Forum & Cms Software Need help in selecting........

Hello everyone,At the moment, I am looking to select a right combination of cms and forum software which can meet all my requirements for my new site, but, I am really confused in selecting the right cms and forum software duo for my site. So, I need everyone suggestions and opinions.....As a cms, I have Joomla in my mind. But, as a forum software, I am totally confused. I am currently stuck in between phpbb and smf. Actually, yesterday, I tried both the forum software SMF 2.0 RC3 and phpBB 3.0.7 on localhost using wampserver. And, I found that understanding and using smf was really very easy in comparison to phpbb. I found both the phpbb and smf, very feature rich but, it was just that smf presented everything in a simple manner, however, I did not spend much time playing with phpbb 3.0.7 as playing with it was a bit hard, but, one thing is sure, probably phpbb is having more features at the moment......correct me if I am wrong.....So, the reason for my confusion is that stable version of smf 2 is still not realeased, and I don't even have any idea when it will be realeased. As a result of which, I don't know which one should I select, old stable version of SMF 1.0.11, or phpbb 3.0.7 or smf 2.0 rc3......Also, what cms would you suggest me to use with any of the above forum software. Waiting for your suggestions.Here are things which are in my mind about my site1. Should be fast, 2. Less buggy and highly secured,3. Highly customizable So, suggest me right combination of forum software and cms.....Thanks in advance

Hello everyone,
At the moment, I am looking to select a right combination of cms and forum software which can meet all my requirements for my new site, but, I am really confused in selecting the right cms and forum software duo for my site. So, I need everyone suggestions and opinions.....

As a cms, I have Joomla in my mind. But, as a forum software, I am totally confused. I am currently stuck in between phpbb and smf. Actually, yesterday, I tried both the forum software SMF 2.0 RC3 and phpBB 3.0.7 on localhost using wampserver. And, I found that understanding and using smf was really very easy in comparison to phpbb. I found both the phpbb and smf, very feature rich but, it was just that smf presented everything in a simple manner, however, I did not spend much time playing with phpbb 3.0.7 as playing with it was a bit hard, but, one thing is sure, probably phpbb is having more features at the moment......correct me if I am wrong.....

So, the reason for my confusion is that stable version of smf 2 is still not realeased, and I don't even have any idea when it will be realeased. As a result of which, I don't know which one should I select, old stable version of SMF 1.0.11, or phpbb 3.0.7 or smf 2.0 rc3......

Also, what cms would you suggest me to use with any of the above forum software.
Waiting for your suggestions.

Here are things which are in my mind about my site

1. Should be fast,
2. Less buggy and highly secured,
3. Highly customizable

So, suggest me right combination of forum software and cms.....
Thanks in advance

I was once in your position a few years ago. I was so into forums and wanted to join an open source project and be a part of it, help with the documentation and coding. So I joined SMf and things went pretty well. their software was very user friendly and i got into developing mods and all that stuff there.

what happened was that things crumbled after a few months. smf is no longer as stable as it used to be. the top management is constantly at each others throats and a lot of developers jumped ship and join ipb which is a commercial product by the way but the cheapest at the moment.

so i wouldn't recommends smf. their smf version 2 has been in development for so many years i don't even know if its done yet. the last i checked it was around 3 years. so its not surprising if they now lag even behind phpbb.

as far as a cms solution is concerned, i'd recommend drupal which is what i'm using now. its not for newbies though but its the coolest and the most scalable in my opinion. i have a history with joomla but drupal is just awesome.

try mybb for a good forum. i'm not sure how advanced their features are now but the last time i checked, it was pretty good.

goood luck..i'd recommend joomla with mybb if you're still a newbie to web development/design and customization.

