I am not a programmer. I could type in the fixes, and understand some of the basics, but I have been more of a beta tester than anything.

Over the years, I have seen the developers slowly disappear. The fabulous coders, the people who do the languages, etc, stopped showing up. Some, unfortunately, are no longer with us. Times have changed and people have different priorities, and for many, YaBB is not one of them. I keep a browser window open 24/7 for each yabbforumsoftware and yabbforum, even though the latter has been down for the last couple of months. I have watched the traffic die. It's unfortunate, but without the programmers that have the time to spend without compensation on the project, the project is dead. As mentioned, our rival, SMF has the support, and the interest. Though I stand behind YaBB, I'm going to have to admit they have the better product, YaBB fell behind. My forum has been down due to server issues for several years now, but I think I had a good run when mine was operating. We had a lot of help, the support forums were always busy with questions and answers. We had good times, and I would like to thank everyone that was involved. I'll stick around as long as I can here, and over on yabbforum if it ever comes back on-line. But honestly, unless programmers come back, I think this has gone as far as its going to go. 

@ Dandello


if YaBB 2.7 won't be released, then so be it. Then let's at least make YaBB 2.6.12 bug-free. In Germany I am in charge of some YaBB forums. The error they all get is this:

https://yabbforumsoftware.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1595618297

Then it was found that some new registrations are set back by a year. This means that if you register today, you have already been a member for a year.

You know I've been a good tester. If you can't send emails via your server, you can always use my server for testing. I can set you up access to one of my free domains at any time, including everything you need. No problem. Talk to me. I see Yabb 2.6.12 has already been ported to Debian 10. Since the support for my admin tool for Debian 9 will soon expire, I'm forced to upgrade. In the meantime Debian 11 is on the market. I don't know what it looks like there yet. Then the mods would have to be checked. If all of that gets fixed, then I'm also happy to translate the help files. Then I will also activate my Russians.
So tell me what you need, you'll get it.

Supplement:

I've been working with a new host on a shared server for about 1.5 years now.

The host is willing to do everything to keep the Yabb forum running smoothly and so far with success.

Starting something else again is not the problem for me personally, because it is a country forum with a lot of news and news is not there every day, so working with an archive and an active forum is not the problem.
However, it is about the forum itself, the YabBB feeling in which my heart and soul lies. :

When I look at another forum and it's in phpBB I immediately have a strange feeling, I've been so deep in YaBB since January 2004.

@ Pieszyce

I'll try to explain the function of a virtual server to you in a simple way. First, your forum really isn't that big. Take a look at my forum and you'll know what real greatness is. You are also in good hands with OVA SAS. But more on that in a moment.
So how do virtual servers work: On a virtual server there are usually many websites immortalized by many customers. You get a limited storage space there, just as you order it. Until then no problem. Now virtual work according to a very specific scheme. HTML websites always have the highest priority. After that, let's just say pHp websites. Then just *.pl. The server always keeps this order and you cannot change it on a virtual server unless the server operator gives you the opportunity to do so. So in order to find YaBB.pl and recognize it as the start file and start it, the server needs a little time. All other files are then started by YaBB.pl. If the on-board index is very large, it takes a while and that's the catch. If a timeout of just 30 seconds is set in Apache, the page does not go through in this time, the server simply terminates. He has to do that, otherwise other customers won't get their page loaded.
However, this again depends on how many customers access the server. For example, if 100 customers are on a server, a YaBB forum with a large board index has no chance of ever being loaded. OVA has very few customers on its virtual platform, but that comes at a price. With a forum your size and there shouldn't be any problems. So what the server has to load at the beginning is in the tolerable range. It doesn't matter how many members, topics, and posts you have, because they won't be called until they're needed. It depends on the size. The only important thing is that the page doesn't go through in 30 seconds, depending on what was set, the server breaks off. Then there's how fast the name servers are. These are also usually not selectable with a virtual one. I hope I explained this as simply as possible.

Here's my forum in comparison. Very heavily modded (30 mods) and still very fast. That's real greatness. No chance on a virtual server

https://anti-scam.de

Why? I run my own dedicated server. Although it costs me 30 euros a month, it belongs to me alone. I route the name servers via Cloudflare, which has its servers all over the world. There are three Coppermine galleries and a YaBB forum running on my servers. I can set pHp and pl files to be treated like html, bypassing the priority search.

@ pyragony54

I know how a virtual server works because I basically use that too. Only we call it a gedeelde [shared] server.

In all those years I had a problem once with a host, where on a shared server there was a rather dominant website that when very active, turned the speed of my Yabb forum into the speed of a snail. I asked for intervention by notifying that site or moving me to another server. The host refused. No problem, because within 10 hours everything was on another host.

After that I made a list of requirements for the host. If I wanted to move, I sent the list to a few hosting companies and had them make me an offer. That's how I found out that one of them refused to turn on CGI-bin. Fine, not further intrested

The only problem I have now is, if I want to search all boards at once it stops after 40 seconds, but board by board is no problem. The hosting package is also 8 times larger than I need, maybe that helps.

Indeed a large forum, and also many very large pictures. I have my own written rules and there it says - Photo-s and pictures may not exceed 640 x 480 and may not exceed 75 Kb without prior permission from Admin. When I used that and adjusted all the oversized ones, the forum also ran faster again.
But my dear, I have a different kind of forum and that alone makes a lot of difference. Right? No linking to commercial sites is allowed without verification either.

I am too old to learn how a dedicated server works and also don't want the hassle anymore, because I already translate 10 hours a day and collect 3 hours of news anyway.

So for me, YaBB works great and was a heavy shock after reading Dandello's comments, about 2.7 and beyond. I once wanted to become a programmer, but my father did not want to pay for the course because he thought there was no dry bread to be earned. Well that was so for many around 1960. If I could handle Perl and ect, etc I would certainly help Dandello. She deserves that for all she has done and is doing. But I am too old now to learn.

I really hope some developers are reading along and decide to become active again so that a great product can continue to run. I have requested my PC guru to do an install on his server of SMF and see what is needed. BUT, this only in case YaBB is really laid to rest, yet then what I have now will be modified as an archive and continue to run.

So in silence I hope for good news.    

@ Pieszyce

that YaBB is buried will not be the case. It's just not being developed any further. Only a few small bugs of the current version (2.6.12) have to be fixed. I think Dandello will do that once they are introduced to her. Then I will also translate the help files into German. I'll leave Russian open for now, but it's doable. Of course, to find the bugs, everyone's help is needed. Many eyes see more. Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer myself either, and at the age of 68 I don't feel like doing that to myself anymore.

40 seconds for a timeout is not bad. Of course, YaBB will take longer to search if you search the whole board. The timeout is already pre-programmed.


I'm just considering renting out some storage space.
So 5 euros for 100 GB plus domain costs. Of course only to a limited extent. Daily backups run automatically.
But first comes the upgrade from Debian 9 to Debian 11 next week.
I hope YaBB doesn't complain.

@ Pieszyce

So I can not confirm the error. For me it all works flawlessly. Did you set the permissions correctly? (chmod)

Is YaBB 2.7 really running here? No idea. In any case, it is not released. When I last tested it, there were still a lot of bugs.

The issue with 2.7 is there are still a few bugs - notably with importing Global Moderator settings & Global Moderators. Other than that and whatever bugs haven't been reported it's pretty stable (for me).  It can be downloaded here: https://sourceforge.net/p/yabb/svn/HEAD/tree/branches/2.7

All MY other forums are running 2.7 but programmers are lousy at bug catching.  So I haven't been comfortable recommending it.