Can one explain pros/cons (differences) about moodle forum and phpbb

Can one explain pros/cons (differences) about moodle forum and phpbb

by Timothy Ridy -
Number of replies: 2
Hi all,

at the moment, I'm using phpbb and be very young to moodle. At a detailed glance i've nothing found within moodle or the web, that let me descide what forum (moodle forum or phpbb) to use in future.

Is anyone out there knowing both systems who can help with a list of deltas and/or pros and cons?

Thx, Tim
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Timothy Ridy

Re: Can one explain pros/cons (differences) about moodle forum and phpbb

by Timothy Takemoto -

I am no expert on PHPBB but, here are a few things that spring to mind when comparing them. I have never moderated phpbb (only invision). I can tell I am going to miss out a lot of features on both sides. It is often difficult to say when a feature is an advantage or limitation  but I have given my subjective opinion of advantages in pink. And I am not up to date on moodle 1.7 roles. I think that phpbb may have some mass pruning and user management features that I have no idea about. 

Moodle

PHPBB

Integrated with the Moodle LMS and all sort of educational functionality

 (Perhaps there is a hack somewhere to allow the same authentication to be used on both systems but it will not be integrated in the ways outlined below)
Posts can be graded via a drop down menu no grading I am aware of
Posts can be graded using a custom scale of non numeric strings no grading I am aware of
The submission period can be set, such that only posts made within a particular time slot can recieve a grade. no grading I am aware of
The grade can be made viewable only the teacher, only the student and the teacher, by everyone in the posters group and the teacher, or by everyone. no grading that I am aware of
The grade is integrated into a gradebook with the grades of all the other learning activities. no grading that I am aware of
Who is able to grade (no one, only teachers, all users - and more fine grained using roles) can be specified. no grading that I am aware of
Forums structed independently of other forums, so rather than being part of one mother forum, forums are part of Moodle courses Forums are part of a big mother forum and seperate installations are required to create completely seperate forums.
Users can choose how the forums are displayed (nested, oldest first, threaded) I don't think the choice is given to users.
Users can be placed in groups and a group icon is displayed beneath the users icon Users can be placed in groups but there is no group icon (other than a row of stars)
User group membership can be alloted via the suse of (secret) enrollment keys provided to users, as well as manually. I am not aware of an enrolment key function in phpbb but see "The number of posts that a user has made can affect the group" below.
Forum posts can be set to be invisible between members of different groups. I am not aware of this function.
Forum posts can be set to be un-respondable between members of different groups. I am not aware of this function.
The html editor is more advanced, alowing table manipulation, GUI generated image embedding, access to shared images. The html editor is pretty basic.
Forums can be set up such that each user can create only one thread. I am not aware of this function.
Forums can be set up such that posters are not able to see other threads until they have posted their own thread. I am not aware of this function.
Forum notification can be made compulsory  I am not aware of this function.
Teachers can elect to have notifications sent out immediately rather than after an editing cool down period. Notifications are always sent out pretty
Posts are filtered with automatic linking to glossary entries, module names, and media players. I am not aware of this kind of flitering in phpbb, but some forums seem to have simlar (e.g. experts exchange forums are filtered to provide links to advertisers).
Users can enrol only in forums and recieve all notifications of new threads posted to that forum. This is one of the biggest complaints about the Moodle forums but the only subscribe to forums, in-for-a-peny-in-for-a-pound style may be one of Moodle's most powerful featurers. Users can enroll and recieve notifications on a per thread basis (other than administrators). The fine grained ability of PHPBB is probably often an advantage, but the "inability" to turn off notifications for forums in moodle makes for a much more lively community
Not possible but possibly there is a hack Sticky posts which remain at the top of the forum can be created possible
Not possible The number of posts that a user has made is displayable below username/avatar
Groups (and later roles) can be set manually and the former by enrolment key (see above) The number of posts that a user has made can affect the group that they belong to (novice, average user, expert...)
To quote a post one must copy and paste that post. One can choose to respond quoting the previous post.
One must post and then edit but the html editor is more WYSIWYG than in phpbb, so the meaning of preview would be unclear. One can preview ones post
As far as I know, only administrators can (with the appropriate configuration setting) edit posts indefinately. Users have up to about 2 hours (settable) to edit their posts. Users can be given permission to edit their posts indefinately. Perhaps it is not possible to limit amount of time that users can edit their posts and so either they can or they can not.
Only the single post to which one is responding is displayed. The whole thread is displayed in rerverse order below the response, to that one can look back through all the posts in the thread as one writes ones response.
I don't think that this can be done (but inventive use of roles or groups may be able to achieve it) Threads can be closed but left visible.
Threads only have titles but: This is a subtitle -- can be used. Threads have subtitles
There are no signatures but one can paste on it. Users can set a signature which is automatically appended to all their posts.

 
A lot more could be added to the above list. There are a lot of features that Moodle and phpbb have in common such as...
Authentication
Site/forum policy disclaimers
Searching (by title, forum, user, etc - perhaps moodle allows more fine grained searches)
Attachments
Moving threads
Deletion of threads
A My posts and my threads summary
Unanswered posts
Smilies
Avatars
Notifications
Messaging
are available in both systems with some differences. I am not sure about selective anonymity in phpbb forums. It is not possible in Moodle without using a hack.

Timothy

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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Can one explain pros/cons (differences) about moodle forum and phpbb

by Timothy Ridy -
Hi Timothy,

thank you for the detailed feedback. hmmm, it's still not easy for me to decide. As you mentioned, both systems have their dis-/advantages. I'll think, i have to figure it out by testing against the moodle forum.


Perhaps somone else can post know-how about this stuff?

Regards, Tim
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