all the best

Earlier i used to praise SMF a lot and there are even old threads on this forum which you can see. But now saying no to smf. No new version launched so far and only releasing beta. So they are really losing the free side of things as they cater pro members. Phpbb is also unsecure forum platform which often gets hacked. So that is not option as well. You can try - MyBB - lots of themes, easy to learn, loads fast(depending on theme), lots of mods and themesPunBB- it is small and easy to mange forum, loads fast, feature rich, themes, mods FluxBB- it is used by many linux distributions for their forums, has many good mods, themes and loading time is good as well.Vanilla - Free version is easy to install and loads fast, not just forum but looks like fb sometimes, mods, themes, easy to manage,operateTry any of these forums and join sites like forum promotion and similar forum promotion sites to get more members, reviews on forum software etc. If you want to spend some money you can use IPB or vbulletin.

as far as a cms solution is concerned, i'd recommend drupal which is what i'm using now. its not for newbies though but its the coolest and the most scalable in my opinion. i have a history with joomla but drupal is just awesome.
try mybb for a good forum. i'm not sure how advanced their features are now but the last time i checked, it was pretty good.

goood luck..i'd recommend joomla with mybb if you're still a newbie to web development/design and customization.

all the best

Hello legendary112, welcome to the community, hope you enjoy your stay here

And, as far as cms is concerned, I am now thinking of trying drupal also, I will try drupal first installing it on localhost and if found it good and easy to understand, also, if it can meet my all requirements, I would probably go with drupal

But, I still need to know that sites made in joomla are faster or the sites made in drupal?

Anyways, thanks so much for sharing your view

Earlier i used to praise SMF a lot and there are even old threads on this forum which you can see. But now saying no to smf. No new version launched so far and only releasing beta. So they are really losing the free side of things as they cater pro members.
Phpbb is also unsecure forum platform which often gets hacked. So that is not option as well.

Yeah, I have seen some of your old threads and you were really a smf supporter, but, things have changed now
I am too tired like you, waiting for the stable realease of smf 2.0, its looking good, but, no idea when it will be launched

And, about phpbb, I would really like to know that if their latest version is also vulnerable to hack attacks? And, if yes, then what is the possible reason for this?

And, as a forum software I am now thinking of using mybb, its looking really good. But, can you tell me how frequently they release updates......and the place other than their official mods listing where I can find mods for mybb.....

And, btw I am still waiting for you to send me your site names

Thanks in advance

Yeah, I agree with livepcportal. I used to like SMF as well. I loved their features and especially their smileys, because I swear they have the best smileys ever, but now they are just giving specials to people that pay and stuff, so while they still promote themselves as "Open-Source", I really don't think they actually are.And seriously... phpBB sucks a lot, so don't use it. I tried using it, and while a lot of people do use phpBB, it's not the best choice to make, because I don't know... theres always a lot of bugs and things that don't really get fixed, and I just find it harder in general to use. I guess if you are really serious in making a good forum, paying money of the paid software (IPB and vBulletin) is really really really worth it, because their forums are so on a totally completely different level, but if you don't want to... i don't know. Someone get your hands on a free version? (My friend somehow did it - not implying anything), or you can play around and experiment with the other alternatives that mahesh has kindly provided with you.Just one thing - DONT USE PHPBB!!!

Yeah, I have seen some of your old threads and you were really a smf supporter, but, things have changed now :rolleyes:I am too tired like you, waiting for the stable realease of smf 2.0, its looking good, but, no idea when it will be launched

And, about phpbb, I would really like to know that if their latest version is also vulnerable to hack attacks? And, if yes, then what is the possible reason for this?

And, as a forum software I am now thinking of using mybb, its looking really good. But, can you tell me how frequently they release updates......and the place other than their official mods listing where I can find mods for mybb.....

And, btw I am still waiting for you to send me your site names

Thanks in advance

In that case you should go with either mybb or punbb. I am not sure about themes in punbb but it's fair knowing it works better than other forum softwares. You can also go with fluxbb or vanilla. i use vanilla for one of my friends forum. If you like mybb then go for it as community is active there you will rarely face any issues. Avoid SMF, PhpBB from now on no matter how drastically they improve. unless they constantly keep their updates each month don't bother thinking about them.

Oh my sites ? let's see i'm launching 100% adsense revenue sharing site soon on this domain helpfolder.com hope that helps for you to know about my sites.

