easymode

@the_skotts off topic but that link was a heck of a fun read.

Yeah... I've been making these fun bbcodes instead of replacing the ugly post icons and smiles with cool stuff. I guess I really should do that then the S3 stuff... then it'll be good to go.

Ok... the functionality of the site is basically finished. The server now exists separately from the files, which are going directly to Cloudflare R2. It was actually goofy/basic. I ended up just using rclone to mount the Cloudflare R2 bucket as a folder on the server... then told phpbb that was the file directory... No nginx needed. It's stupid simple and gets around needing a fancy S3 plugin... plus, it we upgrade or move the files anywhere, we just copy paste to new servers/folders/etc. and it should just werk.

Cookies are 100% fixed.

And we have four themes (which one are you using?). I'll probably make more eventually because I kinda have fun with css. Reminds me of working in NYC on all those boring corporate sites.


I'll finish the pixel art for the background soon... and finish messing with post icons (do we even need those?)... and the smiles... ugh... I'll get around to it. Anyway, I'll wait a few more day before turning off easymode.im and redirecting this site there.

We need anything else? Let me know.

This is something that we could look into in the future, but a shoutbox/IRC/other live chat platform would be neat! Sometimes I just like to drop in and see what's going on in the forums but don't have time to write out a full post. It'd be cool to still be able to engage with folks.

I've switched to the 1996 theme and it is incredible!

I think I've settled on the 1982 theme, it just feels so cozy.

@bumbervevo

bumbervevo wrote: Feb 9th, '26, 12:52 This is something that we could look into in the future, but a shoutbox/IRC/other live chat platform would be neat!

Good call... especially with what is happening with discord. I'll probably post over there to let people know we have this now...

As for chatting, I don't think shoutbox is compatible with this version of the site. mChat might work, though it is a bigger deal. I'll look into both. Anyone have opinions? I'm not much of a chatter, so I don't know what would be best.

I've heard Stoat being thrown around a lot, this was previously known as Revolt: https://stt.gg/discover/servers

But it just makes me think, are we just migrating to another Discord that'll enshittify later on? Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I do wonder if we need a full-fledged Discord alternative or if a simple chatroom is all we need in addition to the forums.

ward wrote: Feb 9th, '26, 20:29 As for chatting, I don't think shoutbox is compatible with this version of the site. mChat might work, though it is a bigger deal. I'll look into both. Anyone have opinions? I'm not much of a chatter, so I don't know what would be best.

I'm not much of a chatter either but I do pop in time to time. If I recall correctly you can integrate Mchat with the forum. Though it looks like the extension was last updated back in 2020.

I'd say we use IRC but it's basically dead, I suspect other than a few hardcore folks you wouldn't get much traction on it.

I'm hoping the Discord "teen mode" doesn't nerf the platform too much. There's so many resources and knowledge locked away in hidden chat rooms to completely lose access because of a government privacy violation would be a shame.

https://fluxer.app

Fluxer is another one I've seen pop up, but it does feel that moving to any of the discord alternatives is just kind of kicking the can down the road and waiting to see if/when it goes to shit. If only we could bring back msn messenger lol