Building a PHP Forum

[RCD24]

I plan on developing a PHP forum system, to maybe try and market for $10 per license.

I would like some feedback from any members willing to help out.

What features would you find most useful in a forum system for your website, what is essential...

and also, as far as design is concerned... overly intricate, or something simpler?


thanks in advance.

[World Wide Weird]

Since there are already so many free vBulletin clones out there, I'd rather see a Juicy Campus clone than yet another vBulletin clone.

[RCD24]

hmm, well do you mean the juicycampus website that got shut down?

[World Wide Weird]

Yes. You would obviously need to add user accounts, as a totally anonymous board is subject to all kinds of abuse (and is almost impossible to keep free of spam).

[RCD24]

well what exactly did the system do that was so useful, or why was it popular? I am open to suggestions actually on what software to write in a web based language, a forum was just my original idea, but i see that field is saturated. I'm trying to find an area a little less dense where I may be able to put something out that a few people would be interested in.

[Cups]

Maybe try and create something new, a mini-forum using Twitter, or Yahoo Pipes and rss, but concentrate your efforts on creating something for a niche subject that you know very well. I'd easily join a forum like that if it only needed my Tw account, or an OpenId registration - as long as I can hide my real persona. Just an idea.

[sk89q]

There are some minor niche markets in forums, though I don't know how profitable they are. The popular non-free forum packages are a bit expensive for some people and you may be able convince people to cough up a mere ten bucks for a forum.

Right now, there really aren't any "perfect" PHP forum packages. phpBB has a poor history of security issues and it lacks features, SMF is horrendously ugly and confusing out of the box, Vanilla lacks features, IP.Board's code and internal design is atrocious, punBB lacks features, Phorum lacks features, <insert here> lacks features or is expensive, buggy, confusing, etc. I haven't worked with vBulletin much, but it is more costly than most options.

But if you are going to write a forum and charge $10, it better have more features than phpBB and be nice out of the box. If you can undercut IP.Board, WowBB, vBulletin, etc. with the same number of features (though I don't know how you will handle support), it may be like taking candy from a baby ($10 = cheap). Not sure if you could get that far though, unless you were unemployed or so.

[World Wide Weird]

well what exactly did the system do that was so useful, or why was it popular? I am open to suggestions actually on what software to write in a web based language, a forum was just my original idea, but i see that field is saturated. I'm trying to find an area a little less dense where I may be able to put something out that a few people would be interested in.

That particular site was popular because it allowed jerky college boys to assassinate the character of their female classmates with impunity. Needless to say, the platform had more potential than the dubious use it was put to. What I liked about it was the user interface. It used a lot of AJAX and show/hide DIV effects. In my opinion, it provided a better user experience (again, target audience and subject matter notwithstanding) than the typical forum package.

[SpacePhoenix]

There are some minor niche markets in forums, though I don't know how profitable they are. The popular non-free forum packages are a bit expensive for some people and you may be able convince people to cough up a mere ten bucks for a forum.

Right now, there really aren't any "perfect" PHP forum packages. phpBB has a poor history of security issues and it lacks features, SMF is horrendously ugly and confusing out of the box, Vanilla lacks features, IP.Board's code and internal design is atrocious, punBB lacks features, Phorum lacks features, <insert here> lacks features or is expensive, buggy, confusing, etc. I haven't worked with vBulletin much, but it is more costly than most options.

But if you are going to write a forum and charge $10, it better have more features than phpBB and be nice out of the box. If you can undercut IP.Board, WowBB, vBulletin, etc. with the same number of features (though I don't know how you will handle support), it may be like taking candy from a baby ($10 = cheap). Not sure if you could get that far though, unless you were unemployed or so.

What is VBulletin like to use out of the box? I would never use it but it would be a nice comparison .

[Huuz]

there is also simplemachines . org SMF,

Pretty nice free, forum software.

You'll have alot of work on your hands.