Taking over a phpBB forum that wouldn't load on mobile

A forum with a long list of problems, the first being a mobile version that didn't load at all. Fixing it turned into four contracts and three years of running the board.

The objective

The forum had piled up problems over the years. The most urgent was that the mobile version didn't come up at all, and on a board with a mostly mobile audience that meant most people simply couldn't use it.

The client wanted someone who could actually read phpBB's code, not just install extensions.

What I did

I fixed the mobile rendering first, then worked through the rest of the issues on the board.

After that I stayed on an hourly support contract for problems as they came up.

I moved the forum to a new server and fixed what broke in the move.

Then I took on an ongoing contract to keep the board running, make design changes, and manage the links.

The result

The forum works on mobile and has stayed up. The relationship ran from 2018 to 2021 across four contracts.