more trouble than they're worth after two catastrophic hacks.

Trouble is, Carl, that one reason that some of us spend so much time hanging around these boards (apart from having nothing better to do) is newcomers fimd it difficult to navigate their way around, and are having to ask the same questions afresh and need a response. I don't say the old board was perfect, but the structure was better.

Having a cross project interface has many advantages, but also drawbacks.

---

but I think we're making a mountain out of a molehill. There's 31333 active tricklers of CPDN/BOINC as I write this, which is an increase of 50% over the past week or so. So I think we're "reporting" the few misses but not the many "hits" -- and I think BOINC boards are up to the task for user support &amp; questions etc (and are better at that with the new-ish BOINC msg rating systems etc).