Which One?

abc123 · Post by **abc123** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:22 pm

Which one do you think is the best?

gnozal · Post by **gnozal** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:32 pm

Simple Machines Forum seems good too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Machines_Forum

god64 · Post by **god64** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 12:48 pm

well, didn't vote for any, as i do only know phpbb, and that is insecure as hell, would not really recommend it.

Kaeru Gaman · Post by **Kaeru Gaman** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:20 pm

Just Another Useless Poll

Rook Zimbabwe · Post by **Rook Zimbabwe** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:55 pm

well phpbb is very popular. I agree about lax security though. ANY forum board is going to have issues.

Rescator · Post by **Rescator** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:12 pm

vBulletin, sure it costs to license it for regular updates etc.
But they are damn fast at security fixes, many corporate sites use them.
And they'll help you with pretty much any issue you have with the board software. Hey, it's a commercial quality board, you can expect service!

As for phpBB, 3.0 is around the corner right, other than that SMF isn't looking too bad. No clue on Invision though, semi-commercial board?

codemaniac · Post by **codemaniac** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:35 pm

I use Invision Power Board for my game server forums and they have been running stable for more than 2 years! Invision is very customizable and more flexible than vBulletin. I say it's worth every cent.

Rescator · Post by **Rescator** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:12 pm

Have you ever maintained a vBulletin forum and not just "visited" it?
Because unless you have you can not claim that one is more flexible than the other.

And in any case, all these forums (at least PHP based ones) are just very specific database frontends. So if you know how to code PHP flexibility is 100% on all of these.

I have setup and run and maintained both phpBB and vBulletin forums,
and of those two vBulletin easily wins, the only plus that phpBB has is that it's free.

As a user of invision and SMF I prefer SMF, so for me as a user I prefer (in this order): vBulletin, SMF, invision, phpBB.
In their "out of the box form" obviously, a well modified phpBB can be pretty amazing, I know this from personal experience. Updating is a bitch then though.

As for setting up/maintenance/administration, vBulletin beats phpBB easily, I can't comment on SMF and invision as I have never setup nor administered any of those two.

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:36 am

I used to run a phpBB which was later migrated to Invision because of phpBB's too many security issues.

At the time Invision was also free, but now, like vBulletin it is a commercial product.

I've been very happy with Invision, it's very easy to customize because they don't mix the HTML and PHP together, the files are either all PHP or all HTML. Much less confusing than phpBB which had them all mixed together. (this is from several years ago, don't know if phpBB is still structured that way now)

Can't comment on administering SMF or vBulletin as I've never been on that side of the fence with either of those boards.

As a forum user, I prefer (in order) Invision, older vBulletin, phpBB, newer vBulletin.

codemaniac · Post by **codemaniac** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:11 am

Rescator wrote:Have you ever maintained a vBulletin forum and not just "visited" it?

2 years ago I was the co-admin of VenusHosting and they had vBulletin as their forum software, I had access to all of its features and I was responsible for maintaining the forum. From my experience it is harder to set up and maintain than IPB.

mz · Post by mz » Fri Jul 20, 2007 1:37 pm

I chose I.P.B, its been reliable to me so far!

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 12:13 am

With the release of phpbb3, it's a tough call..