Some Lagniappe for You
By Tiny Ruisch
la·gniappe (lnyp, ln-yp)
n. Chiefly Southern Louisiana & Mississippi
1. A small gift presented by a store owner to a customer with the customer’s purchase.
2. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. Also called regionally boot.
This month I’m doing a different type of free software review. phpBB is a program that most people will probably have no need for. phpBB is a free flat‑forum bulletin board software solution that can be used to stay in touch with a group of people or can power your entire website. With an extensive database of user‑created extensions and styles database containing hundreds of style and image packages to customize your board, you can create a very unique forum in minutes. The software was first released to the public December 16, 2000.
Why should you care about phpBB? It is the software that is used to power the forums section of the club’s website. It is an addition to some of the other features we have: Coppermine Photo Gallery, club members special e‑mail addresses and many others. Unfortunately, most members don’t utilize many of the features. Forums are online communities where people exchange thoughts, ideas and opinions. Depending on what a forum is about, people can help one another, expose each other to different cultures, practices and more. That is why forums have grown very popular. The phpBB is one of the oldest, and without any possible doubts, the most used forum software around the world.
One of the reason that phpBB is the most popular forum software is that it is absolutely free to use. Anyone can just go to their website, download and install the program and they are off and running. The software can be easily customized as can be seen on the portal page of the club website. Anti‑spam measures are great. Tom and I haven’t had to delete an unwanted registrant in several years. Users can easily manage and edit their profiles and avatars. There is an excellent message system where members can send private messages to each other.
Like all software, there are a few things about phpBB that aren’t great. The application is crafted for running forum serving as the only option. It is impossible to run a blog or any other kinds of websites with phpBB. This can be circumvented by making the phpBB forum a menu choice on a landing menu such as is done on our website. There is a pretty large learning curve for setting up and managing forums, members, etc. Fortunately, there are so many phpBB forums in use that a web search usually finds answers to any questions. My biggest complaint is that I have only ever had one update go smoothly. Like many others, I tend to wait for a while before attempting to install an update. My advice is to search for problems before updating. Give yourself plenty of time and follow instructions slowly and carefully.
So why would an individual want to install forum software on their website? I’ve often thought of installing a forum on my personal website for family members to communicate with each other. It would be a great alternative to posting on social media. The only members would be brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, etc. If you would like to find out more about phpBB, see demos, or download the software, check out the phpBB Creating Communities website.
If you like the program, just tell everyone that you’ve got a SWLAPCUG extra, a bonus perk, a small gift, a present from the club: a little lagniappe.