vBulletin is a professional grade forum program as explained on their website (see http://www.vbulletin.com/features.php). vBulletin powers many of the largest forums including this site (Daniweb) but it is not the only forum program. There are other paid solutions such as infopop's eve andinvision board along with free solutions like phpbb. All of these programs have their own benefits and asking two people which they prefer is likely to result in two different answers. Personally I recommend vBulletin for it's excellent feature set, reliability and support, my clients use it, my own sites use it and all around I am extremely pleased with it.

vBulletin is one of the forums. You can check out ASP Boards and some PHP Boards. VB is one of the more popular ones it seems. We usually use ASP & WebWiz has been good. Their support is a bit unresponsive at times but it is free and you usually get what you pay for.

Vbulletin is a forum software, you buy it, download it and then install it on your webhost. It comes with a manual so that should not be a problem. Secondly does your mom need a forum to discuss the protest? or what.. What I would suggest is an html front end with your mom's motives and all and a discussion area which ofcourse will be the forum.