Know about any lesser known forum software?

I have run many of those forums in the above list, and my favorite used to be UseBB until they upgrade the software and removed the arcade games and the auto-poster.

I also liked BableBoard because it had a look that resemble IPB 2.0 and had an integrated Paypal subscription module despite it was a free software. In fact I have many of these forum somewhere in my hard disk.

One that is missed in the list is DoveForums, which I think is the closest open source alternative to XenForo, but it seems its development has been stopped.

You can find further information here, http://www.opensourcecms.com/scripts/details.php?scriptid=536
Besides descriptions, official sites and demos of other forums and CMS scripts.

 

I saw you mention this before and I would like to try the dove forums script looks nice.

 

I think Elkarte is the better of the 2 forks but unfortunately as forks are created by those who think they have a better idea, they don't always have the dedicated staff or resources to sustain themselves after years of lonely developing. Even SMF is suffering from lack of dedicated, knowledgeable, experienced, people. All free forum software programs suffer the same excuses for long time development. They are all volunteers who temporarily commit when they have the time.

 

Yes I usually recommend DoveForums as a free XenForo alternative and this software looks nice and run smoothly.

I'm actually working on setup a new forum software that I found. It also looks nice because is a sort of forum and social network into one, but I'm still testing.

This forum is OmegaBB, http://www.omegabb.com

 

One that hasn't been mentioned yet is ProBoards. http://www.proboards.com/

 

I think proboards has come along way and is probably the best free forum service available.

Looks are basic but after reading and looking around the backend looks really nice.

 

I'm using WBB myself, it's pretty good forum software - and much cheaper than XenForo, IPB and vB.

But some forums are using selfmade forum software, I think. (Maybe they're using branding free licences of lessre known softwares...?)

 

Yes, at first it looks like a very simple forum, but once that one understands how it works, this forum software has potential.

Perhaps the main problem with this is having to make most of the customization by editing manually the configuration file, much in the was it was done with the first version of Advanced Electron Forum.

 

I ran a short term (1 year) event forum using http://vanillaforums.org/ - Loved it and would definitely use it again.

 

So, what particularly do you like about it?

Any detail is good.

 

Maybe because it doesn't look like traditional forum software i am used to, but i've never liked the look of Vanilla forums but i hear so many good things about it.

 

For sure I don't dare to compare my own Forum with "Big Bosses", but it has a nice interface, is lightware and speedy, and works 100% as native Facebook Tab Application. As I know, at least at this moment, is the only forum available as standalone product which works as Tab Application. There are 1-2 others but you don't have access to your data, and one more which is downloadable product but does not works as tab application. In addition it misses simple FB features (eg posting to user's Timeline).

Here is my forum:
https://www.facebook.com/3FStars/app_740284805997834

 

The new version may well make some people sit up and take notice, I feel.

 

Does anyone else feel reading a vanilla forum thread is hard on the eyes?

I also noticed, they don't have forums and sub-forums. They only use categories and sub-categories. It that a good thing?

Scott

 

@s.molinari First, let me be upfront and say I work at Vanilla. I think there is lots of flexibility with Vanilla and it might be the site you are visiting that makes it hard to read. No one can control the theme an owner uses . I have also seen people create forums and sub-forums, it's really up to how the forum owner does their setup. (Take a look at Penny Arcade for example). Vanilla is quite flexible.

 

Hi @Adrian,

I was looking at the vanillaforums.org community forums. I think it is hard for me to read, because the avatars are on top of the posts. They break the flow of reading just a bit. I can see though, from Penny Arcade, that this is adjustable.

As for forums and sub-forums, it isn't clear that categories with forums and sub-forums are possible from the vanillaforums.org community forum either. Not saying that is a bad thing. I was just wondering, if anyone thought it was good thing.

Scott

 

When i look at the community forum it looks like the early 2000 how it looks. While the minimalist look can be good its a bit to white on the page. For the rest its a very fast forum software it loads really fast, but the default theme is not showing what it can do and does not have eye candy.

 

Vanilla has the open source (free to download version) which are for devs and self-hosters (vanillaforums.org), and then there is the commercial cloud version (with some more advanced features, takes advantages of CDN's ect -- available at vanillaforums.com). I agree the dev forum is a bit bare, but we are working hard on putting out great software -- so theming of org site will happen, but it's not a priority. We have a showcase of what some have done with the software on our website. And our support site on the commercial site is a bit more themed up to. Maybe I should open a Vanilla Fourms question thread and not hijack this one :p

 

I was the one who actually took it off topic. Maybe a mod could fork off my post on to another thread?

Scott

 

@s.molinari already created a new thread to make it easier