spacewaste1405241471 0 Report post Posted March 17, 2005 SMF:Oh my god! This is the best, mods are added using the package manager which means no manual code changes, themes have an installer to upload even the zips it does the rest. Themes are so far mostly good and look great. The community are great bunch of guys and gals, you just cant beat them (not even with a 4*4) This siftwares admin panel is amazing and doesnt use the standard frame idea. I STRONGLY recomend it over all else. Its better than the paid forums and guess what it can take a whallop and a half of users, with no slow down, trust me on that!Trekkie Recommends:SMF - Nothing better Trekkie out of all the people I have ever seen...You've gotta be the one who loves SMF the most...Therefore I officialy deem you to be the official SMF spokes person .Honestly though every forum has it's high points.As trekkie stated mini is not a good one at all...unless you're VERY low on space.phpBB is a good forum but trust me....They are about to get much much better in their new version olympus. So don't give them the cold shoulder just yet. Although currently the only major problem I find with their forum is the fact that adding almost any mods is so bloody hard that you'll honestly just die and throw your comp and stuff. I've been there best way to install their mods is manualy IPB on the other hand is a lot better and easier at installing mods for that I love them....Unfortuantly there is three thigns I can't stand about them...NOT FREE, not the best skins...And all technical support is scattered among the internet so you need to change from site to site whenever you need help with certain things...Atleast with PHPBB they have a majorly active forumt hatw ill always help you...and NEVER charge you.SMF....I'm sorry to say it trekkie but I've only tried SMF once and I didn't like it much....I was really new to php and forums n portals back then though so it was kinda complicated....I promise I will try it again sometime though....But for now I simply use e107....It is a webportal with the easiest mod installation I have ever seen in my life...And to top it off they have every skin I could ever want...Every mod I could ever need...And a nice clean built in forum that seems tow ork great and not have any security holes at all Thats just my opinion on the matter...Don't take it to heart.Hope you guys chose the right forum or portal though L8r Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hercco 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2005 On my own sites I have only used phpBB, that being the leading open source, thus being free, board. But I don't think it's the best... First of all the basic board without mods doesn't have all the features that , in my opinion, modern discussion boards should have. Biggest flaw IMO is the lack of subforums and attachments. Then someone's gonna say "just install mods". Yeah, I have. But it's not working as well as I would like to. I have several mods, the categories hierarchy, attachments, few admin panel and member things. This all makes upgrading the board a real pain in the *bottom*. Especially if you add a customed template there. To make things even worse, the old phpBB 2.0 series has had quite a lot of upgrades, mostly because of security issues. Of other forum systems, I have never installed or administered any but from user point of view and from what people have told me vBulletin is the king of the hill. For me, being an avid open source supporter, its a bit hard to admit, but vBulletin really rules. It has all the features I believe you ever need, the version 3 is quite fast and from what I hear quite easily customizable. Other than that I've heard a lot of good things about SMF, mainly it being lightning fast. Also Invision, like right here, is a neat system. ================================== Posts Merged Here - by vujsa ================================== Damn, I can't find the edit button... What I needed to ask in addition was that is UBB (Ultimate Bulletin Board) still alive? It's kinda of legendary system that was in use in many forums when I started posting actively into message boards. I believe it was one of the first to include the kind of forum view that is as default here. I believe it started to diminish in use when php driven systems started to become more populer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trekkie101 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2005 UBB by Infopop didnt keep up, it was the biggest at a point but their features didnt improve greatly and the basic look stayed and still does, they didnt evolve like the rest and this dropped out. Many were better and free, but some people still use it, channel 4 and websuer do but nothing like the ammount of use of the others.Spacewaste thank you, although give it a go now, a lot has improved and its getting better, maybe by the end of summer 1.1 will be out which incorpoorates a lot of improvements, more speed (I think aswell) and a lot of other little gizmo's to play with. Some things that other systems have but SMF lacks, SMF is growing and more and more people are using it, there are a lot of large forums starting to use it. It was actually even in a recent WebUser publication as the software that was the forum to use. phpBB has recently (through no fault of theres) declined people are starting to hack it and people are fed up upgrading every two weeks. The sooner there new system comes out the better but it does have some things I aboslutely hate in it (CVS) and some thing maybe 5 people will actually care about, but then its not finished so ill give it time, but SMF will still probably be my choice. