Exhibits

Content Management Systems

Exhibits covering the PHP-based CMS packages that shaped portals, company sites and personal publishing between 2002 and 2010.

PHP-Nuke

Three-column news portal engine. Reconstructed as Open Source Planet, a Linux/software news site.

Version 7.x · peak era 2002–2004

Mambo

Modular CMS, forerunner of Joomla. Reconstructed as a local technology/community organization site.

Version 4.5.x · peak era 2004–2005

Joomla

Mambo's successor. Reconstructed as Orbital Design Studio, a small design/technology company.

Version 1.5 · peak era 2007–2011

Drupal

Node-oriented CMS favoured by technical users. Reconstructed as an open-source university research project.

Version 6 · peak era 2008–2010

WordPress

Blogging software turned CMS. Reconstructed as a personal technology blog running the Kubrick theme.

Version 2.x · peak era 2006–2008

XOOPS

Object-oriented portal system. Reconstructed as a gaming/community portal.

Peak era 2003–2006

e107

Lightweight CMS popular with clan and hobbyist sites. Reconstructed as a gaming clan/community website.

Peak era 2004–2007

PostNuke

The community fork of PHP-Nuke, with the same portal layout and a cleaner codebase. Reconstructed as Northern Sky, an amateur astronomy club portal.

Version 0.750 · peak era 2002–2005

Forums

Exhibits covering the bulletin board software that hosted the web's communities before social media absorbed them.

phpBB

The free, open-source board nearly everyone ran at some point. Reconstructed as Pixel Arena Forums, a gaming community.

Version 2.x, subSilver theme · peak era 2001–2007

phpBB 3

phpBB's 2007 rewrite with the prosilver theme. Reconstructed as Pixel Arena Forums two years on, after the upgrade from phpBB 2.

Version 3.0.x, prosilver style · peak era 2008–2012

vBulletin

The commercial standard for large, established communities. Reconstructed as Overclock Hardware Forums.

Version 3.x · peak era 2005–2009

Invision Power Board

A polished commercial alternative with its own distinct visual identity. Reconstructed as a music/entertainment community.

Version 2.x · peak era 2005–2008

Simple Machines Forum

A free board known for a clean, compact interface. Reconstructed as a photography community.

Version 1.x · peak era 2006–2010

PunBB

A deliberately minimal forum that rejected the feature-heavy model. Reconstructed as a programming/Linux community.

Peak era 2005–2008

MyBB

The free board that grew up as phpBB 2 aged, popular with small hobby communities. Reconstructed as Inkwell, a webcomic creators' forum.

Version 1.2 · peak era 2006–2010

Vanilla

A stripped-back board built around a single list of discussions, popular with web designers. Reconstructed as Clearfix, a web design and CSS forum.

Version 1.1 · peak era 2006–2009

Other Web Software

Wikis, galleries and storefronts — the PHP software that ran everything a forum or CMS didn't.

PHP WEB MUSEUM