What are the top three free Internet forum (bulletin board) software packages and why?
Please, no laundry list, which we can get here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software
What I'm after is someone with domain expertise and a reason to have an opinion themselves (i.e. not just parroting what is already out there).
Thanks!
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M$11 Answers
Personally, the top three FREE forum software packages are:
1. SMF
Based on personal experience, SMF is very easy to handle for beginners and expandable enough to the extent of professionals' liking. It has a good following, though, not as much as that of PhpBB
2. PhpBB
It is the undisputed king of free forums. Known for being user-friendly, at the same time versatile, PhpBB has gained the most users compared to any other forum software. Expandability is no question with PhpBB. After all, the largest developing community with regards to forum software follow it.
3. SimpleForum (plugin for WordPress)
I'm sure this is the perfect companion if you'd like to have a forum seamlessly integrated into your WordPress blog. It adopts your theme and integrates readily with your WordPress installation. Though low on customization, its definitely the way to go for WP users.
Top Three Free Forum HOSTING:
1. Host your own site. (Recommends ByetHost for free)
There are a lot of fantastic and free web hosts where you can install any forum software you would want and take full control over it. There's nothing better for a power user than complete control.
2. InvisionFree
I'm a member of an InvisionFree forum and this is all I have to say: fast and easy. Plus, it carries the ever so elegant (my choice) commercial (not free) forum software Invision Power Board. Though this doesn't carry the latest version of IP Board, heck, its free!
3. Forumer
Forumer gives you your choice of PhpBB or Invision Power Board. Compared to InvisionFree, this has IP Board 2.3.x and that's nice. But if you're an open source disciple, you might as well go with PhpBB. Its a reputable service and gives us all the freedom of choice.
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M$
However, I never went forward with the project.
phpBB is an open source solution
http://www.phpbb.com/
vBulletin is paid and expensive and was bought by Internet brands which runs a lot of forums. It's supposed to be a very good piece of software.
http://www.vbulletin.com/
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1383883
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VBulletin
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M$SOURCES:
http://webhostinggeeks.com/bestforumhosting.html
ALL KINDS OF FORUM PACKAGE LISTED HERE
http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106453
BIGGEST 5 POPULAR FREE FROUM APPLICATIONS
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/forum-software-roundup/
ANOTHER GOOD REVIEW FOR ANOTHER FORUM
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1765425,00.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_Forum
free forum software for your site
http://www.neologe.com/articles/free-forum-software.php
phpbb3 - Best Forum Software
REVIEWS HERE
http://brucey.info/phpbb3-best-forum-software/
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M$It seemed more customizable and had a decent enough following that there were a ton of "infusions" (plugins/addons) that fit my needs entirely. It still uses MySQL as the backend, and seemed to load a bit quicker for me than any of the phpBB sites I had used.
Also, the themes are pretty neat and they do fairly routine updates to the software that's easily upgraded through the admin console.
I suppose if I were to list 3 they would be:
1) PHP Fusion
2) phpBB
3) PunBB
PunBB is a very lightweight BB system that's not quite as complex as the other two, however it offers speed and security over anything else. I think it's likely aimed more at personal use, but it seems scalable to larger audiences so who knows. Worth a shot!
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M$
Thanks :)
Thanks for the "top 3" list!
PS: When I click on http://php-fusion.co.uk/ I am redirected to http://slider.forgehosting.com/suspended.page/ which says: " This account has been suspended. Please contact support/billing. http://www.forgehosting.com/portal "
Interesting, perhaps their hosting plan wasn't ready for the sudden onslaught of traffic that Mahalo gave them... or at least that would be what it seems like to me.
Here is a another way to check it out:
http://www.opensourcecms.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464
OpenSourceCMS.com allows you to test out all of the popular free CMS scripts available - It's actually how I originally found PHP Fusion. Worth a look, I think.
If you manage it yourself, you have to apply upgrades, patches, add-on modules for anti-spam as an example. This means you either have to spend the time or hire someone to manage it for you. This also comes down to the level of customization you require. Do you want to modify the software in such a way that it wouldn't be possible at a hosted provider? Not only do you have to worry about the Bulletin Board software, but you also have to worry about patching the Operating System and most likely the Web Server (probably Apache) as well. You also have to worry about securing that system as well, ensuring it doesn't get hacked. You also have to make sure you protect yourself so you don't get attacked by SQL injections. Do you have that expertise or do you know someone who has that expertise? If you run into a problem, and you've decided to go with hosting the BB yourself, do you have access to the right expertise? Or is it something you have knowledge of and can fix it immediately?
