Has this forum been abandoned?

I can help only with simple requests that don't require any testing. Your request isn't one of them. There is no simple switch for last column.

See phpBB section in this thread: https://www.artodia.com/threads/upcoming-changes.2753/

I don't even have a working installation of phpBB anymore because it doesn't work well with php 7.

 

Yes, it supports php 7, but I won't be updating styles. I have no time for that and I don't really like new versions because of ancient (new to phpBB, but ancient by other forum's standards) extensions system.

phpBB uses template hooks to inject code into templates. That system has been abandoned by other forums half a decade ago for a good reason:

1. Injecting code means style has no control over that code. That is unless author adds custom templates for each extension, which is waste of time.

2. It also means style author cannot customize code. Not without breaking extensions. All hooks must be there, they must be inside specific DOM structure. With hundreds of hooks in rather small number of templates, it makes templates uncustomizable.

What other forums have done many many years ago to counter that:

1. Using variables instead of injecting code. Need to add new navigation item? Add it to navigation array, then style can display it as style author wants. No hard coded html.

2. Using template modifications instead of hundreds of hooks. This has been added to vBulletin 3 as third party add-on about a decade ago. It is more flexible than hooks. It still relies on hard coded HTML, but it is more flexible because of possibility to have multiple modifications for different layouts and because modification can be regular expression.

Overall phpBB 3.1 and 3.2 extension system blows for style authors. It is still better than phpBB 3.0 system that required manually editing code, but is it years behind what commercial (don't know what other free forums use so don't know if their code is also ancient) forums offer.

Another issue is forums are pretty much dying. Social networks are good enough replacement for forums for many people. People use forums less and less. So I'll be moving on from forums, except for XenForo.

 

I agree with that, but it doesn't change the simple fact that forums are dying. There are much much fewer forums running today than 5 years ago. Many small communities have moved from forums to Facebook groups. New communities are making FB groups because they don't know better and don't want to know. These communities aren't ran by web developers, setting up and maintaining forum is not a simple thing for them, but making FB group is.

There are way too many issues with that.

Licensing issue. phpBB default style is GPL. To make new style I'd have to rewrite files.

Support issue. I'd have to provide support for third party extensions.

Another issue is people using phpBB are less willing to part with money. Usually when someone asks for phpBB custom style, their expectation is to pay only double digit amount, which is not realistic. However people requesting custom XenForo styles have much higher expectations.

It requires way more work than its worth investing.

 

You can try comparing 3.1 templates to 3.2 templates to see changes. Can't be more specific than that because I'm traveling right now, don't have necessary tools and files on laptop to check anything.

 

It should work.

It is not an actual compiler. It is a script that connects to this website, sends scss files, script on this website runs real sass compiler and returns compiled file.

 

Don't post bad advises. SMF's code is worse than phpBB 3.0 that was written 10 years ago.