Hi!

First off, I like MLF. It's of course one of the better-looking and user-friendly forum systems in existence.
Actually, the user interface makes MLF that interesting. There are however a few sore spots about the code, makes me currently reluctant to set it up for one of my projects.

So first wanted to ask around, if any of the users migrated from or to another forum software lately. Is there anything similar like MLF? A lookalike with threaded discussions, or at least support for unregistered users?

So, what's suboptimal about My Little Forum ?

• mysql_query(): An absolute no-go in regards to security. I will NOT run any software, that doesn't use prepared sql statements / PDO.
  
• Smarty: Another templating language above PHP doesn't make much sense. But if that templating "engine" doesn't even bring localization, output encoding, and not even more readable template code with it, then... words cannot describe it.
  
• configuration data != application data: Yeah, everyone does it. Doesn't make it right. Configuration data doesn't belong into the database. Point.
  
• localization: Okay, everyone tries this out. But string constants / text lookup are not state of the art. Use gettext. And get over it.
  
• GNU GPL: Not very novel. And if there is zero actual code reuse, what is the point of the license again?

Yeah, sorry. Just what crossed my mind. Most other forum/board software will have the same problems, I guess.
So what can I do?
The code is too convoluted with Smarty calls and mysql_query() intermingled. If I wanted to fork MLF, I had to start with a much older, Smarty-clean version.

Thought about running MLF and writing a new frontend for its database scheme. But then, the entries table doesn't look all too reusable either. There seem to be a few too many meta fields (ip, marked, views, sticky, edit_key, spam, ...). Don't know if that makes sense. And starting a fork is a real waste of time anyway.

Back on topic; Does anybody know a good alternative?
Similar UI, slimer backend?

Best,
mario