Best Discussion Board/Forum System

[edumar]

One of the first things I noticed when I joined this community forum is that this is powered by vBulletin. On the other hand, I know of Fantastico comes with phpbb. Which now lead me to the thread I wish to start: Which is the best (or probably the favorite) discussion board/forum system?

[alexr]

I use phpbb, because its fast, free, and can be customized to exactly how you want it. I've even entirely integrated my website into phpbb to create a custom CMS

[edumar]

That's great alexr. Perhaps I should try that soon. Would you mind sharing the url of the site where you implemnted phhbb?

[alexr]

sure, http://console.iscentral.net

[edumar]

sure, http://console.iscentral.net

I'm not a game console fan but I do know some people who are into gaming, I'll tell them about your site.

[alexr]

Thanks, its taken quite a while to get that much done on it. I had originally had it on phpbb + my custom CMS, and then decided I didn't have the time to maintain it so I went to a full CMS (called e107, I do not recommend it). e107 ended up being the bane of my existance, I converted the user database back to phpbb, improved my CMS a bit, got the design going again a little bit and now its almost back to normal. I'm in the process of creating a php based admin portal so the tutorials and downloads can be administered by my wonderful moderators.

[alexr]

Hmm, While we're on the discussion of forum boards, this one seems interesting. This must be one of the later versions of VBulletin. When you push edit, it just changes the HTML rather than loading a new page, same thing when posting a menu - bandwidth efficient? probably, but it lacks the traditional "waiting for page to load" kind of thing. I thought the website had timed out, but My post had already been posted and was sitting right in front of me.

Also, when you post, your post count increments by 1 for this post, but all the other posts stay the same (because this is the only part of the page which is updated).. So thats a bug, the other bug is (I got to do some more testing because I'm no completely sure of this, but its ) when two people are actively replying to each other on this forum, you can post something, and not know anyone else has posted because it will show your post here but not update it for others

[brandon]

my forum is on phpbb...simply the best...

[bpotter]

I used to use phpBB and found it great.

However, one day I decided to try Invision Board and loved it even more. Ever since I have used Invision Power Board

[edumar]

scoreboard:
phpbb = 2
invision board = 1

[bpotter]

Although I've never tried it, apparently MyBB is a very good free forums script. I've heard a lot of good reviews about it, and heard many times that people think it is better than phpBB.

http://www.mybboard.com/

A demo of MyBB can be found at this address. First impressions for me are that it looks like a combination of phpBB and Invision Power Board

http://community.mybboard.net/

[alexr]

Hmm that one looks like a cross between phpbb and invision!

Heh, just read the second part of your post - we thought the same thing!

[brandon]

in terms of execute speed wise...Vbullentie stand out then any other board out there

[stonedge]

sure, http://console.iscentral.net

Alex, is that site hosted on a RapidVPS server?

[bpotter]

Hmm that one looks like a cross between phpbb and invision!

Heh, just read the second part of your post - we thought the same thing!

Great minds think alike ;)

[alexr]

Alex, is that site hosted on a RapidVPS server?

Yeah, why?

[hyperaxe]

IMHO, I would go for InvisionBoard since its UI is more appealing and the functionalities it provides are great.. :)

[hyperaxe]

Another discussion board/forum system that I really like is SMF (Simple Machine Forum). Actually, I've been using it more than InvisionBoard .. ;)

[birty]

phpbb3 is looking really good too. see http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/ for a deom

[brandon]

phpbb3??never heard or it

[birty]

its the next version of phpbb. it has oodles of new features like subforums and more advanced permissions

[alexr]

heh, I thought phpbb2's forum permissions were good enough :P

[birty]

phpbb3 allows permissions for individual users and other things some people have asked for. from what i've seen so far though the new permissions system is harder to use

[alexr]

Yeah, it sounds like its harder to use - If an individual needs separate permissions, you can create a hidden group and stick them in it ;-) (for phpbb2)

[Bradley]

I have to put in a vote for vBulletin. I know it will cost you but to me its a fair trade off for the increased features, constant updates, quality support, and simply a good program that works. You can't beat there plugin system in 3.5 which makes upgrading versions a snap even if you have lots of hacks.

[bakes]

Ive used PHPBB and Invasion myself both were decent, I dont know anything about vBulletin except from this site. Looks to be like invasion for the most part =) PHPBB is like the standard most people know and use.

[59ideas]

I have a list of php forum on my del.icio.us.
http://del.icio.us/59ideas/forum%2Bphp

So far I find that FUDforum and punbb is pretty good.

phpbb is very popular but they have a lot of problem and development cycle is rather slow. Hopefully phpbb3 is good. I have not look at it.

[zenic]

Invision Power Board all the way, Very easy to mod and skin, much more admin and user friendly then any other type of board. Definately worth the cost, thats why i bought it.

[edumar]

phpBB - 4
vBulletin - 4
InvisionBoard - 3
MyBB - 1
SMF - 1
FUDForum - 1
PunBB - 1