which forum package

[StuR]

Im looking to build a forum and have had a few packages suggested to me, unfortunately vbulletin isnt on the cards due to lack of funds.

what does everyone think the better package out of phpbb and SMF. I've seen both work but what are the pros and cons of both?

 

[brady]

phpbb

 

[jdon285]

My experience with PHPBB is the mods that are available, forum support and security patches can't be beat, they are awsome! I can't really think of anything I didn't like about. I used it for a few years at a golf site I used to run. After awhile I changed it to php nuke and used phpbb as a built in module.
The only downside maybe would be that it's php/sql based and if you don't know them you could run into trouble making exclusive changes, but everything works great right out of the wrapper and like I said there is endless support out there.

 

[Jam3s-Zer0]

Key features of phpbb

Installation
Simple installation that will have you up and running in minutes
Complete upgrade from V1.x

Database Server Support
phpBB uses a database abstraction layer to enable seamless support of several database servers:

MySQL 3.2x,
PostgreSQL 7.x,
Microsoft SQL Server 7/2000
Microsoft Access (via ODBC)
...with more databases available in the future.

Security
Designed with security as a priority
Powerful and extensive authorisation system
Strong encryption to keep passwords safe in the database
Support for both cookie and URI-based sessions

Unlimited Forums & Categories
Unlimited forums can be organised into as many categories as you like
Private forums and those only for specified user groups
Powerful search facility

Posting Messages
Message formatting with various font styles and sizes as well as allowing quoting, code display, image posting and automatic URL linking
Support of standard and extended BBCode tags and controlled HTML tags
Polls can be simply added to posts
Email notification of replies to your topics
Powerful topic subscription capability
Original emoticons to portray emotions

Versatile User Groups & Forum Permissions
Powerful forum, user and group permission management
Control forum access to specified user groups
Control all aspects of the posting experience
Allow limited access to viewing, posting, replying and many other options

Member Features
Unlimited members
Personal profile creation
Post counting and administrator-definable ranks for users
Email-like private messaging system
Supports local, remote and uploadable avatars

Moderation Features
Topic editing
Mass delete/move/lock/unlock of posts
Topic splitting
Option of auto-pruning of old or unanswered messages on a per-forum basis

Easy to Use Administration Centre
General configuration
Forum & category setup
Easy database backup and restore
Disallowed usernames
User authorisation
Word censoring
Complete member management
Emoticon setup
Optional account verification
Extensive ban management, ban by email address, username or single/multiple IP address or hostname
IP tracking of posts and posters
Mass emailing of groups and users by the administrator

Style and Customisation
Multiple styles available for the user to choose from
Templates separated from the PHP code so that new layouts can easily be created or integrated with your current site design
Complete control of fonts and colours with cascading style sheets (CSS)
Active community creating addons and specialised modifications
Default style compliant with XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4.01 recommendations from the W3C

Support
All this is supported by an increasingly large, thriving and friendly community of members from all over the world ready to help with any problems, suggestions or just for general discussion!

 

[mBernhardt]

I'm running forums on phpBB right now. Very easy to use. I tried to get SMF up and running and could not for the life of me make it work consistently. (Coming from a noob standpoint)

 

[Alvin.C]

phpBB .