I've been watching this thread for a while, because I came to Joomla! for the first time and saw that the only real forum module to use was Fireboard. The only problem being that Joomla! would have to run in legacy mode, but a workable solution.
However, I soon discovered that all was not well and my beta testers were having problems with the access levels. I was able to fix the registered users issue by collating various bits of information from posted messages and I published all of my fixes for the community. I helped out another newbie who had the same problem.
Unfortunatley, I have an issue with child boards and not one person has replied to my request for help.
Consequently, I too have removed my Fireboard forum [fully integrated :( ] and gone back to my faithful PHPBB3 [bridged using JFusion - :angry: ] and I now need to get my beta testers back online and also consider how this will affect other modules [e-commerce for instance] that I would have expected to just plug in. I'm even now thinking about using PHPBB3 as my main site and simply using Joomla! for some content - not the project I'd intended or promised my customer
I think Fireboard is a great forum component but it hasn't made the transition to Joomla! 1.5 compatibility quickly enough and for people like me, who have a simple problem that ought to be very easily remedied either by a core patch or by someone else who's fixed their own board - I'm surely not the only user who can't make child boards work with no public access - it then becomes something of a liability and takes up too much time. If anyone saw my post asking for help and knows the answer but didn't respond - why?
I do understand what OS is all about, and I believe in it. I'm not a pro coder but I can get around a PHP/MySQL application and make it do what I want, or write my own code, but OS it not an excuse for software that doesn't work properly.
Apologies if I've strayed a bit off topic in parts, but I wanted to try to explain reasons why I left Fireboard, which I guess are no different to many others who've come here but gone away disappointed.
When Fireboard releases a 1.5 compatible version, fully integrated and with basic flaws resolved, I would gladly look again. I just hope my project hasn't gone too far by then to turn back.