NukeCops - Zhen-Xjell Dreams of PHP-Nuke with Commentary

This is a story about PHP-Nuke as I have known it. It shall highlight events from the first time I heard the name "PHP-Nuke" to the newest release build 6.5 final. Overall my desire is for you to go away with a positive outlook, as I currently have.

PHP-Nuke has been a tour de force in the Open Source Web Development community, there is no doubt in that. Some information that I intend to share should be considered humurous, while some others should be taken maturely. One thing is certain, PHP-Nuke is more than just a vision or a person, it is a global unifying architecture not only in content management software [CMS], but in human participation and knowledge sharing. The best part of it all for me, to build on the last statement, is the fact that I've met so many wonderful people like the author of PHP-Nuke itself: Francisco Burzi (AKA nukelite).

Since I have been "online" for many years now I began searching for a content management system a couple years ago. The first one I found and took to right away is proprietary today but was borne from a free UBB implementation. The site (Broadbandreports.com [BBR]) attracted me because of the camaraderie it had to offer back in 2000/2001. Certainly I found that the ease of use and proficient layout/design of the management system lended itself to growth of a quality community. Such a gathering introduced a tremendous amount of knowledge and well being from folks around the globe. Shortly after I was promoted to the level of Moderator and still hold it today. During my tenure there I participated in many projects and tasks, not to mention meeting new folks and holding up long friendships. But at around the eve of 2002 I desired to create a community of my own. Since this platform is proprietary I wanted to find something that would fit my requirements. One of which was "Open Source".

I went on a quest and didn't take long to find CMS and forum software. They included PHP-Nuke, Slashcode, and PostNuke. For forums, they were YaBB, phpBB, vBulletin, UBB, and Ikonboard. At that time, I took quickly to PHP-Nuke and YaBB (both the Perl and PHP {SE} implementations). Soon afterwards I became involved in the PHP-Nuke community. Once I saw that regular folks like myself can actually contribute to such a nice system like PHP-Nuke, I became sort of addicted to helping others out.

Ever since then I have seen many wonderful tools come out. But one of the nicest aspects about this is the security fixes and patches that are placed into the software. Even nicer than that is the constantly up-to-date web installer that helps folks get PHP-Nuke running even faster.

Just take a look at how many new sites there are. And that list is just for those who take time to announce!

What other advances have been made in terms of privacy and bandwidth saving?

Well there is a great "bad bods banish code" available, and now there exists tools to turn PHP-Nuke lengthy URLs into shorter Google indexable links. And you know, this all came from global participation. This is true progress.

Personally, I know that PHP-Nuke has come very far both in maturity and renown by proof of intellectual discussions such as this one. This to me signifies that personal pride is taken into consideration when building software, but in the interests of the global community as friends and family. Now that is a real success. PHP-Nuke brings folks together for intelligent conversations. That is the best of all worlds.

Even in the face of malicious hackers the PHP-Nuke community banded together to overcome and prosper. Global communication and information dissemination at its best. And you know something, its all for free!

What else would you need, perhaps some documentation?

Ok, lots have happened over the past year. I've met many wonderful folks and this list will undoubtedly be a short one for purposes of article space: Francisco Burzi (nukelite), Tom Nitzschner, Chatserv, ArtificialIntel, Bob Marion, MikeM, sixonetonoffun, Allevon, Tank863, Dezina, Humpa, et al. For a more appropriate full list of what "et al" means, please go here or here.

So what has come of this community with the newest release of 6.5 final? I believe great strides have been made vis-a-vis earlier versions. phpBB2 forums have been integrated and this was the wish of this survey. Clearly this was the biggest improvement to PHP-Nuke.

What about the future? I for one would love to see Trackback implemented to take global participation to the next level. And I certainly hope to see the continuance of such a great and fun loving community that supports each other and stands behind Francisco's vision. He's done so much for us, and for that I am grateful. I also would like to thank everyone who has helped me to learn about this great "tradition" and to all the folks that develop and release new add-ons, many kudos to you all. Keep up the great work, I for one love being here.

Zhen-Xjell over and out. The bunny has left the building.

Copy exists:

Zhen-Xjell.com
DSLReports.com