Cheap and reliable MSG board.

[Rudi Breens]

First, Sitepointforums is great! Now my question: anyone suggestions on cheap, reliable forum (msg board) software?
I did like Robboard, but it is to slim. I did like YaBB, but it is still under development...

[Justin S]

Check out the following URLs for a listing of all the message boards with user reviews...

http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scrip...ussion_Boards/
http://www.hotscripts.com/ASP/Script...rds/index.html
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Script...rds/index.html

I personally like vBulletin, but it may be a little out of your price range. You may want to keep your eye out on the following URL as well: http://www.phpbulletin.com

[Son Nguyen]

Just a note: I think Wayne and other people at SitePointForums put a lot of effort to change/improve the forum and also many other small hacks I see.
So my point here is you need to work on the script and change the default look of vBulletin to make it better. (since with vB, you already have a solid design/core)

[dhtmlshock]

http://www.snitz.com is another fantastic forum with a lot of custom hacks, and a huge support base.

[Editor's Note: This forum requires ASP and either MS Access or SQL Server]

[Edited by W. Luke on 10-31-2000 at 11:49 AM]

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by 123finder.com
Just a note: I think Wayne and other people at SitePointForums put a lot of effort to change/improve the forum and also many other small hacks I see.
So my point here is you need to work on the script and change the default look of vBulletin to make it better. (since with vB, you already have a solid design/core)

We have been putting effort into the forum. Now that the new version is out you will be seeing more enhancements as well as streamlining taking effect.

[James]

Snitz Forums now works on mySQL..just thought you might be interested in that The new v3 does support it but its a relatively new feature so there may be bugs .
Check out their support forum at http://forum.snitz.com for more info

[freejavahelp]

Check out Boardmaster at http://www.beholder.net

I have used it for a few months, and it is pretty good for a free script (if you ask me).

While I probably won't use it forever (I will probably switch to VB at some point), it is great for the time being!

Jim

[psalzer]

How was Boardmaster to install? If you're really bad at that stuff I mean? I notice it says it supports strict cgi-bin policies. I've read that before, but with some boards it means you have to change more stuff around that I trust myself to mess with. Is it more cut and dried with Boardmaster, do you know?

[mjames]

I recommend http://www.ezboard.com .

[James Smith]

http://www.phpbb.com

http://www.ikonboard.com

[superbird]

Anyone got any experience with phpBB? I also just downloaded Ikonboard, what about that one?



[Edited by superbird on 11-06-2000 at 04:22 PM]

[Justin Sampson]

Hi,
I'd recommend boardpower. Look at my sig if you want to see it in action. It's good for about a thundred active users but then I think it's going to get ssssslllllloowwwww. Then I'd recommend vBulletin.

[PeterW]

I just started running phpBB as an experiment and I like it quite a lot.

[Nicky]

How much is it for Vbulletin? I am thinking of setting up a board but I doubt I will get many people to start off with. If I start off on a free one can I then import my users to VB?

[Chicken]

The paid one is $160, and there is a lite one, also hacked versions of the liteone (adding some functions), as well as a version 3 lite one that some are working on which shold be pretty good... was supposed to be out some time ago.

I'm most interested in http://www.phpbb.com at the moment. Seems very nice.

[Chicken]

Update on that last post. vBulletin asked the person who who putting allthe hacks together not to continue and it seems he has stopped the project.

The hacked version included registration of users, but really.. there are a few things that make it not worth using. Can't delete individual posts, etc., etc., etc.

[superbird]

just installed Boardpower, it was really easy and I'm bad at that stuff. Couldn't get Ikonboard to work.

[Chicken]

phpbb or boardpower - phpbb or boardpower, hmmmmmm which one? Guess each has a few things I like.

[mjames]

Originally posted by Nicky
How much is it for Vbulletin? I am thinking of setting up a board but I doubt I will get many people to start off with. If I start off on a free one can I then import my users to VB?

$160 for the license, $85 for the one-year lease. I recommend the lease not only because it's cheaper (obviously), but because if you decide to close your site or something after a year, you won't be losing that extra money you paid for with the license.

[Rudi Breens]

vBulletin is great software (Discus, Ultraboard, Ultimate BB, DC forum... also). I see only one problem with these programs: SPEED when used with a modem (I use ADSL, but most people still use a modem, here in Europe). That is why I installed the Advanced Message Board 4.5 ->
http://www.cgi-factory.com It is certainly not the best software but it is fast (used with a modem) and *very easy* to use!

[eradtke]

I've been using phpBB for a private site-development forum and I'm thoroughly impressed with it.

It is easy to install, looks and functions similar to vBulletin and UBB, and is FAST! Besides that, the phpBB team is working on adding many new features to the script, and will consider any feature requests you suggest to them.

Anyway, I'd suggest giving it a try if you haven't already.