PHP is no different from any other scripting language in that it's a language tailored to get things done, and done quick. If you do something quick with ruby, perl, python you can make it as crappy and sloppy as you can with php.
The problem though is that almost every thing written in PHP looks like shit. So PHP programmers trying to learn a good writing style by looking at PHPbb or similar are shooting themselves in the foot. Aha! I could put PHP code in the database and run it by 'eval' - smart idea! Must be really secure templating / programming design since this is such a big project... And what's up with wordpress, a more programmer hostile templating engine is hard to find still people use it.
The problem though is that almost every thing written in PHP looks like shit. So PHP programmers trying to learn a good writing style by looking at PHPbb or similar are shooting themselves in the foot. Aha! I could put PHP code in the database and run it by 'eval' - smart idea! Must be really secure templating / programming design since this is such a big project... And what's up with wordpress, a more programmer hostile templating engine is hard to find still people use it.