What Is A Good Free Forum Software?

[michaelper22 0]

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

That version of IPB is no longer supported, and not available for legal download anymore. Plus it's not any near as spiffy as IPB 2.x series versions.
As BuffaloHELP mentioned above, SMF is a good alternative - even from the end-users view (meaning the forum part, not the admin console), it's more powerful, providing more features than phpBB (from my experience). But as he said, SMF doesn't have a ton of mods; although if you know PHP it's not terribly hard to make one.

[Bkag 0]

Yeh I used to use SMF, people hated the forums... and I hate phpbb, but there are forums where u can only use mods on the default style, so i like to use mods and I like the default style to look neat

 

You can use the mods on non default styles, it just says eg. "Find $Variable in ->templates->subsilver->overall_body.tpl" you just find $Variable in ->templates->your template->overall_body.tpl

 

The file structure is the same and all mods i have come across work on any template (some need minor modification but not many)

[elevenmil 0]

smf would probably be the best bet if you wanted free forum software. Like it was said previously, smf has a lot of mods that are rewritted to be able to be used for that specific forum, with many of the mods being originally on IPB forums. I had started to use an SMF but never kicked anything significant off on it, but I would highly recommend using it.

[staph_aureus 0]

If you just want a free forum without a lot of work, try Razyboard. You can create a forum very easy, anyway you have several possibilities to adapt it to your vision. You can define the user ranks, define symbols for the different ranks, there is a control center in which you can manage your users, .... You can really adapt a lot of things! But it it possible to get really quick a forum. Perhaps you can use it.

Greetings, staph

[lubov 0]

if you want asp I offer webwiz forums

[bhavesh 0]

I consider SMF to be the best free forum. But I have a problem, many of the mods are available only for version 1.1RC, and by cpanel's fantastico I am able to install on version 1.0.8 and I don't have a good net connection so that I would download 1.1RC and upload it to the server. Can any one suggest an alternative.

[Bkag 0]

What you could do is install 1.0.8, then download the 1.0.8 to 1.1RC upgrade files.

[DarkPsycho 0]

IceBB is pretty decent, its in its beta right now.IceBB.org just to let ya know

[gursimran2006 0]

East or West, phpbb is da bestI think it is da best free form softwareIf you can pay then VBulletin ROX

[garbage 0]

if you really dnt mind and if you really dont care about adsI say go with invisionfree.com they have the best free forums around and they are so easy to use and upgrade with mods

[sunsaan 0]

well i prefer to v-bulletin and phpbb. both are fine php forum software. try that. i m using v-bulletin.

[Mohammed 0]

SMF is so far good , has many preferences never exist even in $$ forum scripts and yet stable .PHPBB is very typical , needs lot of work to customize .I personally prefer SMF !

[thejestergl 0]

Yeah I have to say that phpBB is quite a pain the behind to make , but once you get it started then it is awsome. I would suggest that you have someon ehelp you with it, but if anything I would use invisionplus, or invisionfree. They are not as flexable but they are easy to use. Forumer is also a nice one to use, I have used each of these but these and I found invisionplus to be the nicest. However, it did not allow as many features and invisionfree. Invisionfree also seems to have a better admin-to-member relationship. Well good luck

[Forbez 0]

Why not http://www.zifboards.com/ they just ipb but little less.

[Unregistered 012 0]

I used to have a phpbb and i liked it, it was okay. Then i used an invisionfree, and i liked that one a lot more. Im pretty sure that there are a lot more than just those two. Just have to look into it and try to find a good one. Im pretty sure that you can find some good ones off of google.