What forum technologies are there?

[Elmo]

I would like a range of decent forum tools (free and otherwise)

1. vBulletin
2. YetAnotherForum
...

Cheers,

Adam

[Mooga]

MyBB - We use it over at SRCDS.com. It looks and works beautifully, but the back end is a bit annoying to maneuver.

phpBB - For a long time, phpBB dominated the free forum market. In the past, phpBB always seemed to be a few years behind on default features. I haven't used the recent version much, however.

SMF - I've used it a little bit and HATED it... I just think it's ugly as hell, but maybe we just had a bad theme?

[Bridget]

Real men make their own forums.

[Lost]

I've used SMF for a few years now and I haven't had any issues with spambots like I did when using phpBB.

You must have had a bad theme Mooga, it's pretty similar to phpBB in design. I really like that its so easy to update and add mods.

[KubeDawg]

phpBB 3.0 is the newest version of phpBB and a lot of those 'default' features that weren't included are now included. And it's super easy to install mods and styles/themes. It's the most robust free forum out there. Here's an example of my counter strike clan's board made via phpBB:

www.mildsclan.com/forum

[Gwarsbane]

www.invisionpower.com is what MekTek.net uses. There are many mods for it, though its not free. But like any so many others you have to lock it down.

If I remember right, either they or another company hosts a free version.

[Elmo]

Great! Thanks guys... I'll check them out. I doubt I will be using them as I required one that would integrate easily into an ASP.NET cms.

But I wanted to see what else was out there in terms of features and how configurable they were in comparison to the one I have to use.

plus I may need one in the future!

[Ricey]

Originally Posted by Elmo

I would like a range of decent forum tools (free and otherwise)

1. vBulletin
2. YetAnotherForum
...

Cheers,

Adam

If you have the money vBulletin.

Why can I say this?: I've been modifying vBulletins since 2.x.x. Started off hacking UBB CGI Forums long long time ago.

Free Ones?

WBBLite(Decent, works similarly to vBulletin)
PHPBB(They update it enough, and the Modding community is very good, can have it run at the same level as vBulletin)
Really your best bet since you want to do integration would be vBulletin, most likely what ya want to do has been done, if not someone will probably do it. Check out vBulletin.org for it.

[Elmo]

Can i ask from those that have replied..

If there is one thing, you feel lets, the product down (if there is one) what would it be?

Such as YAF has basically no support for Perm/Temp banning members. its only has IP banning and the possibility of suspending users. Even then, the admin can't easily find out the IP address of the users!! Moderator support seems terrible..

I wish there was something else I could use :/ but I don't know of any other forums that can integrate into ASP .NET.

anyway - if you could reply with your opinions of the others it'd still be useful to me.

[KubeDawg]

Well vBulletin mod community could be larger. But since it's a pay program, most of the mods I see cost money as well, which sucks.

And with phphBB, even though the mod community is excellent, it's sometimes difficult to find a mod that is working without bugs or that only will work with a specific theme/style. Some mods just flat out won't work with custom styles.

[Gwarsbane]

Hmmm IPB has an ok size mod group out there, and I believe most are free.


There really isn't anything I can think of that I don't like about it.

Its easy to temp/perma ban someone
Its easy to make new sections
Its easy to make new user groups
It looks nice
As long as you have a little coding knowledge and easy access you can add mods in pretty simply


I guess really the only thing I can think of is I wish it was easier to backup the forums and database. A one stop shop for backing it up would be nice with options to pack it all in a single download or break it up into smaller downloadable chunks of say 500 megs to 1 gig sizes. Last time I backed up MekTek it was a single 18 gig file for just the forums. (10+ years of stuff builds up) 18 gigs while not so bad when you have a nice download speed, really sucks when trying to upload the file back onto the server after a crash or what ever at 100 kilobytes a second (or less if I am doing anything else with my system like trying to play a game) and I don't trust file resume as its broken files before.



I've used I believe vBulletin in the past and I didn't like it as much, it wasn't as flexible as IPB. But that was a long while ago

[[AE] 82694]

http://forums.aspfree.com/

[the phenom]

Can I add to the thread and ask if there are any good ways of free forum hosting?