Hey, hang on a second! I think phpBB is getting a little more bashing here than it actually deserves. :DThe thing I noticed with the software when I was using it was that it was very flexible and required a lot of work. It's like those Linux distributions where you practically have to do everything manually. So phpBB is software which needs some serious modding after installation. It's for the people that like to have everything tuned and know how to do it. Even with pre-made mods you have to tinker a lot of core and play with SQL queries to make them work (it's not a one-click installation similar to CMS). When you have a ready, modded forum platform, you have to update it by reading the release notes and applying the updates manually because the update will ruin your setup otherwise. Another problem is also that heavy modification might result in many security holes and bugs in your forum. So it's kind of give and take, if you're pro and have a lot of time and knowledge to tune things without screwing up your installation, go for it. (unless you're uncomfortable with the software otherwise)The impression I get from SMF is that it's more out-of-the-box kind of thing. And this is truly an "impression", because I haven't extensively worked with it. If the developer/nerd community isn't maintaining it well, you're sitting on a time bomb, you'll have to eventually switch to other software, and that change might cost you a lot of time and money and even be impossible (switching and keeping the posts, threads and userbase) if the software you were using is heavily outdated.Now coming back to YOU and your problem, livepcportal, if you're using a CMS, I think there are plug-ins that integrate forums to your CMS. The quality is of course dependent on the flexibility of the CMS to be used with forum-addons. But if you don't need stuff like mood mods, status messages and other not-so-necessary things on your forum, they actually might be good enough. So before installing a lot of stuff and messing things up, I suggest looking into this option, too. I think it'd be more convenient to manage the whole site from one cPanel. Another problem with this is that if your community grows, you might start needing more, like a chatroom, status messages and friendlists. So you have to ask yourself what is the site you're building. Is it a community site, where the forum is the heart of the site or is it going to be a simple channel through which users might randomly ask something about your site or talk about its content? And importing the plug-in forum content over to real forum software might be a pain or impossible, so choose carefully.

Yes its truly respectable to use.

To those who would like to try out PunBB, I would rather recommend to go with FluxBB. FluxBB is a clone of PunBB forked out after some issues in the development team. FluxBB has a broad support of users and developers and is actively developed. The 1.4.x release is the best. And for the record FluxBB has a noticeable difference in speed compared to PunBB. Also I think it is the fastest forum script out there. Its features are modest and suitable to any discussion forum.If I were to deploy a forum, I would go with FluxBB. For all other features of a forum which might be needed in the future, like chatroom, status messages etc I would implement them on website framework like Drupal.

To those who would like to try out PunBB, I would rather recommend to go with FluxBB. FluxBB is a clone of PunBB forked out after some issues in the development team.

I have not tested both version but my bug tracker and exploit list have 17 reported exploits for PunBB in comparison to 3 exploits on FluxBB. The 3 exploits was common to both version so it is safe to assume that as of this moment, FluxBB is secure in comparison to PunBB and much better than PHPBB in terms of amount of exploits present.

3 years ago was the first time I saw SMF 2.0 beta and until now I have not seen any improvements.

Nuke was having a good review but it was a portal rather than a forum. Good thing is that a portal can be a CMS and Forum in one bundle.


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Drupal is fine and more secure in terms of how fast the exploits got fixed but some add-ons takes time to be fixed with exploit errors. The core on the other hand was rigid but not 100% secure but you are nearing to it. I will pick Drupal if I were you however for my own site I will use ModX cms which is an ajax system. I was writing with Modx for plugins and enchancements, that is my reason why I will pick it up.

Comparing Drupal with ModX cms:
Drupal is already rigid on what it will do which is a CMS
ModX cms is just a barebone skeleton system where you will define what your final ModX will be, shall it be a CMS, a forum or a Wiki.

Drupal is multiuser as default
Modx is single user until you patch something

Drupal module writing is hard at some point
Modx pages can be turned into a module, theme or whatever you desire

Drupal exist using modules to extend
Modx exist using snippets, breadcrumbs, libraries and modules to extend

To sum it up, Drupal is for common users who specifically have 1 set of defined needs while ModX was for advance users that don't want bulky things slow down their CMS.

