OFFTOPIC - regarding the forum

[Nigg]

Hello,

I'm writing this here because it doesn't work anywhere else. I don't understand why the solution against spam should be to close and archive the other forums. Just because there was no post for a few weeks, the MMB forum was still very useful for us. I am now thinking about archiving everything automatically and setting up my own forum, because I now reckon that one day it will simply be deleted and all the knowledge will be lost. Just because the software has been discontinued doesn't mean we can't discuss it. There are enough alternative examples, where people discuss about old software and try to improve it or use it in some way, because it makes sense.

The whole thing is a phpBB problem (inefficient configuration for registration) and not a problem of the forums themselves. I am really disappointed.

[Oscar]

Yeah, point well taken, I will unlock it once the forum captcha works sufficiently.
The lock forum is just a switch, it can be turned on and off at any time. Now it is on, to prevent more auto-spam, but nothing else was done to the database.

[errordos]

I can't agree more with Nigg.

I am currently not very active due to personal issues, but MMB is always on my PC's and I still play it when I have some time.

Please Oscar, when possible unblock the forum... many MMB users will appreciate it.

pd. "MMB has been discontinued for a decade. Maybe there will be new MMB one day". I wish... maybe it's time to think about a new MMB, there are many people waiting for something like this for a long time and I include myself.

[Oscar]

To be honest I thought about new MMB many times, but in order to be usable in modern world it would need to be at least somehow cross compatible with mac and windows. That is my biggest issue - I hate developing for mac. It gives me headaches and in a year nothing works because apple decided to change totally everything. Also they are adding more and more roadblocks with every version for apps that are not through apple store.

Here is a question, though.
Why?

It is an honest question. Why do you still use it and for what?

Maybe if I understand what people still use it today for and how, I could eventually think of a new version that would offer a solution more streamlined for whatever that is. The old MMB was a jack of all trades and then got hijacked for virus delivery, etc, so we are not going that way again.
I have also much more experience and infinitely more ready-made code. MMB was something I learned programming on. (It is true, I remember vividly how I learned how to display an image on screen that you can drag around and I was over the moon )
Some parts of it are still salvageable, but not much. It would need to be rewritten from scratch.

And sure, the forum will be unlocked, as soon as I see this new V3 works against the spambots. I am actually surprised people were still posting there. I honestly thought MMB was dead for 10 years.

[Nigg]

Code: Select all

Here are a few suggestions for phpBB configuration:

HTTPS (Letsencrypt?) - I have noticed that this alone results in fewer login attempts. This may be because on the spammer side the systems are also aging (I only see this in the log).

Anti Spam Bot Configuration - I use the "simple image" for captcha, with 3 failures. You allready tried Recaptcha V3 and the others? I use php 7.4 and I have "no problems" with spam bots/users.

Hide memberlist: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1947925

Personally, I can do without Apple. Even the users I know who use it often use a defined catalog of standard applications from which they don't move left or right, most of it from Adobe. Otherwise, there's just a whole lot that's web-based. So they mainly use the web browser, Office for Mac, Dropbox and music players. I guess there is a market for Mac's, but it completely bypasses me and the corporations here. Hardly anyone wants to pay for the bells and whistles. Tablets and iPhones are of course always welcome - to then use the browser with them.

With the apps, you see a clear trend towards some GUI frameworks and JavaScript, so that actually hardly anything is native and we therefore first have 100 browser processes running (ElectronJS and co.), until you then eventually see the actual application. This is so ineffective.

MMB had the advantage back then, that you could really do everything, up to system related stuff with it. But do I still want to open a CD-ROM drive today? Of course not. I want to develop GUI, with various input possibilities for data, I want to display content, similar to a browser, but without DOM and I want to access and interact with databases. And all this has always had the advantage of being much faster than a web application. Actually, the catalog of features MMB has is often enough for me. I only have to "tinker" when it comes to databases and GUI. GUI I let write out partially simply as HTML and use the Embedded Browser around these then to indicate. Tapping input is also possible. For this I have built a script that I use again and again. This looks then partly also really fancy and one does not recognize that the basis behind it is more than a decade old.

This way I bypass the outdated controls and the user doesn't realize what they are looking at. In the background, MMB is so fast that I'm done with the development long before my colleagues have even booted up their Visual Studio code. Of course, that doesn't always work out that way.

Generally the handling of tables, visual controls and different screen resolutions should be easier. Here MMB comes already for a long time to borders, that cannot be bypassed then without intensive tinkering.


If I could wish it, then I would like to have a MMB, in which I can "paint" again like in former times. Where I can place GUI as I want, insert images and effects, but at the same time tap into a database. Develop a music player with it? That would be fun again. I've been dreaming for a long time to develop a replacement for the horrible TouchJams (www.touchjams.com). Why not use a modern web api like Spotify for that and treat the return values as objects/variables I can work with in MMB. Or a game, where I can use a finished 3D model (STL?) as an object and manipulate it. Just dreaming about it. Games are a different world anyway. Export the whole thing as an EXE or browser app? Why not?

What I still appreciate about MMB today is this incredibly ingenious documentation of all functions. There was hardly a question I couldn't answer myself about it. It was incredible and made for me. MMB did not limit my ideas in the beginning, but made me try new things. Over the years, so many projects have emerged that I can hardly get them together. When I then reached the limits, I still remained faithful to MMB and looked for solutions to be able to continue working with it, if only GUI issues were an obstacle. I use external tools to do things and then get the results back into MMB. In general, it's a real blessing for people who want to design at the same time and then add functionality to the design.

[errordos]

Here is a question, though.
Why?

To be equally honest I will tell you that I was very late ... I do not see myself capable of learning a more complex programming language. And what's worse, I don't have time.

However, MMB is different ... it is its simplicity that allows me to make a GUI either for personal use or as a gift to a friend or someone like me. Simple things, yes ... but that I do myself. And that is very rewarding.

In addition, even with how old MMB can be, we have seen that great things can be done with it, which allows you to go deeper and deeper ...

I imagine a "new MMB". ..what could not be done with it?

[Oscar]

Wow, I am quite impressed. I would never think this could have such a long life.
It kind of make me sad that it isn't recompillable so I can make some working version. It was still under VC6, which I bought with my student card for like $100 bucks (was a ton of money) from a store that no longer exist for good 2 decades. I started working on it in 1998 or something like that, I don't remember. "Shareware" was a thing, and Nokia was a thing too. And I lived in a basement in a house with 4 other people. Damn.

[Nigg]

Why exactly does it not compile anymore? I'm sure we can come up with anything, such as a VM with all the software from that time. Is it cause of the VC6?

I came across MMB super early, I had the privilege of having "internet" early in Germany, like 28.8k or something. lol.

Oscar if you read a bit between the lines in the MMB forum you will find a lot of posts where the guys hope for a new version - or that it will rise again one day

[Oscar]

Not compile is a bit wrong. If I replicate the old system with windows xp and MSVC6 then it would compile, but the result will be exactly the same exe file as it is now. So it needs to compile on a modern system, using new MS compilers and with Unicode requirement and all that thing, it is literally easier to write a new one, instead of hammering on the old code.

[Nigg]

hhm, maybe there is someone who specialized in this?

Of course I understand that you can't just open source it if there are licensed dependencies. But maybe the companies are willing to consider their licenses as legacy as well?

Otherwise... Alternative to phpBB?