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ignition 0 Report post Posted March 22, 2005 SMF kicks *bottom* so much. Been using it for a couple days...administrating it is quite easy and adding new themes was so simple it's not even funny TOok me literally less than 3 minutes to get 3 news skins/themes set up and available to choose from.If anybody wants to see what the default smf forum skin looks like, view mine below. I have 3 other skins installed, so you can view those if you register and change them in your profile.http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/Cheers!ignition Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trekkie101 0 Report post Posted March 27, 2005 Theres a few little cool things, youll pick them up now and again. Its an adventure playground! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wedjarl 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2005 Phpbb is the best free forum board for me. with exceptions to those commercial ones. Most will probably raise their eyebrows on phpbb because its "unsecure" as some conned it. But for me exploits are normal things in life. we have windows exploited, linux and even mac. Just keep these things updated and everything will be fine. phpbb's inteface is better compared to other free boards out there. Ive tried out SMF, its good, features are good indeed, but its default interface is cluttered, default graphics are not good, organization of fonts, tables etc.. is not good. If you want a professional looking forum, or a midblowing forum interface im not sue if SMF would fit to that requirements You could cuztomize it, but for those who dont have any idea how, you will be stuck up with the "not so good" default ones. SMF templates are still limited as of now. The edge of phpbb i guess...is its current widespread community and development team. You could download tons of skins, mods everywhere...customized for your site or for your community. Plus its user friendly site (phpbb.com)..compared to the cluttered unfinished one of SMF. More reason for me to like phpbb is the upcoming PHPBB 3 Olympus version. http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/index.php The Olympus is very advance and quite comparable to Invision. Very good user management:preferences:user control panel. Well you could join the test forum to see it for youself. User Control Panel is good, manage atachments, profiles, friends, foes, graphics etc... The Olympus version even supports flash signatures. plus Very advance administration controls. I hope they release it soon. Anyway if youre willing to spend cash for a message board, the best one is V Bulletin. Stay away fro from forum boards which cant keep up its promise Back in 2002 IPS said "Invision Board is completely free for both personal and commercial use, no catches, no "spyware", no hidden costs anywhere. Apache, PHP and mySQL are all free, why should you pay for a bulletin board?". Its still true now. Apache, PHP and mySQL are still free so why not IPS. It seems like you have lied to us. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Axe 0 Report post Posted March 29, 2005 i like phpbb because it's free and most of the styles are better than other forums, as well as a lot of mods and support available.ipb has the best administration, and the best default style. it's user friendly, but i hate that u have to pay for it >:)vBulletin is the safest (i heard), but it's the ugliest default-wise, and it loads slower in general compared to the others. it's not that great with ur average user, but it's not bad. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trekkie101 0 Report post Posted March 30, 2005 Ever really tried working with SMF, ever actually tried making yuor own skin, you will find they are all clutered as SMF has those options and people dont want rid of them. But I assure SMF can be a basic as you want it. It can be as small as you want or as big, the template engine of SMF is unique and powered only by your mind, also if all people dont try something out, something new it would never grow, sure theres "this grass is green enough" but the grass over there is better, we dont need to move, but it would be a good idea. phpBB has been on feature lock for about 2 years now, all other forums are still more advanced in some ways than them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
warriors1405241493 0 Report post Posted May 12, 2005 i definitely support vBullentin. after trying so many kinds of forum, i find it has the most simple and nice GUI. furthermore its user friendly and it seems much more faster then the rest. but too bad its not free unless hahahah (u guys should noe). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sirknight 0 Report post Posted May 12, 2005 SMF is my bet...It will look like you have you're own forum program..well if you're site is no other than forum, mybe you will choose IPB.but its not free. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yiah 0 Report post Posted November 26, 2008 The best forum software is definately, without a doubt invisionboard. Costly yes but when you have it it is spectacular. If you want to see a "preview" visit this free forum hosting Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
