UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads Version 7/8 Support Honestly Disappointed in v8

I'm honestly disappointed that it supposedly took 14 years to release UBB.threads 8.0. After all this time, the changes feel incredibly underwhelming. Apart from updating some libraries and adding PHP 8 support – which should be a basic maintenance task – nothing truly significant seems to have changed.

The software still looks and feels like it's stuck in the early 2000s. There’s no sign of modern design principles, mobile-first layout, or meaningful UX improvements. It’s far from the screenshots and previews that once promised (https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/233673/an-update-on-version-8) something fresh and modern. In that sense, the update feels more like a rebranding of the old rather than a real step forward – almost like a repackaged legacy product.

I really expected more after all these years. It’s disheartening to see how little progress has actually been made.

You cannot really compare our v8 to the broken promises that the former owner Rick touted 15 years ago on a build that was created for PHP5. Any v8 code that was written saw its way into the v7 release tree before he sold the rights to UBB.threads to UBBSystems leaving us all blind sighted. UBB.threads was left dead in the water with v8 being vaporware in the developer communities.

Since this time we've ported the product through PHP7 and PHP8 which required complete rewrites of the code and most of the queries to even get the product to run, let alone take advantage of the speed improvements that come with the cleaner code.

You can see through the changelogs from versions v7.5.9, v7.6, and v8.0 we not only had to port our own code forward but we also had to wait for the base assets that run the product to become compatible with the newer versions of PHP. Additionally we've updated the powerful style editor that ships with the product so that users can enhance their forums by use of CSS to make their forums their own with custom CSS. We've also made the product more capable by strictly following web standards through their incarnations that also required heavy code updates.

I'm sure everyone would have loved to have worked with the mock up screenshots that Rick had created, but none of this code ever existed; we developers have access to ever release, including alpha's and all betas (including those from Rick's promised v8). Everything that is in the product is code we were able to create ourselves and what was handed down through previous releases and betas; what you see is everything we've had working through things in the 10 years that followed and through 4 developers (Issac, Myself, Ruben, and SD).

If you actually went through the changelogs you'd see that there was quite a bit happening with the UBB.threads product over the last 10 years, and unlike previous releases we've made sure to generate pretty in depth changelogs so that everyone was aware of needing to wait on assets to update so that we could upgrade through various releases for PHP. The v8 changelog was fairly short but that was because it was a major code rewrite where testing and error checking took over a year to refine and get new versions of assets compatible with PHP8; every page was adjusted and testing on numerous configurations just to get it out of the door.

In the later v7.6-7.7 series we also completely rewrote the Control Panel to make the feel more modern (anyone miss that old yellow?). Most forum software share the same overall look as it's what's expected; this isn't a live discussion like Discord, or a fully fledged CMS (unless one were to modify their forums to be so, I happen to have some mods that help do just that [such as my page creation modification]).

Thank you for the history lesson — it paints quite the picture: a kingdom abandoned, its heirlooms scattered, and a handful of loyal stewards doing what they can with what was left behind.

Still, after so many years, one can’t help but feel that version 8.0 is more a restoration than a rebirth. The foundation may be sturdier, the wiring modernized, but the architecture remains unmistakably... early 2000s.

It’s hard to ignore how far UBB.threads has fallen — once a global name in forum software, now eclipsed even by the smallest of modern systems. I rarely encounter it in the wild anymore, and when I do, it feels more like a relic than a contender.

And yet, I say this with a touch of sadness, not scorn. UBB.threads was my very first experience with forums. It’s where I discovered my love for discussion, for community — and eventually, for development itself. Back then, it wasn’t a forum system. It was the forum system. I truly loved it.

But as it stands today, I couldn’t, in good conscience, choose it for a modern project. And that’s perhaps the most painful part — to watch something you once admired so deeply remain still, while the world moves forward.

No malice intended. Only reflection.

It's interesting to look back at the last decade and how things have changed. I think it's fair to say that discussion forums in general are mainly older boards that have survived to this day, rather than new ones that are sprouting up. Here it seems that the next generation is content with just setting up a social media group and cannot be bothered with developing their own site and community.

In terms of software I don't think there is that much of a difference in terms of the user experience between various forum platforms from a typical, old school forum user's POV. It's only the young generation that needs everything linked to social media and the huge emphasis on making the experience mobile-friendly that sets software solutions apart.

Otherwise I think a simple design/layout update to make everything more sleek and up-to-date could easily do the job. It's more about refining the existing experience and stereamling current features rather than revolutionising anything...