What Forum Do You Use? - Page 2

I used to be a phpbb advocate but since moving to vBulletin on one of my sites I am now a convert :). I would suggest vBulletin to anyone planning on building a serious community that wont be a flash in the pan. Looking at 3.5 it's only going to get better for us admins.

I used to be a phpbb advocate but since moving to vBulletin on one of my sites I am now a convert :). I would suggest vBulletin to anyone planning on building a serious community that wont be a flash in the pan. Looking at 3.5 it's only going to get better for us admins.

Are you implying that those of us who cannot afford vBulletin are "flashes in the pan"? I don't get the logic of recommending vBulletin on these lines. Who says a serious community requires vBulletin? There are thousands of serious communities that run on phpBB including boards run by commercial organizations.

Say that vBulletin has great features: I agree.
Say that vBulletin is potentially more secure: I agree.
Say that vBulletin is much more powerful: I agree.

But to imply that those of us who use phpBB are "flashes in the pan" is an insult to the community of phpBB lovers.

not sure about him but "Flashes in the pan" I dont believe he meant to everyone using phpbb, The way I put it is: Vbulletin is much more powerful than any other community software, you can tell that by this site. And phpbb is very good for little clan sitesfor a game. That is why a lot of phpbb mods include game server, clan rosters..ect..

not sure about him but "Flashes in the pan" I dont believe he meant to everyone using phpbb, The way I put it is: Vbulletin is much more powerful than any other community software, you can tell that by this site. And phpbb is very good for little clan sitesfor a game. That is why a lot of phpbb mods include game server, clan rosters..ect..

I don't believe that the content or quality of a site is determined by the board software.

I think everything boils down to the admin interface and features. That's the difference. No ordinary user goes around looking for the extra features of vBulletin. As an admin, it all boils down to what kind of features you want your board to have... I don't think (in most non-technical circles) people are worried about whether you use phpBB or vBulletin.

I would use vBulletin if I could afford it, but the fact is, it wouldn't make one bit of a difference among my user-base. My community is determined not by the board software that runs it, but by the quality of content.

The other issue is technical. I am not going into the technical issues of using phpBB over vBulletin. That is a different question altogether and I am not a defender of phpBB in any way. In fact, if I could find an alternative to phpBB without the high price of vBulletin, I would choose that. phpBB has some issues: both major and minor, which I hope will be addressed in the next release phpBB 3.0 (olympus).

The point I wanted to make is, I would be very sad if somebody told me that the content of their board is entirely dependent on the underlying forum software they use. That would be the last reason why I would want to build a community.

In short, I think you can build a serious, mature community using phpBB as much as any other forum.

I use and love vBulletin 3.0.7 and soon to be vBulletin 3.5! I am also considering buying another license when I get a job for a new site I am creating... (btw if you are an experienced php programmer and looking for volunteer work email/msn im me at jpt62089@gmail.com).... I also love IPB. it has very good resource centers (IZE, IIT, etc) but that is about it... 2.1 is looking quite impressive but once vB3.5 is finished it will blow IPB outta the wata!

IF I had been able to get the mods to work in phpbb, I would have stayed with it. But I'm using vbulletin for mine and have 3.5 running on a test server right now and seeing how it works. I also have admin access to IPB and have seen PLENTY of boards running it. Let me just say I am very impressed and once my LEASED license with vbulletin is up, I MAY very well be switching. Liz

Currently I am still learning which is better for me but...

I have 2 forums running with phpBB and 1 forum running with vBulletin.

Both have pros and cons. Overall I am liking vBulletin but some of my sites just dont seem to justify the cost...YET. :)

Peace,

DJ Bill

I don't think (in most non-technical circles) people are worried about whether you use phpBB or vBulletin.

I disagree. People are accostomed to how to use a vBulletin or PHPbb forum because the two are so commonly used. Other forums can be harder to learn and cause frustration with newer members.

I just bought a forum that was PHPbb and converted it to VB. At first, alot of the members would say thinks like "the old forum had this, or had that" I had to educate them a little as to where these features could be found.

Now they all talk about how much they love the new software (vb) and how much easier it is to use.

they do care.

I'm a Beehive fan.

I know some don't like the frames. I have a 56K modem connection, and I dont find the speed objectionable.

What I get for allowing the frames is a side by side layout instead of top/down. That lets me see folders/discussions on the left, and the actual messages on the right. That setup makes navigation faster. No more scroll to the top to change threads.

I also like the flexibility it gives the user. Admin can allow users to determine their own 'bad word' list, and users can choose to not view or accept messages from anyone. Its got a very powerful feature set.

I also happen to like the crew that's working on it. They helped me install it, and checked a problem for me- and its free software.

People who use PHPBB style software are expressing in large measure a preference for a format- that is, they are liking what they are used to. I have much less experience, so I choose without that preconceived idea of 'what forums should be like'. I think that's what makes me like Beehive.

Tis a personal choice, for sure. Maybe after a year of messing with it, I'll go with the more mainstream boards. VB looks good, so does SMF.

Anyway, look at Beehive.

WayneC

Forumer :p
It is a good host
You can either get phpbb or IPB both versions have unlimited storage and Bandwith.

IPD is the exact same thing as Invision Free except for It says Forumers instead

Best of all it is a great server with alot of mods and it is all free

Firefox: no, its not the end all solution, it has its own issues and in time it will be just as insecure as IE, when its hit Firefox 6, if it makes it that far. Oh, and AOL pays for it, incase you didn't know.