I'd say it comes down to how you want to spend your time.
With a hosting provider, my guess is you won't have the level of control in terms of modifying code to customize things the way you want to do things.
Find out what kind of access is given to you if any and what the level of control is. With a hosting provider, you don't have to worry about patching the system, though I would inquire as to how the maintenance is performed on the BB and when and how long it takes. I'd inquire about an SLA as well and how they give you advance notice so you can warn your users. If you are going with a hosting provider, make sure they have well communicated plans, if there are issues and when maintenance happens. Find out how its communicated, what happens during emergency maintenance situations?
Does the BB have some sort of API you can hook into for customizations from the hosting provider?
Hopefully I've given you something to think about, while I've posed many questions rather than answers, I'm hoping it might help you figure out what it is you really want.
Flexibility, what kind of control of the software do you want?
Administration, Do you want control, what kind of control, how deep do you want access (i.e. do you want to have access to the actual code to modify it?)
Another thing to think about is cost
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M$
Awesome, thanks for the follow-up comments and links :)
I do not provide any of the services unfortunately. The only firm I can offer you, is netfirms.ca. They specify on their website that they offer phpBB. I checked theplanet.com, hostopia.com, ipower.com and none of them seem to offer a hosting solution for a BB. The only one I found, and there are probably more is netfirms.ca.
One other thing you might want to consider is, if you go with a hosting provider, and you find you don't like them, but you have a bunch of users already using the BB, you need to find out how the data could be moved and who is responsible for doing it.
Good luck in finding your answer. Let us know how you make out.
Thanks for all that :) I've actually not decided what to go with yet, although, at least judging from this thread, some leaders appear to be emerging.
Yes, I have been thinking about the exact things you mentioned, which I was hoping people would cover when they answered the "why" part of my question. I left my "why" open ended to see where it went. Clearly security, stability, performance, ease of maintenance, etc. are all keys.
BTW, your answer leads to the follow-up question: Do you provide yourself (or recommend) any hosting, install, support, etc. services? Thanks.
Since Geeklog offers "fat" posts the threading of the discussion is maintained (and viewable) only within the main post. But there is a great search engine that comes with it, so you can find related posts with ease.
http://www.geeklog.net/
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M$stick with the new mybb 1.4
Very Professional
All plugins available
Very Fast
Very Elegant
Has almost everything paid software has.
I use it and vB, if you dont want to pay then mybb is the best
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M$SMF on the other hand is the choice of those who are afraid of phpBB's security, it doesn't get so much attention so the security risks are minimal, it's very simple and the themes for it are as ugly as hell
As for punBB - Unfortunately no one can be told what PunBB is - you have to see it for yourself.
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M$
I have a private board with phpBB 3, heavily modified, so yes, it's my #1 choice.
SMF has good functionality, but bad design, so I stick with phpBB.
punBB would be #3, has good functionality, looks nice and simple, but it's not as widely used as phpBB and SMF, not many comments around-it, so you have to see it for yourself. :)
Thanks for the answer. Follow-up questions:
1) phpBB: It was your choice back in the day, but is it your #1 choice now?
2) SMF: When you say "ugly as hell," do you mean it literally? Just making sure, because it sounds like that sentence is an SMF recommendation until "ugly as hell" phrase, which is confusing because the conjunction before the phrase is "and" and not "but," which makes me wonder if might mean "ugly as hell" is actually a good thing?
3) punBB: So is that a recommendation (#3 on your "top 3" list) for punBB?
Thanks :)
Excellent, thanks for the follow up :)
I can't comment on other solutions from personal experience but I have heard that SMF and Vanilla are also good.
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M$beacouse it has very good community and lot of themes and plugins
BBpress
good integration with wordpress and the great spam protection
SMF
this is also one of the very good free BB software
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M$After PHPBB I moved onto Invision Power Boards, once again really simple, actually extremely simple with lots of template possibilities.
Then throughout the course of a few years I moved over to SMF, really impressive except for the lack of customization. I found it to be extremely difficult to find good free templates, but the modules where usually very well made and were put to good use.
Now I’m using vBulletin, it's amazing in every way, great customization ability, but for a novice user it will seem very intimidating.
My top 3 free boards:
1. SMF
2. PHPBB
3. Invision Free (invisionfree.com)
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M$
One of the best answers so far, thank you :)