frozen.fish 0 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 Hello!What community software do you prefer and why? I'm having a hard time choosing one, I don't want to migrate soon from here and there..Vbulletin? - used everywhere, expensive, no thanks..IPB? - looks good but I prefer minimalist look, have'nt played around with it though.phpBB? - dont know anything about this it's popular though. not SEO friendly?SimpleMachines - lots of free themes! but how does it fair in SEO?Drupal - takes serious time to setup. Is it worth it?FluxBB/punBB - im using this one for testing my forums, looks great and clean, works fast too and SEO friendly. but looks very simple and EASY to setup.So which do you prefer? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Alex Cicala 0 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 Hello!What community software do you prefer and why? I'm having a hard time choosing one, I don't want to migrate soon from here and there..Vbulletin? - used everywhere, expensive, no thanks..IPB? - looks good but I prefer minimalist look, have'nt played around with it though.phpBB? - dont know anything about this it's popular though. not SEO friendly?SimpleMachines - lots of free themes! but how does it fair in SEO?Drupal - takes serious time to setup. Is it worth it?FluxBB/punBB - im using this one for testing my forums, looks great and clean, works fast too and SEO friendly. but looks very simple and EASY to setup.So which do you prefer? Personally I find that PHPBB3 is the best. It's easy and simple.Also I have had some experience with using vBulletin, very very good. you'll just turn ur head around at the price.Also I know someone who used e107, he said it was hard to get hacked and had many interesting features.Ones that you listed:IPB: well i've used this. This in my opinion is the second most professional board. compared to vB been the first. Not that good thoughSMF: A definite no, looks ugly. Bad features and bad admin/mod abilities.FluxBB/punBB: Don't know this oneDrupal [and Joomla]: both are widely used. If you use a CMS, use one of these. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rvalkass 5 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 phpBB? - dont know anything about this it's popular though. not SEO friendly?phpBB, out of the box, is not particularly SEO friendly (but no less than other forums). However, being free and open source, there are plenty of modifications out there that allow you to make your forum more friendly to the search engines. Take a look through the phpBB modifications database to see if there is one you like.SimpleMachines - lots of free themes! but how does it fair in SEO?SMF, as far as I can remember, is about the same as phpBB when it comes to SEO. Not too good after you first set it up, but free modifications make it perfect.FluxBB/punBB - im using this one for testing my forums, looks great and clean, works fast too and SEO friendly. but looks very simple and EASY to setup.punBB is great for a simple and utilitarian forum, although it lacks any features at all really. I have used it many times, but often as a 'behind the scenes' forum for developers and things like that. However, if it has all the features you want (again, they can be added with modifications) then go for it.Drupal - takes serious time to setup. Is it worth it?This is the only actual CMS on the list Drupal takes no longer to set up than any of the others, and is very flexible in what you can do with it. It is also easy to theme and manage. Whether to use it or not depends on what you actually want. Are you looking for a forum or a CMS? For a forum, pick one of the others. For a CMS, pick Drupal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
frozen.fish 0 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 Thank you so much for further enlightening me because I don't want to to over the hassle of migrating to one fourm software to another..having no knowledge over PHP but very eager to learn. Is Drupal worth the step then?I narrowed my choice down to fluxbb(since it looks lightweight and it is lightweight, I dont want a big looking forum.) and spening some time with drupal now cause probably sometime I'm pretty sure Drupal and I will cross paths so better be ready now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheDisturbedOne 1 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 Are you looking for a forum or CMS?For a forum, I highly suggest going with Simplemachines. There are no known bugs for it, and the features are amazing! SEO is great, I have only had problems after it was indexed (having it showing up in searches), and once it showed up, it showed up very high. The MODding community is great, tons of MODs, and most of them are still supported. With SMF 2.0, you need no knowledge of PHP to install themes or MODs, simply uploading the MOD in the control panel will install it (and most MODs work on all themes, unless you have tons of MODs).If you want a CMS, I use e107. It is fairly easy to use, but lacks some features.If you have MSN, feel free to contact me if you need help if you choose SMF. The.Disturbed.1@hotmail.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
frozen.fish 0 Report post Posted March 26, 2009 Wow! great thank you so much! an SMF assistance.. They have great themes though.. which I like but are you sure with the SEO part? cause after googling you'll need a mod for it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites