Forums and in-site compatibility

[delemtri]

I think this is the right place to post this, because forums are online services, y'know?

Anyway, here's my question. Say you're running a member-driven site, where members sign up for services. Is it more important to have a set of forums that requires users to register again - like vBulletin or phpBB - or should I write bulletin board software myself that integrates into the site?

[mjames]

Well, in theory, you can have the best of both with vBulletin. You can get all the features that these forums have (minus Wayne's custom ones like Member of the Day, SitePoints, etc.) and you can customize it to fit your site in terms of design and user interface.

Is that what you're asking?

[iFroggy]

Thats not really what he was asking I don't think Marc, even though I know you like to push the ol vB when you can. You can do that stuff you said with phpBB.

But I think this is more of an answer to your question:

Either one could be altered I believe to do what you want, probably have one log in for all is the best solution, so maybe you could take a phpBB and modify it to your needs or write your own, or vB can be modified also a believe.

[delemtri]

Yeah Marc, I guess I didn't explain myself too well... What I meant was one that fit the site, NOT in terms of design and user interface, but in terms of the behind-the-scenes stuff, like registration and databases and such.

[HyperBaseball]

Yes, you can do this.

Check out http://www.edevcafe.com

Chris (TWTCommish) has done a lot of work integrating the membership stuff from vBulletin into the rest of his site.