Which forum/BB script to use?

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:47 am (20 years, 12 months ago)

Ok. Tell us in your opinion which forum/BB script should one choose to use and why ?
Giving the reason is as important as voting. Please include:-
Which script has best features for normal users/visitors.
Which script has best features for administrators.
Which script can best handle medium to heavy load sites.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:05 am (20 years, 11 months ago)

I prefer to write my own forum depending on what it is for. Then I know how it works and can select the features i want Smile

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

No prizes for guessing what I chose Very Happy

Reasons for choosing phpBB:

It's free
It's open source
Well organised and efficient development team: each version is feature frozen before final release, so as not to introduce more bugs, and then each release after that is just a bugfixer
The quality of the code is quite high, as is the readability, which makes it easier to mod
It integrates quite easily into add-on scripts (like the 4WebHelp home page)
I love subSilver (although nowadays default subSilver is plain because so many people use it and don't customise it - so I guess I prefer a customised subSilver )
The profile section is easy to use - it's all in one place, not divided into loads of different pages with buddy lists, ignore lists, and all that stuff
Sort of the same as above: the PMs are seperated from the profile, as they should be
One-click (or two in some cases - another click for confirmation ) moderation: just click an icon at the bottom of a post and it can be locked, deleted, split or moved
Clean database layout - it doesn't take much to guess what each table/column is for
Secure: no major security problems have been found in the last six months

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 9:33 am (20 years, 11 months ago)

I voted for vbulletin, 'cause in my opinion it's fast as well as packed with useful features (ok, so most forum scripts have the same features, but there's something about vbulletin that makes me like it better than the rest). So, I think vbulletin has the best features for everyone (normal users, mods and admins). It can also handle large loads well, as demonstrated by sites like webhostingtalk.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Yes, I actually find vBulletin 2 quite good, but then it's not exactly cheap Very Happy

I'm not too sure about vBulletin 3 though - from what I've seen of it so far it's feature packed, and not in a good way. Will have to wait till the final release though. They'd better have an outstanding skin, with everything they're having in it Smile

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My Musical Preferences · Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 10:52 am (20 years, 11 months ago)

I chose phpBB, I find it does the job it should without any hassle and considering it took no time to install the first time I tried it that's what really made me stick with it.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 1:03 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

yabb se because I hate forums that use cookies to keep track of threads that have been read, its so annoying cos it plain just doesnt work propley - YSE keeps track of the threads you have read on the server so you can go away for a year and any new threads are marked as unread while threads you have read are marked as read correctly, this just never seems to work propley on any other forum I'v come accross.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Right now phpBB 2.2 has that feature Ben, but it may not stay, depending on the resources it uses (since keeping read topics in the database can use up a lot of space on big sites).

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 1:20 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

does it? will have to try it some day...

Pah whats a few meg here and there anyway Wink

Assume its not enabled here - if it is it doesnt work Razz

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Ben, I said phpBB 2.2. We're running phpBB 2.0 here, as should anyone in their right mind, since phpBB 2.2 is still in development and will be for at least another six months.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 3:49 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

Oh, never noticed.. dont pay all that much attention to version numbers Sad

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 7:54 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

I used to help run YaBB SE on a mate's site, but we changed to phpBB, which is much "cleaner", although I do prefer being able to edit users profiles straight from the members list in YaBB Twisted Evil

(althought I do gather thereis a mod for that feature for phpBB).

Also, IMHO phpBB is faster (YaBB seems to get very slow with 1000s of posts).

BTW, is there an automated modding tool for phpBB?? There is for YaBB, and thats one of the main things I miss.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2003 7:57 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

I agree YSE is a bit lacking in skinning ability etc but it is based off old code - V2 should be much better... (beside I cant live without server side read topics list)

As for slow down, I've not noticed it with Total Topics: 11966 Total Posts: 149786, Getting page gen times of around Page created in 0.2 seconds, though its a touch higher today as the server load is around 2 for some reason and its only a celeron 1.3gig.., host did offer to move me to a dual zeon but I couldnt be bothered..

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Nutzzy is developing such a tool, but it's still in alpha, and very few mods are compatible with it for now:

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=34678

Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2003 12:34 pm (20 years, 11 months ago)

phpBb is the best in my opinion... Smile