why Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 ?

[Bill Thompson]

I wonder why this web forum is powered by vBulletin and not phpbb or some other software.

[Canis Lupus]

Wondered the same myself.

[swampyankee]

Because that's what their service provider uses.

[grapes]

Because that's what their service provider uses.

No, it was a decision at the merger of BA and UT. IIRC, BABB was phpbb.

Ah, here's some discussion from ten years ago:
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthr...9730-vBulletin

[Canis Lupus]

Simple answer

[Canis Lupus]

phpBB did that as well. There was a small orange square by thread titles that would take you to new posts in the thread. It has been like that for quite some time.

There seem, however, to be many other nice features of vBulletin that phpBB required modifications to provide.

Well, that's the thing about phpBB, it's all in the modifications, I found. It starts off as a pretty basic beast, but the potential for modifications is enormous.

As an admin of a phpBB, when I thought of something or saw something I wanted I would trot off to the phpBB modification forum. Usually, the modification was there waiting for me somewhere. On a couple of occasions, upon recognising that what I wanted seemed like a half-decent idea, someone wrote the modification within a couple of days. The amount of hands in the pie were enormous - all with one end, improving the features.

As an admin of your forum, you pick and choose what suits your forum best. As time goes on, you have a tailored made forum.