Your opinion about custom forum software?

You know, when someone builds the forum software from scratch rather than using vBulletin/Invision Power Board/phpBB/MyBB. Do you think it's a good idea, or makes your community grow quicker, or think it's a waste of time and effort?

For me, while it makes a site somewhat more interesting, I do personally prefer it when a forum uses a customised version of an existing forum package. This is simply because the vast amount of the custom software I've seen ends up being rather feature minimal compared to what's off the shelf, that I actually like having more than just a few features and a text box in which to write a post, and I feel to be honest, a lot of admins could probably better spend their time writing unique content for their site/forum rather than spend it creating a custom piece of software purely for their own use.

 

Well, you have to admire their tenacity, but I wouldn't go reinventing the wheel unless I had a really good idea for improving it. And because I'd rather have the security of knowing an established brand will be regularly issuing patches and security updates, I doubt I'd take a chance on it with my sites.

 

I can't build my own car, I can take one that has been built and tested then modify it suit my needs. The same with the off shelf forums. I can't write one from scratch but can modify it to suit my needs.

 

That's a good point. I have about as much programming knowledge as most people here (aka roughly none), and hence I agree with the customisation part. It's easier, and it's for one not inventing the wheel or having to code your own security fixes (and not getting hacked when your code just isn't secure enough, because with custom software, you're basically the test guinea pig).

 

Total waste, building a forum that can compete with what is already available would take forever and a small fortune.

I think it'd be better (and more cost efficent) to simply modify an existing solution and think outside the box and make it unique.

 

The more time you have to put into development, the less time you can put into promotion. So if someone is going to build their own forum software, they are probably going to have to buy advertising.

Some of the largest and most profitable sites on the internet run on custom software. One example is "Plenty of Fish" - the largest free dating on the internet.

If you have a specific need, building your own software might be the only option.

Companies like IPB, VBulletin, smf - their a rubber stamp one size fits all solution. The problem is, one size does not fit all.

 

Many people say "I am going to build my own solution". Some do. However they are usually basic representations of what a forum and/or community has these days. Packages like vBulletin, IPB, phpBB, and others have thousands if not tens of thousands of manhours behind them. Not only in development but in testing and support. One person cannot compete with that.

 

That's a good point to be honest, nigh on every piece of custom software I've seen a site used for a forum has roughly early 1990s era features, a rather basic style and none of the stuff found in the current packages. Nor do these forums have a lack of bugs or other problems.

 

I could build a forum from scratch. It'd be terrible, it'd be ugly, and it'd glitch up, but it'd work. Sort of. If you are very, very good, far better than I am, and you have a lot of spare time, then custom forum software could be a good idea. If you aren't, or haven't, then stick to established forum software.

 

I don't have the skill to do it, but even if I did, I think the time would be better spent creating content and promoting your community rather than building someting from scratch.

 

Spare time is an oxymoron. Everyone has the same limited amount of time. It is a personal choice on whether you choose to be productive with it.

Now, if I wanted to than I could sit down and write my own custom forum package. Have thought about it before. However it wouldn't be spare time that it would be built in. It would be uncompensated work. If I make on average of $45.00 an hour working on someone else's website than spending that time working on my own project means I don't get paid. If it takes me 100 hours of work to come up with a working forum system than that software cost me $4500.00. That is quite a chunk of change.

In economics this is called an opportunity cost. If I cannot recover the cost of the project than it isn't a good project. I doubt I would be able to recover the cost of creating a custom forum package easily. Let alone build something comparable to the popular packages available with that low of an opportunity cost. To recreate vBulletin, we're probably looking at the 5 digit range in cost. At the bare minimum, $100,000. Even the free software packages like phpBB, SMF, and MyBB have these costs. If the developers of those packages were not building free software they could be spending time with family or being paid to build database applications at $100.00 hour or so.

So remember there is no free time. Our clock starts with the average of 35,215,200 minutes on it and quickly ticks down.

 

Well i don't have much idea about it, but i think its not that much effective.