03-10-2025, 09:40 PM
From 2010 to 2023, I ran a forum hosted on JaxBoards. JaxBoards was (and still is) a pretty cool piece of software. It delivers amazing performance and offers a well-focused set of forum features. I also found its theming system to be very user-friendly.
Unfortunately, JaxBoards started to show its age, and eventually the old server crashed dramatically. (Thankfully, I had an almost-intact backup.)
I've been thinking about how independent forums sometimes feel like an endangered species, and I missed running my old forum. I thought about launching a replacement forum with SMF, MyBB, or phpBB, but I found some shortcomings with each of the major open-source forum solutions.
So in January, I decided to update the JaxBoards software to run on modern infrastructure. It took some time to get it running again - moving from PHP 5.3.6 to 8 is a significant undertaking, after all. Once I got it got running again, I worked with Sean (the very cool guy who developed JaxBoards and hosted it for so many years) to squash a few bugs. I also made a bunch of accessibility/UI improvements, ensuring that every page meets modern accessibility best practices.
Now that JaxBoards 2.0 is reasonably well-tested, I've updated the GitHub page with the latest and greatest code. If you ever want to host your own forum with JaxBoards, or you just want to mess around with a JaxBoards installation on your local host, the GitHub page has everything you need to get started. And if you have questions (you probably will), I can probably help you. You might prefer other boards like MyBB, SMF, or phpBB - my feelings won't be hurt if you do! - but it's always nice to have more options.
Along the way, I've gotten less bad at PHP. I may be able to use these lessons learned to make MFGG a better place as well!
Also, this is the first time I've ever done anything nontrivial using Git. Please don't be a software developer who's lived as long as I have without properly learning Git.
Unfortunately, JaxBoards started to show its age, and eventually the old server crashed dramatically. (Thankfully, I had an almost-intact backup.)
I've been thinking about how independent forums sometimes feel like an endangered species, and I missed running my old forum. I thought about launching a replacement forum with SMF, MyBB, or phpBB, but I found some shortcomings with each of the major open-source forum solutions.
So in January, I decided to update the JaxBoards software to run on modern infrastructure. It took some time to get it running again - moving from PHP 5.3.6 to 8 is a significant undertaking, after all. Once I got it got running again, I worked with Sean (the very cool guy who developed JaxBoards and hosted it for so many years) to squash a few bugs. I also made a bunch of accessibility/UI improvements, ensuring that every page meets modern accessibility best practices.
Now that JaxBoards 2.0 is reasonably well-tested, I've updated the GitHub page with the latest and greatest code. If you ever want to host your own forum with JaxBoards, or you just want to mess around with a JaxBoards installation on your local host, the GitHub page has everything you need to get started. And if you have questions (you probably will), I can probably help you. You might prefer other boards like MyBB, SMF, or phpBB - my feelings won't be hurt if you do! - but it's always nice to have more options.
Along the way, I've gotten less bad at PHP. I may be able to use these lessons learned to make MFGG a better place as well!
Also, this is the first time I've ever done anything nontrivial using Git. Please don't be a software developer who's lived as long as I have without properly learning Git.
![[-]](https://forums.mfgg.net/images/emerald/collapse.png)