Finding the old group.

[Kevin]

I sent this out to 16 people through various ways, including everyone on the Whatbirders of inatralist who wasn't already here. I heard back from Connor(who's joined) and Birds are cool(from Georgia) who's busy with life but said he'll probably join back at some point.

We wanted to to let you know the old whatbird forum is gone. So some of us got to gather and have started a new forum!
it is: https://www.whatbirdisthat.net
So far it's just old Whatbird members, so feel free to use your old username as it should be available!
Currently we are manually confirming new members so it may take a little time for your account to be activated.
If you have any trouble registering please send me a message here or with my email.
(IMy email here)

This is being sent to multiple people, please feel free to forward this message to any old whatbird members you may have contact with!

Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Kevin and the old Whatbird gang,

[Zoroark]

Glad we're back!

Good old phpBB, which used to power every self-hosted forum

[Greyhawk]

Good old phpBB, which used to power every self-hosted forum

Maybe I should have looked into a more modern platform, or specifically found out what drove the previous forum, but I already had some familiarity with phpBB, which I thought might reduce the learning curve and knew my host had a wizard that could install it automatically.

[Charlie Spencer]

Maybe I should have looked into a more modern platform, or specifically found out what drove the previous forum, but I already had some familiarity with phpBB, which I thought might reduce the learning curve and knew my host had a wizard that could install it automatically.

Eh, a newer platform may be a project when you get bored. In the mean time, great job of leveraging existing skills and resources!

[aveschapinas]

Good old phpBB, which used to power every self-hosted forum

Maybe I should have looked into a more modern platform, or specifically found out what drove the previous forum, but I already had some familiarity with phpBB, which I thought might reduce the learning curve and knew my host had a wizard that could install it automatically.

The old forum was run on Invision. But it seems like this one will suit our needs!

[Charlie Spencer]

The old forum was run on Invision. But it seems like this one will suit our needs!

I must confess I'm missing the ability to give 'Likes' more than I expected. Sure, we could reply with smilies but that takes up a lot of space and give the impression new content has been posted.

[Greyhawk]

The old forum was run on Invision. But it seems like this one will suit our needs!

I must confess I'm missing the ability to give 'Likes' more than I expected.

I'll definitely look into an extension that at least allows users to "thank" a post.

[aveschapinas]

The old forum was run on Invision. But it seems like this one will suit our needs!

I must confess I'm missing the ability to give 'Likes' more than I expected. Sure, we could reply with smilies but that takes up a lot of space and give the impression new content has been posted.

I miss that too.

[aveschapinas]

I'll definitely look into an extension that at least allows users to "thank" a post.

I do think it's a bit strange that the platform doesn't offer reaction options, given how ubiquitous they are these days.

[Charlie Spencer]

I do think it's a bit strange that the platform doesn't offer reaction options, given how ubiquitous they are these days.

phpBB dates back to the early 2000s and predates the use of reaction icons. As @greyhawk noted, there are extensions that add newer capabilities.