Well, this site went nowhere.

[Dimetrodon]

https://www.phpbb3refugees.com/

Despite the popularity of the phpBB3 Refugee topic on phpbb.com, it appears that this site is dead. The only administrator hasn't been online since last month and he allowed the site to be a hotbed for literal spam.

[GanstaZ]

Version 3.0 was not as popular as 2.0+.
I never wasted my time on those refugee projects. Project that can't maintain the code is a failure from the start.
I guess version 2 still has some popularity, but i never saw any value for 3.0 refugee.

[Dimetrodon]

While phpBB2 has more people to keep it alive as there are lots of old school communities from the early days of the net that still exist. That being said, the owner being inattentive is probably what killed the site in question, as there were people there who were willing to make it work.

[GanstaZ]

Just keeping a site alive wont help.
People really need to start using github or similar platform to work & share with others.

I don't like to use sarcasm.. so i'll try to be as positive as possible, but Total posts 150+?
Doesn't seem like it received as much love as many thought it would.

Conclusion.. It was a failure from the start. Idea itself may not be bad, but it's not enough.

[Dimetrodon]

And a large chunk of that is spam.

Maybe I shouldn't be talking because my site isn't large or popular, but mine was always supposed to be extremely niche.

But yeah, I agree. Someone creating one of those sites needs to know what they're doing + collaborate with others. Not just be some rando.