Omnimaga

General Discussion => Technology and Development => Web Programming and Design => Topic started by: rcfreak0 on March 28, 2011, 08:43:44 pm

Title: Forum software choice.
Post by: rcfreak0 on March 28, 2011, 08:43:44 pm

So as the topic says, I was wondering whats your guys choice of forum software, that is *free*. For the few that know, i have a domain that's sitting, and I've been wanting to do something with it for awhile. Ive been debating between SMF or phpbb. Currently I've set-up a test forum using SMF, I like it, but since i don't know a ton about forum software at all, What would you suggest? Specifically for Admin and ease of use. If i need to be more clear, typing this up during class.. Thanks in advance.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Eeems on March 28, 2011, 09:46:40 pm

Hmm, well personally I think that both SMF and PHPBB are good, I find SMF a little nicer user side, but there seems to be a slightly easier admin layout on PHPBB.
PHPBB also lets you integrate Sax, while SMF has Omnom.
I personally think both are just about equal, even if I lean towards SMF after using it for so long ( just because I'm familiar with it, nothing to do with it being better ).

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: rcfreak0 on March 28, 2011, 09:58:01 pm

Quote from: Eeems on March 28, 2011, 09:46:40 pm

Hmm, well personally I think that both SMF and PHPBB are good, I find SMF a little nicer user side, but there seems to be a slightly easier admin layout on PHPBB.
PHPBB also lets you integrate Sax, while SMF has Omnom.
I personally think both are just about equal, even if I lean towards SMF after using it for so long ( just because I'm familiar with it, nothing to do with it being better ).

Hmm ok, The admin on SMF is sometimes kinda confusing. I think i'll just have to look into PHPBB more, since i pretty much got SMF to work the way i want it to..

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 28, 2011, 11:48:57 pm

SMF is kinda confusing, but I never used PHPBB much aside from trying to skin a board. I prefer SMF skinning, but on SMF it took me 2 years to find some features like Quick edit.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: rcfreak0 on March 28, 2011, 11:58:13 pm

Hmmm, alright. I guess if i have any SMF questions ill come here to ask :). Now its time to forward my domain \o/ should prob. finish setting up the forum(s) first..

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Munchor on March 29, 2011, 05:05:12 pm

I prefer SMF due to the add-ins (the mods*) available.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: rcfreak0 on March 29, 2011, 08:25:18 pm

I've decided to go with SMF for my site. While pretty much still under construction, my domain www.rcfreak0.com (http://www.rcfreak0.com) Should forward to the forums. Mainly this will be focused around my server, but it will contain more than just that, eventually.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Ikkerens on March 30, 2011, 01:24:45 am

My own favorite is still phpBB, as it has loads of options/configurations available.
Though, I have to admit, SMF has nicer themes available, and is easier to configure. (Never got GMail as smtp configured on phpBB ^^)

<offtopic>
GNOMES! Better stay away from me, I might just war stomp you ^^
</offtopic>

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Juju on March 30, 2011, 01:47:17 am

My forum is on ABXD, which is based on Acmlmboard. It might not be the best, but I like it.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on March 30, 2011, 02:44:15 am

Actually I saw some pretty great PHPBB themes before. The custom SMF ones are generally not that much original. However there are more mods it seems, and mods won't risk wrecking your board as much if you know what you're doing.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: rcfreak0 on March 30, 2011, 12:25:49 pm

Quote from: Ikkerens on March 30, 2011, 01:24:45 am

<offtopic>
GNOMES! Better stay away from me, I might just war stomp you ^^
</offtopic>

<3 gnomes

Back to the topic..

Quote from: DJ_O on March 30, 2011, 02:44:15 am

Actually I saw some pretty great PHPBB themes before. The custom SMF ones are generally not that much original. However there are more mods it seems, and mods won't risk wrecking your board as much if you know what you're doing.

I'm glad the mods are forgiving 'cause i dont know what im doing for the most part, just winging it, and i haven't broke anything so-far so yay.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on April 06, 2011, 03:53:04 am

Ok good. Also, in your packages folder, when you install a mod it creates a backup of the state of the site before the install, uninstall, etc. However, don't take that 100% for granted, in case. It just can help for quick restores.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: flyingfisch on August 30, 2011, 10:15:32 am

Try forumotion.com

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: JL235 on September 03, 2011, 11:13:44 pm

Personally I don't like phpBB or SMF. The default themes are either generic, or ugly, and I think they produce forums which are far too big for most sites.

So I also prefer to build my own. It's more work, but you also end up with a forum that integrates better with your site.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 03, 2011, 11:28:41 pm

Hi and welcome here JL235. Yeah I saw many people building their own in the past. The only problem though is that in most cases it was just so much work and hassle that the admin spent his entire time building it instead of keeping some life on his forum, only to have the most basic features done within an entire year. Eventually the site is just abandonned as the admin gives up. Also often people do not trust if a random person decides to make you a forum of his own, because sometimes those people might leave a security hole in the background that only themselves know, so if one day that person becomes a troublemaker and you have to ban him or if you get in a fight with him, then your site is at his mercy.

At least we have to give some credits to PhpBB/SMF for their work, though. THey're still nice pieces of software considering they're free. I personally am not willing to pay over $200 for VB or InvisionBoard. By the way I don't like any default theme of those sites, same for PhpBB/SMF. The only software default themes I liked are MyBB and InvisionBoard v1.3.

Also flyingfisch holy necropost batman! :O

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Ti-Programmer on September 03, 2011, 11:43:56 pm

my board: http://tiprogrammer.57o9.org uses mybb and is pretty customizable, afaik. and my projects blog : http://tiprogrammer.57o9.org/myprojects uses wordpress.

Spoiler For Explaination For Lack of Users:

( Yes i know it only has 2 users, thats cause i don't/haven't asked for members and am a little unorganized currently. Hopefully, when I finish working on it, there will be more ppl. )

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Deep Toaster on September 04, 2011, 11:03:35 pm

I personally don't like some syntax quirks that SMF has. phpBB is often simpler and more intuitive, for example with decimal lists:

Code: (SMF) [Select] [list type=decimal] [li]Item 1[/li] [li]Item 2[/li] [/list]

Code: (phpBB) [Select] [list=1] [*]Item 1 [*]Item 2 [/list]

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on September 04, 2011, 11:05:01 pm

Yeah I hate that X.x.

I personally just never liked PhpBB skinning (although I hate SMF 2 skinning even more) and back in PhpBB2 it had a bad reputation of being hacked often.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: NanoWar on September 05, 2011, 10:11:25 am

Got hacked in phpBB2 once. But I like the simplicity and the admin tools are good.

Title: Re: Forum software choice.
Post by: Spyro543 on September 05, 2011, 01:34:41 pm

I might put a forum up on my website with SMF, but I'm not quite sure what it would be about.