Microsoft & Windows: If you hate it so much, move to linux, or bsd, or anything else, stop complaning and move on.
Good starting places: Gentoo Novell SUSE Fedora Core Apple

I always seem to be cheering for the losers. I briefly had a board on NoonHost, but scrapped it when I saw all that you can do on IPB. InvisionFree is great, you can do a lot compared to some places. It has minimum ads. Also, I've never owned a Macintosh in my life. I've always had an IBM with Microsoft software. I once had Netscape years ago, and thoroughly hated it. I love IE, Microsoft, and InvisionFree and am probably one of very few who still do ( :sad: ).

I agree that vB has better goodies at the admin (control panel) level. I don't agree that phpBB is less secure. I know that may sound shocking, what with all the phpBB patches. But my experience has been that the easier it is to see the code, the more bugs are found, and the more patches come out, and the more secure the thing gets. Something like vB, where only those that paid for it see the code, will have fewer eyeballs scrutinizing the code, and therefore fewer patches (giving a false sense of security). But those undiscovered bugs will still be there.

Anyway, after having written that, let me immediately disown it a little bit: I concede one thing about phpBB's security -- the team behind it doesn't do enough testing. The last few updates have had various problems that clearly came about simply because the team didn't try their patch on various installations. That's sloppy.

Also, I think phpBB missing the nested forums feature (or subcategories) is pretty big. If you need to group your boards like that, you just cannot use phpBB. There is a mod that will enable phpBB to do it, but it changes so much code that you're then pretty much stuck like that -- no extra mods for you, 99% of them won't install after that.

Having said all that, I use phpBB. I think it's fine. I modded one of my phpBB installations to redisplay forum posts as blog entries with an RSS feed and podcasts attached to it. That's pretty damn customizable. All but 1 of my mods installed via EasyMod 0.2.0a, so it was just point & click. Of course, before I used EasyMod 0.2.0a, I had to read the EasyMod forums, and patch up EasyMod by hand -- that's that sloppiness again, they released without enough testing, so I'm patching it up after-the-fact.

-Tony

Vb all the way. If I couldnt use vbulletin then I'd use XMB.

if you got the cash i would say vbullieten but if you dont phpBB all the way

I use php boards but that is because I'm familiar with other boards that use the same format. So when I wanted my own I stuck to what was familiar. I can't say I've tried anything else as I'm still a novice, and my boards are free, but I find them easy to use and quite customisable (for a beginner) what was posted above about displaying posts as blog entries and RSS feeds sounds like something I would like to do but I don't have a clue where to begin LOL

I post on another site which belongs to an author and the software they use is discus? It's a hideous tree structure and seems to have lots of problems. I've never seen anything like it. It reminds me of how file manager looked in windows 3.1 LOL

I really don't like PhPBB, it is too basic and doesn't have many features, hacks are hard to install, etc.
And I love Invision. But I am using a free service, and after all of that, I am doing good, and I enjoy it. And I am bad installing codes/hacks etc, so it's okay with me to use Invision Free.
About VBulletin, I think it is excellent. But it is expensive and I can't pay. If it not were for that, I would use it.

I use invisionfree because it's free and i'm poor

InvisionFree is good no matter what others say. At least you can change the look of the board and add cool hacks/codes/scripts easily and without having to replace files and all that crap. :)
And it is a big community, with many people, many skins and graphics available too. :)
So yeah, free services are a good choice, too. The only ads in Invisionfree are the google ads and that's all. No annoying popups and it's fun. :)

yes. plus it can look super cool in a small amount of time

Anybody else use a YaBB Forum?

What are the pro's and con's?

Not YaBB, but no one's talked about Proboards or Hyperboards either, which aren't bad. They even have that fun /marquee command, I like it. And now with spellcheck and all.
It is a good choice for beginners.
Never heard of YaBB before. Is it any good?

I'm currently running vBulletin 3.07 on both my boards and am anxiously awaiting 3.5. :)

I have a few boards running vBulletin 3.0.7, and might I say, that is one little powerhouse. I almost drooled when I saw the AdminCP :o If you can, I would Strongly recommend getting vBulletin. It definately is worth it.

Well said! :)

phpBB, im buying a host fot it and i love the clean look of it. Plus it is free.

Vbulletin here, IPB was pretty good but it doesn't have as many decent skins and what not.

Ok I just set up a new forum and I am using SMF and I luvs it. It's very flexible and has lots of great mods to use and of course, it's free.

I have added lots of stuff to mine and am still working on adding more. There are just so many great ideas and suggestions for new mods floating around that I just can't help myself.

Of course it is only two weeks old so I am still desperate to get new members but it's a slow process. The forum is attached to the main website that I designed so I am hoping also that people find it that way too.

I am using vb but i think ipb is really faster & less bandwidth hog than vb & in open source forum softwares i think phpbb ROCKS!! (because lots of FREE skins & mods are available for phpbb!)

can i change my vote? previously i said phpbb but i am currently using vbulletin. and pretty happy so far. It's starting to come around!

I wish i had a forum to make.. :sad: :sad:

I really don't understand why people say that PhPBB is better. Many say it is, but I actually think it is the worse of them all. It is very hard to add a hack carefully, and you can only do this if you host it. Also, its features are very limited.

I will always prefer IB and even Proboards rather than PhPBB. I can't say about Vbulletin because it is too expensive and there are no free hosting offers for Vbulletin, so I exclude it.

People never try Proboards but they should! It is getting better every time, and there are so many codes/hacks now that you can't imagine all you can do with it. And it is free, yes, has ads (which you can remove by paying), but it has UNLIMITED space to add ANYTHING to the headers/footers, it is SO customizable! And now with the newest version it has so many features! Even an implemented spell check hack, which is wonderful. Now you can create sub boards! And if you pay, you can add the file upload feature. In my opinion, Proboards is my second favorite message board after Invision. And who knows, if I was better at PB I would even love Proboards over all.

Maybe I think this way because I don't have money, I am only 16 and I can't work, so I always rely on the best free services I can find.