Which free forum software is your favorite?

Like I said before, phpbb because its the only one I know how to work.

 

I've only seen vB's administration panel once thanks to a friend, but it honestly looked a lot more like SMF's than MyBB's to me, in terms of concepts at least.

 

I can't say that I agree with you on that. You're certain that it was vBulletin?

 

Yes. I didn't get much time to look at it, but I have people telling me over and over that I should convert Elliquiy to vBulletin and have used various lures : )

 

I'd recommend trying out the demo, spending some time and deciding for yourself.
vBulletin - Admin Control Panel Demo

 

For me it's phpBB3 and I've used it on all my recent forums, very very impressive for free software.

 

Hmm. User management - there's no option for mass control? I get say, a bunch of spammers from the next gawab.com I can't just dump them all with a click?

Can you actually edit the registration agreement from the control panel? I can't seem to find that option. Regexping usernames is nice feature, though.

Obviously the direct split between forum usage and administration logins is not something SMF shares. It is more of its own thing, as a rule. I get the impression that MyBB and phpBB are trying to emulate vB rather than going their own way.

Definitely better than SMF1 or any incarnation of phpBB / MyBB. Drupal and SMF 2 put it to shame, in my not so humble opinion.

1) In SMF 2, you can search for options. This is insanely handy. In Drupal, you can look for options by module or by function - since everything is a module, this makes things pretty fast.
2) SMF 2 has serious mass user management - I'm sorry but I'm simply not finding it here. I want to delete/promote/whatever several hundred users, I can do so with a few clicks. That does not seem to be an option here.
3) I understand the philosophy that 'some things should be a module'. I will note to those people that there are reasons for a communities' success, and newsletters are an immense part of that. No newletters in core VB?
4) No actual usergroup permission inheritance or forum permission profiles? I have sixty membergroups and a hundred and twenty forums. I have no desire to be managing them all individually.

Obviously I've only looked at so much of it so far, and while some of it is nice, I don't see anything that would overcome the above four flaws for me. I could run some types of forums with it, yes, but not something like Elliquiy.

 

Some of us choose it despite money being no issue. Hosting costs significantly more than the few $$$ for a vB / IPB license.

 

Everyone tells me that vB is slower than SMF. If that actually is true, then going to vB also means I need to buy a beefier server : /

 

Who? Who told you such a thing? Give me names!

:lol:

 

There were a number of siege tests I found on-line, vB was the universal loser : )

I would be interested in a genuine speed comparison, regardless. Set up both forums so the settings are roughly equivalent (caching enabled, avatars handled similarly, etc) feature wise, then let loose with siege.

 

PHPBB Is Great I Like It Alot, But I've Seen MyBB Forums And Websites That Look So
Great, But Still I Prefer PHPBB. Also SMF, Pretty Good. Other , Would Be Forumotion
ForumWise, ProBoards, Zeta, Invision, The Best Free Forum Software Would Be:

vBulletin DEMO!!

 

Ak, at first, I thought you were referring to vBulletin as a free forum script. :p

 

There are loads of new features in SMF 2 compared to SMF 1. If you don't like the looks of SMF, then install another theme.
I can understand SMF varies a lot from other forum software. Is that so bad? Did you even give SMF a chance? Do you even know what you are talking about? All I see is negative "neanderthal" comments like "huh, huh, huh SMF is stupid, huh, huh, huh". Is that the general picture of people who don't like SMF?

Why not give some constructive feedback instead? SMF admins are probably running screaming away from this SMF hostile forum. Why should they bother using their time in here?

 

MyBB definitely.

 

I have been reading their strong criticisms as an SMF administrator,and not bothered by it.

 

I really don't know the version but there was a SMF forum that did not send a email when a PM was sent, and there was no thread preview, and I cannot remember the 3rd thing. The members of that forum were extremely loyal to SMF and frequently stated vB was not desired. At least those were my impressions.

Please keep in mind my knowledge is limited about these things.

 

I have tried PhpBB and MyBB, i prefer the second one.

 

phpbb would be my choice, although i havent used any of the others

 

I had phpBB2 and then phpBB3,as a SITE administrator.

When I took over ownership from someone else,he had already switched over to SMF,that I personally liked over phpBB3,that really sucks.

Now I am seriously looking at myBB and may change my dormant political forum to it and have my Global Moderator be a limited Administrator there to tinker with the theme and its buttons.

That way I can have myBB and SMF running for a more meaningful comparison.