Which free forum software is your favorite?

Actually premium skin designers for free bb scripts do fairly well. Alot of admins want a unique look for their free boards, just to make it stand out from the rest.

I have considered IPB, and if at some point I can afford the license, I may purchase it, and learn to style it as well.

ok, now my curiosity is peaked

 

Ugh, skinning IPB is horrible - I'm a license holder and I don't even touch it customization-wise.

 

I have had the urge to learn how to use IPB a little bit more lately.

 

Me too. It was actually the first paid forum script I used; then I switched to vB and haven't looked back since. But the upcoming release of IPB 3 has me interested.

 

It's quite nice - I thoroughly enjoy using it.

 

using what? IPB?

 

Correct!

 

Argh, their demo isn't updated to 3.0 yet (because it's still RC1) so I can't even try it out.:waiting:

 

I'll be upgrading shortly (most likely). When I do, I'll allow you access to the administrative interface.

 

I ended up giving it a spin through, er, alternate means.

I think I love the front-end of it, but I really do not enjoy using their Admin CP. At least for the most part. It feels like it's trying to be so user friendly that it becomes unfriendly. I don't want to say that "especially" the tabular layout - but that is certainly one thing that does not help.

In the end, IPB's Admin CP is "cooler" but vBulletin's is better/more productive.

IPB's front-end + vBulletin's ACP = heaven.


edit: adding on to that, I would not feel comfortable switching to IPB.

For one, the admin cp layout in of itself turns me off.

But I have become so used to vBulletin, and vBulletin's community (read: vb.org, vb.com community etc.) that it would just feel weird. Like I know that I will find cool mods for vBulletin and I know that they will keep developing them. I know this because I've been around the software for about 4 years. I feel like I know everything there is to know about vBulletin. I can't say the same thing about IPB and I wouldn't feel comfortable switching.

But I loooooooovvveeeee IPB's front-end.

I used to hate IPB's front-end (and backend!) but I really feel like they made a 180 with IPB3.

 

:unhunh: You bad boy. :devil:

 

Oh no, he didn't do anything wrong. I let him play around with my copy.

... right. :p

 

Nick if you want to take a spin on the IPB3 train send me a pm and I can link you to the install I have.

See if you like the admin end any more than I do

 

I'm glad you guys like MyBB 1.4's Admin CP; I spent too much time working on creating the layouts for most of those pages for it to be not liked. :p

 

Yes, your dedication is appreciated - and you never failed to let me know as to how much work you put into it overall.

 

LOL.

So Justin, you're a lead designer, or the lead designer for the default MyBB skin?
I'm a vBulletin designer, and have been thinking of branching out to design for other forum scripts.

 

Ah really? Well maybe you'll have better luck with it. :p

 

Doubtful. :unhunh:

I hope it works out for 'ya, Kevin.

 

I am MyBB's lead designer. This means I'm responsible for the default theme, however, this hasn't meant much for the MyBB 1.x series, as the default theme was created long before I joined the team. As such, I've only really been responsible for creating new layouts for 1.4 and 1.6.

MyBB 2.0, on the other hand, will be receiving a completely new default theme built from scratch to go along with the completely rewritten code base. I will likely be completely responsible for that theme.

And just to make sure we're all on the same page, MyBB 1.6 is the next major release and is currently being developed. MyBB 2.0 will be the major release following MyBB 1.6, and is currently in the planning stages.