I have not tested both version but my bug tracker and exploit list have 17 reported exploits for PunBB in comparison to 3 exploits on FluxBB. The 3 exploits was common to both version so it is safe to assume that as of this moment, FluxBB is secure in comparison to PunBB and much better than PHPBB in terms of amount of exploits present.

 

3 years ago was the first time I saw SMF 2.0 beta and until now I have not seen any improvements.

 

Nuke was having a good review but it was a portal rather than a forum. Good thing is that a portal can be a CMS and Forum in one bundle.

 

 

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Drupal is fine and more secure in terms of how fast the exploits got fixed but some add-ons takes time to be fixed with exploit errors. The core on the other hand was rigid but not 100% secure but you are nearing to it. I will pick Drupal if I were you however for my own site I will use ModX cms which is an ajax system. I was writing with Modx for plugins and enchancements, that is my reason why I will pick it up.

 

Comparing Drupal with ModX cms:

Drupal is already rigid on what it will do which is a CMS

ModX cms is just a barebone skeleton system where you will define what your final ModX will be, shall it be a CMS, a forum or a Wiki.

 

Drupal is multiuser as default

Modx is single user until you patch something

 

Drupal module writing is hard at some point

Modx pages can be turned into a module, theme or whatever you desire

 

Drupal exist using modules to extend

Modx exist using snippets, breadcrumbs, libraries and modules to extend

 

To sum it up, Drupal is for common users who specifically have 1 set of defined needs while ModX was for advance users that don't want bulky things slow down their CMS.

 

I don't quite agree with some of the things you said of Drupal. I haven't tinkered enough with Modx but your assumptions or conclusions about Drupal are slightly off.

 

Drupal is already rigid on what it will do which is a CMS

Really? Drupal is so flexible mate. You can strip it down to anything, a simple blog or extend its functionality to power up huge sites. I'm not sure what you mean by rigid exactly but i've used drupal and i'm quite satisfied with its capabilities. Its only the mindset of someone who's supposed to change it that can be rigid and unimaginative, as far flexibility goes, Drupal is great.

 

To answer another question about which one is faster Drupal or Joomla!, i'd say from my experience Drupal although it needs careful server tuning if you add many things...but ultimately i've found it to be way better.

 

When it comes SEO, Drupal is stronger too.

I head a lot about fluxbb and even seen the demo using softaculous on server. But i found vanilla forum to be better option. I can use it as CMS as well as forum. You can treat it like vbulletin. But it is not as good as that as it is free. So one more vote for the fluxbb.

Well, I am now almost certain about my forum software, I have decided to go with mybb for now, currently on my way to customize it according to my needs, I don't why but, I am really enjoying it, unlike other forum software I found it easy to understand, and with only one day of experiencing it on localhost, I found a bug in it..........check it here in live action......

But, despite of this, I will still go with mybb because it has got all the functionality that I was looking to have on my site......and moreover in future, I can also write plugins for mybb, I found it so much convenient and easy to understand, but, ofcourse I will have to learn php first...

And, about cms software, I am still confused, now I am also reconsidering that if I actually need a cms or not........kinda confused........
Also, tried using drupal, downloaded latest version of drupal from their official site and when I tried to install in on localhost using wampserver, unfortunately it wasn't working, during installation it was continuously jumping back to database configuration page even after entering correct information........
So, I have to install it on my free hosting account using softaculous, and this was the first time when I saw drupal admin panel and truly speaking its difficult to understand in comparison to joomla, so its gonna take time to get used to it.....

Thus, if anyone knows some good ebooks about drupal, then please tell me.............because that would really help me.....I am looking forward to use drupal+mybb duo for my site.........

Thanks in advance

You don't need CMS if you don't want to use it as along with blog. Just because it is discussed here doesn't mean you have to implement it straight away. I have checked the fluxbb installation on XAMPP but i found that it is much simple and better than mybb. Have a look at it. And if you want to go with CMS then why complicate things, wordpress is the most simple that can be bridged with forum. All you need to do is keep the header common on both instead of getting to much complicated. But anyway you have chosen mybb so good luck with that.