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lemonwonder

What Is A Good Free Forum Software?

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A forum script to mimic "certain look" is all in the forum skin. You can actually have phpbb to resemble IPB with just a change in the skin.

I'm not sure if you have seen how IPB is controled, but in my experience any free forum script that best resembles IPB is SMF - Simple Machines Forum http://www.simplemachines.org/ . This is only because how SMF admin control and the behavior when it comes to customizing the layout of the board.

However, SMF does not offer many mods for the board.

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Why dont you just get the free version of IPB i think it's version 1.3 thats free and you are legally allowed to use it, plenty of mods and you can get skins to make it look like IPB 2

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I dont like phpbb, but anything that is a bit like IPB wood be nice, can anyone just tell me a good free forum software?


waht is your problem with phpbb?
vbulltin is one of the best but it is not free like phpbb but it is securer than phpbb :)
phpbb is an open source script and then there is so much added abilities :P

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goto hotscripts, and look for a board that suits your needs. There is MORE than just phpbb.phpbb is the most configurable one out there, but there are others that may offer more than you want but less than phpbb. Invision is a nice one as well

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I suggest, you to use IPB itself. It has a neat interface and the system is pretty secure too. So, maybe you should use IPB. DO google for free scripts . YOu will definitely land on manyt scripts . But still , i dont think you will find any Bulletin . There are also many skins for these being made available today.

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A forum script to mimic "certain look" is all in the forum skin. You can actually have phpbb to resemble IPB with just a change in the skin.

 

I'm not sure if you have seen how IPB is controled, but in my experience any free forum script that best resembles IPB is SMF - Simple Machines Forum http://www.simplemachines.org/ . This is only because how SMF admin control and the behavior when it comes to customizing the layout of the board.

 

However, SMF does not offer many mods for the board.

 

I like SMF, but I also like IPB beacuse it ease of use and easy to use admin control panel.

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However, SMF does not offer many mods for the board.

Thats very very wrong. There are HEAPs of mods for SMF. Its alot more secure and faster than others on the market at the moment.

http://www.smfhacks.com/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ (best shop, bank, cash hack)

More and more people are moving to SMF, its a good choice :D Its about half the size upload of phpbb and installing mods and updates is a breeze.


You can always wait until phpbb3 (Olympus) comes out. Theres been 2 betas of it so far so the final product must be coming soon.

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Why don't you pay the money for a paid forum software for VBulletin, it has been around for so long and it is very established. On top of that, there are so many modules for you to install onto it and the look and feel is really great, by far the most original out of all the forum software I have taken a look at. Its only $70 for a subscription or something like that. A forum I am posting at is also using VBulletin and it is really amazing. TRY IT!

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phpBB2 is the best forum software which is available free of cost and have so many features, but its features are not much better than VB and IPB.I found VB as the most powerfull software for forum and than IPB..............but i don't have so much money to afford these softwares :D

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A forum script to mimic "certain look" is all in the forum skin. You can actually have phpbb to resemble IPB with just a change in the skin.

 

I'm not sure if you have seen how IPB is controled, but in my experience any free forum script that best resembles IPB is SMF - Simple Machines Forum http://www.simplemachines.org/ . This is only because how SMF admin control and the behavior when it comes to customizing the layout of the board.

 

However, SMF does not offer many mods for the board.

I like SMF, but I also like IPB beacuse it ease of use and easy to use admin control panel.

Yeah, SMF is good. Closest to IPB you'll get without buying IPB (unless you use versions prior to IPB 2.0 - which are no longer legally downloadable, but are legal to use if you had it before they took them off), and it is just sooooo easy to customise and admininstrate. It also has tons of mods, including some remakes of IPB mods (such as the shop) and many of them are already part of SMF! (Download Manager, Karma Mod)

 

I loved SMF, and I did use it for two months on one of my sites, but I still vouch for IPB. But then, if someone came up with a mod like the Army System or something for SMF, that would most likely pursuade me to come back to SMF :D

 

Actually, they'd need to do one other thing too. Because I easily lose track of what a topic means, I like to use IPB's Linear+ layout so that I can see the first post at all times. SMF has a mod to emulate Linear+, but instead of copying the first post onto new pages, it starts another page when one fills up, then makes a new post with the same content as the first. This annoys me since:

it adds to the post count,

it reduces the amount of posts that can be shown on a page,

The change will always remain even if you disable the mod, unless you delete the posts it makes.

I'd like to see a better mod that doesn't have these quirks. Edited by NDPA (see edit history)

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Well as far as my experience goes, phpBB is actually the best. Free as it comes, it has got a lot of features and most of them are customizable too. The best part is the skin changers. The themes could be changed by the users if permissions for such are granted and this I've noticed is a good way of adding that xtra tidbit interactivity to monotonously much interactive forums.

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