[AWShuttleworth]

Hey, guys. I'm wondering what you recommend for software for forum management. I know the big sites seem to use vBulletin, and smaller sites, PhpBB; I'm wondering what the pros and cons are of each and whether you have any other recommendations.

Thanks.

[genevish]

Haven't used vBulletin, but phpBB is pretty nice, and free! Check it out.

[BustledHedgerow]

Are you asking us to debate phpBB and vBB? Or all the different types? I think phpBB is more new user friendly. It's easier to find out how to do and change different things. I personally like vBB better.

[philzilla]

vBulletin is much better (in my opinion), but costs $160.

phpBB is free, and v2.2 will be a table-free css layout.

heard good things about invision, but never used it.

ikonboard was good, back in the day, but things have moved on since then.

UBB stinks and costs too much.

there are loads here

[madmacgames]

phpBB search sucks (sorry but it is true).

Invision BB gives better access control and makes mods lives easier than phpBB but not sure about it compared to the others.

[Arkham_c]

Modifying the login system on phpBB is a horrible mess. Since phpBB was created pre-PHP4, the session management in it is pretty crappy, and the modules are not very well organized. It hits the database a lot for user management (every page request is a write to the db), which presents scalability issues.

From a usability perspective, phpBB is pretty nice. As a developer though, it makes me want to scream. I did some integration work for a friend (single sign-on for the site and forum), and it was a nightmare.

[philzilla]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
Modifying the login system on phpBB is a horrible mess. Since phpBB was created pre-PHP4, the session management in it is pretty crappy, and the modules are not very well organized. It hits the database a lot for user management (every page request is a write to the db), which presents scalability issues.

From a usability perspective, phpBB is pretty nice. As a developer though, it makes me want to scream. I did some integration work for a friend (single sign-on for the site and forum), and it was a nightmare.

i didn't know all that, thanks for sharing. with any luck, they've tackled all of that in the forthcoming "significantly different" 2.2 release (but i very much doubt it)

[Amorya]

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
From a usability perspective, phpBB is pretty nice. As a developer though, it makes me want to scream. I did some integration work for a friend (single sign-on for the site and forum), and it was a nightmare.

C'mon, that's about the easiest thing out there!

Add this to each page on the site:

[php]define('IN_PHPBB', true);
$phpbb_root_path = 'bboard/';
include($phpbb_root_path . 'extension.inc');
include($phpbb_root_path . 'common.'.$phpEx);

//
// Start session management
//
$userdata = session_pagestart($user_ip, PAGE_INDEX);
init_userprefs($userdata);
//
// End session management
//


//
// Require login
//
if ( !$userdata['session_logged_in'] )
{
redirect(append_sid("login.$phpEx?redirect=../account.php", true));
}[/php]

Omit the last bit if you simply want to have access to the login data but not require logins on this particular page.

Then you can access the current user ID with $userdata['user_id'] in your scripts.


Amorya

[Millennium]

It's not really possible to say what the best forum software is, because there are many different needs out there.

Obviously, the biggest boards nowadays all work UBB-style, including phpBB, vBulletin, and UBB itself of course. However, there are other styles of boards that you may want to consider. If you prefer a threaded interface, for example -I do- then Phorum is the way to go.

If you don't need all the features of "the big guys" and want something simpler to administer -perhaps you're trying to integrate forums into an existing site- miniBB and PunBB are good choices too.

[Eyenovation]

For customization, skinning, and the otherwise - it'd hard to be vBulletin.
Invision Powerboard is also good. UBB is good for a basic forum.
As the person above said, it really depends on your needs.

[sealey]

Check out the following Forum software ,

http://www.class1web.co.uk/downloads.php

It's Free
It's by far the easiest Forum software to set up and configure
It's extremely customisable
It is very fast

Examples of it in use can be found at

http://www.macland.co.uk/Forum/
http://www.class1web.co.uk/forum/
http://ebs2.lacefarms.com/forum/index.php
http://www.acearle.com/forum/index.php

Regards,

Richard Seale

[thePurpleGiant]

I have used MiniBB on a new site of mine, The Dashboarder, and find it a cool little board, that isn;t overly crowded with features.

Extra features that come standard on vBulletin/phpbb can be installed later at will, which allows you to customise things nicely. MiniBB is especially handy for integrating a forum into an existing site, that you just want a small discussion area for.

[AWShuttleworth]

I guess what I want to know is this whether shelling out the cash for vBulletin is a complete waste - that is, if there is really any compelling reason not to use phpBB (or MiniBB - that actually looks quite nice) instead. I don't mind the money if it's worth it, but if the free option is just as good, I'd like to know that.

It sounds like you all think vBulletin is a better option, but I'd like to hear more. Why, exactly? What would I be losing if I went with one of the free ones?