• July 27, 2025, 3:12 a.m.

    I have bunch of screenshots from early Misago's development lying around I would like to share as a bit of trivia for those interested. 🙂

    Here's oldest one, from July 2012, its a permission error screen:

    misago_0.png

    All of the UI is mocked at this point. I've started with perms error because on an internet forum there are quite a lot of places that check for permission.

    Here's login screen form the same date:

    misago_1.png

    And a registration form, 8 days later:

    misago_3.png

    Earliest screenshot of the admin panel, mid-August 2012:

    misago_12.png

    And here's the earliest screenshot of Misago's "white and blue" theme which Misago 0.1 was shipped with:

    misago_38.png

    User's profile, I was big into StarCraft 2 back then:

    misago_41.png

    Account settings:

    misago_45.png

    Forum index:

    misago_46.png

    Thread page:

    misago_47.png

    Threads list:

    misago_48.png

    And then few releases later, a big redesign inspired by Google's "Strawman" design:

    misago_51.png

    This design remained with Misago for years, until another big redesign in 2018 when I've launched Misago 0.16 that replaced old UI with completely new one done in React.js and Bootstrap 13.

    Here's how Misago 0.15, last one before React.js, looked like:

    misago_57.png

    misago_57.png

    PNG, 137.5 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_51.png

    PNG, 76.3 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_46.png

    PNG, 90.8 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_48.png

    PNG, 66.9 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_47.png

    PNG, 145.9 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_45.png

    PNG, 335.7 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_41.png

    PNG, 59.0 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_38.png

    PNG, 56.8 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_12.png

    PNG, 19.5 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_3.png

    PNG, 46.6 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_1.png

    PNG, 60.1 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    misago_0.png

    PNG, 32.1 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

  • July 27, 2025, 3:23 a.m.

    Misago is not the first forum I've ever developed. This honor belongs to Pegasus, a PHP CMS I was working on in 2007 as my first OS project ever. This CMS had a forum module in its admin control panel for site staff to discuss stuff:

    pegasus_topics.jpg

    I've had more fun writing forum module than I've had working on the rest of the CMS, so I've decided to start a new project and little over a year later (in 2008) I've had this:

    callisto.jpg

    Callisto was an IPB 2.1 clone, as it was trendy back then for upstart forum devs who didn't want to design their own. 🙂 It had quite a lot of features, and it was gaining impressive number of users. Sadly it was a nightmare from the performance standpoint. 😬

    callisto.jpg

    JPG, 563.9 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    pegasus_topics.jpg

    JPG, 437.9 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

  • Members 14 posts
    July 27, 2025, 11:10 a.m.

    Feels. I remember that before you switched to Python and Django you tried rewriting Callisto in PHP. It was called Uniboard or something like that. Do you have some archival screenshots of it? And do you still have source code of these projects? Would be nice to look at them from a programmer's perspective. I was playing with Callisto as a teenager, before I learned to program.

  • July 27, 2025, 12:19 p.m.

    It's so cool that you have these screenshots. Growing up I never appreciated history but now, being a bit older, I really appreciate seeing how things have developed/changed over time. Thanks for sharing these. I'm looking forward to see what you have in store for us in the future!

  • July 27, 2025, 3:21 p.m.

    I have a bunch of those. But I can't find first first screenshot of Uniboard.

    However, when I've finally completed something enough to run a test forum on it, it looked like this:

    uniboard_0.jpg

    Here's screenshot with older header, but its pretty close to how posts looked like:

    uniboard_1.jpg

    uniboard_1.jpg

    JPG, 553.6 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

    uniboard_0.jpg

    JPG, 413.4 KB, uploaded by rafalp on July 27, 2025.

  • Members 14 posts
    July 27, 2025, 9:28 p.m.

    Ah, good ol' web design times. And I see your avatar taste didn't change over the years :)

  • July 28, 2025, 6:02 a.m.

    The "holy crap, it's working" is so real.

    You have an eye for creating forum software!