History of Kokonotsuba
レッツPHP!'s 画像BBS
レッツPHP! released a script called 画像BBS, also simply known as "gazou.php" on 2000/10/26. 画像(gazou) means "image" in Japanese. It was very barebones script that could merely function as an imageboard.
2chan's futaba.php
Futaba☆Channel modified gazou.php and created futaba.php in ????, the last release on their their script page is dated 2005/10/31
Pixmicat!
On May 2005, a popular Taiwanese BBS called 2cha is closed, sparking the creation of a new imageboard environment. Someone with the nickname scribe starts working on a new BBS software based on Futaba. On 2005/05/22 the first version is released, called GazouBBS雙葉改 scribe FIXED. A MySQL version is later released in July.
On January 2006, Pixmicat! is officially named, replacing the long project title of scribe FIXED. The name comes from Pix (short for pictures) + Komica + 2cat, after the two large Taiwanese imageboards that inspired the project. On February 2006, Pixmicat becomes an Open Source Software (OSS), hosted on OpenFoundry and managed by its dev team: scribe, RT, and Alica. The first OSS version (1st.Release) is released on 2006/03/19.
A major overhaul to PHP code occurs on 2006/05/13, with many redundant or inefficient parts removed and new features like DNSBL blacklist, anti-spam measures, and admin tools added. On 2006/05/14, the official Pixmicat! mascot Minamo is created.
On 2007/01/06, The PIO version of Pixmicat is completed, unifying the Log and MySQL versions under one system. It introduces the PIO (Pixmicat! I/O Proxy) and FileIO libraries which sets the foundation for future versions.
In March 2008, an English-language project page launched on Google Code with the aim of internationalization of Pixmicat:
Our ultimate goal is for people to think of Pixmicat! when they think of bulletin boards, and we hope this move brings us one step closer to that goal
On Pixmicat's 4th anniversary on 2009/05/21, the legacy Log/MySQL versions are officially retired. The focus shifts to the PIO version, which no longer supports older versions of PHP (at the time, PHP4), promoting adoption of PHP5.
Kokonotsuba
On ????, Heyuri feels need to change its bulletin board software due to slowness and hardness to work on the old software. (to be copied from HHS when it's back up). Kokonotsuba name comes from Japanese of "9 leaves", but the main BBS script is called "koko.php" and it's sometimes colloquially called "koko".
From 2021 to 2022, several paid developers, bound by NDAs, worked on Kokonotsuba under KolymaNET's ownership, led by kuz and kaguya.
On 2023/01/06, Kokonotsuba was open-sourced under kaguya's stewardship after KolymaNET officially dropped the project. This news surprised the users of Heyuri, some of whom immediately began working on it following the announcement.
On 2023/09/18, satopian - the developer of POTI-board EVO - updated kokonotsuba to be PHP8+ compatible and fixed deprecated syntax.
On September 2024, many module and board settings were moved to a single configuration file for the ease of using multi-board instances and upgrading the software.
On 2025/01/14, a major overhaul by hachikuji is finished. All boards are now using the same database, and all posts from across boards are listed in a single table. Certain values like storage directory location are moved from configuration files to database tables. A native overboard feature is added.