I mean a good editor/format and a free way to host it. I know it's possible with some sites but sometimes with less overall control.

[KubeDawg]

godaddy I think has some free web hosting you can likely install a DB on to allow for forums to be installed, but I'm not sure if they require a banner to be kept on your site or not.

[~kev~]

1. Vbulletin - because of the huge number of modifications, powerful, flexible.
2. Invision Power Board - secure commercial grade software solution
3. SMF - free, secure, large number of themes and modifications. But has its fair share of issues.
4. MYBB - free, secure, nice looking themes, not a whole lot of modifications.
5. phpbb - lol, yea right, ok, lolololol
6. PUNBB - seen it around, looks ok.

If your really interested in creating your own forum, sign up at this forum admin site http://www.adminaddict.com/forum/

They have members there that run all kinds of forums.

My main forum should break 1 million post by the end of October.

------

If you want something that runs on ASP, take a look at web wiz forums. - http://www.webwizforums.com/

[[AE] 82694]

Originally Posted by the phenom

Can I add to the thread and ask if there are any good ways of free forum hosting?

I mean a good editor/format and a free way to host it. I know it's possible with some sites but sometimes with less overall control.

http://www.proboards.com/index.html

Not to bad but you'll need to make sure to run firefox with adblock installed.

[xks]

vB wins.

[the phenom]

~kev~, are there any major reasons you don't recommend phpBB, and can anyone else comment on that format? I ask because I've found a free hosting service strictly for phpBB but I've seen at least one forum of that type get inundated with 300+ pages of spambot threads before...it's not pretty...

The roadblock I have to starting is being a general noob about running a forum (did a small invisionfree clan one a few years ago - didn't thrive). Otherwise I could start soon, I'd only need a niche/passion/good reason for doing so.

Don't know how many members here admin their own forum or what motivates them to do it.

[[AE] 82694]

Originally Posted by xks

vB wins.

Is vB free? The last time I checked it wasn't.

Originally Posted by the phenom

Can I add to the thread and ask if there are any good ways of free forum hosting?

I mean a good editor/format and a free way to host it. I know it's possible with some sites but sometimes with less overall control.

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by [AE] 82694

Is vB free? The last time I checked it wasn't.

Just because a pile of dog crap is free, does not mean that I want it.

Originally Posted by the phenom

~kev~, are there any major reasons you don't recommend phpBB, and can anyone else comment on that format?

I have seen several phpbb forums destroyed by hackers.

Forum 1 - was hacked every couple of days, on and off for about 6 - 8 weeks. The owner would fix the forum, a few days later it was hacked and defaced again. Fixed, a few days later hacked and defaced. Fixed, a few days later hacked and defaced.

The owner finally closed the forum, switched to SMF. After that, the forum has not been hacked again.


Forum 2 - belonged to a real life friend of mine. It was a place for people in the local area to go post about hunting, camping, gaming - just about all of the members knew each other in real life.

This forum was hacked so many times my buddy finally gave up and closed the site - forever. He told me that it was no worth the time and trouble restoring the site every few days or every couple of weeks.

---------------------

With SMF - when a security hole is found, usually a work around is posted and a fix is released in 24 - 48 hours.

My MYBB - when a security hole is found, a fix is usually released within 24 hours.

There are a lot of free forum solutions out there. But you should really consider the developers attention to security when picking the software.

When I open a new forum I usually use SMF for the first 8 - 12 months. See how everything goes, then switch to VBulletin. VB has an import script that will import all of your post, threads, members from most popular forum software.

Keep in mind that most forums close before they are 1 year old. Because of this, I do NOT recommend that you buy a VB license until you are sure your forum is going to stay open.

Build your site with something like SMF or MYBB and give it one year. At the end of the year if you decide to close the site you can just walk away.

-----------

I think SMF does free forum hosting - http://www.smfforfree.com/

I would stay away from the free Invision power board hosting. Most of those sites are using an outdated version of IPB that is no longer supported. I see those free ipb forums hacked on a semi-regular basis.