Every now and then a question pops up in the discussion forums about which MODs are most essential for board owners to install. It’s difficult to answer this question for one key reason; what is essential for one admin may be trivial to another. It all comes down to personal preferences and the unique needs of a particular bulletin board. Unfortunately, while this response is accurate, it still leaves enthusiastic new administrators without any answers.

The purpose of this blog post isn’t to provide a definitive answer to the question, but more to provide something of a starting point for users beginning their search for suitable MODs… or something to munch on for the statistically inclined!

Number of downloads is the primary piece of data used in the calculation of the statistics below. There is no way of knowing exactly how many times a MOD has been installed so the number of downloads is the best option available to reasonably estimate a MODs ranking in terms of total use in the wider community.

Due to the overwhelming success of the Attachment MOD which provided functionality for file attachments in the early-to-mid 2000’s, Acyd Burn remains – and will remain for the foreseeable future – phpBB’s most downloaded MOD author.

If anyone reading this is feeling nostalgic, you may also be interested in the figures for phpBB2 MODs. Quite conceivably (and conservatively), at its peak the Attachment MOD averaged over 200 downloads per day.

As we enter a new year it seems like an appropriate time to look back at the history of the MOD Team. This time line focuses on how the team has evolved with regards to community projects, MOD Team sanctioned tools, meetings and more.

MOD Team Timeline

April 2002:
– phpBB2 released
– MOD Team is founded under AbelaJohnB
– Initial release of EasyMOD, the automatic MOD installer

September 2002:
– Second alpha release of EasyMOD

January 2003:
– phpBB2 MOD Database officially opened

May 2003:
– Third alpha release of EasyMOD

October 2003:
– Nuttzy99 becomes MOD Team Leader

August 2004:
– First beta release of EasyMOD

February 2005:
– wGEric becomes MOD Team Leader

August 2005:
– Community coding projects announced

December 2005:
– MODding’s Most Wanted announced

April 2006:
– MODX is announced, the XML version of the MOD Template

July 2006:
– The second edition of MODding’s Most Wanted occurs

March 2007:
– phpBB.com updated to phpBB3
– phpBB.com’s new website is unveiled

May 2007:
– phpBB3 MOD Database (Ariel) is opened for viewing

June 2007:
– First annual MOD Authors Convention takes place on IRC
– phpBB3 MOD Database (Ariel) now allows for MOD submissions and validations

December 2007:
– phpBB 3.0.0 is officially released

July 2008:
– phpBB2 MODs are no longer accepted in the MOD Database
– Londonvasion, the first phpBB meet

August 2008:
– Second annual MOD Authors Convention takes place on IRC
– MPV, the MOD Pre-Validator, is open for public use

October 2008:
– The Junior Validators team is created for the MOD Team
– evil<3 becomes the MOD Team leader

December 2008:
– The first beta of AutoMOD, the successor to EasyMOD, is released

January 2009:
– The framework for creating database installation scripts, UMIL, is publicly released

July 2009:
– UMIL 1.0.0 is released

November 2009:
– The online MODX creator is unveiled

December 2009:
– The MODX generator, which automatically generates MODX documents by comparing two directories, is unveiled to the public

February 2010:
– wGEric returns as interim MOD Team leader
– DavidIQ becomes the permanent MOD Team leader

April 2010:
– The completion of the first phase of Titania, the customisation database, is announced

May 2010:
– The MOD development competition, Summer of MODs, is announced

June 2010:
– AutoMOD 1.0.0 is released

August 2010:
– Libertyvasion, the second phpBB meet

November 2010:
– QuickInstall, the automated phpBB3 installer, becomes an official MOD Team tool as v1.1.5 is released