Which free forum software is your favorite?

Discussion in 'Community Forum Software' started by Nick, Mar 7, 2009.

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Which free forum software do you prefer?

  1. MyBB

    1 vote(s)
    1.9%
  2. PhpBB

    26 vote(s)
    50.0%
  3. SMF

    15 vote(s)
    28.8%
  4. Other

    10 vote(s)
    19.2%
  1. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    Everybody's gotta have one of these threads sometime or another.

    Make your choice in the poll and feel free to elaborate in a reply :)
     
  2. kev

    kev Regular Member

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    Right now, mybb is my favorite free forum software.

    I have used phpbb and smf in the past. But I stopped using phpbb because of security issues and stopped using SMF due to a lack of change.
     
  3. PBNJ

    PBNJ Regular Member

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    For free forums I seem to be mostly on phpBB forums.

    I prefer vBulletin forums to the free forums.

    -Raymond
     
  4. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    MyBB is my favorite free script.

    PhpBB never appealed to me; I've tried it and for whatever reason, automatically hated it.
    SMF isn't so bad, but I am not too fond of its design, and it seems to have less built-in functionality than other scripts.
    With MyBB, I cannot find much to complain about. It's design is okay, and it's features aren't bad. Although they could implement quite a bit more, it's enough to please me. :)
     
  5. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    MyBB, hands down.

    Any forum I run now uses vBulletin. But MyBB is really the best alternative to vBulletin, even over IPB in my opinion. I also like the community there.
     
  6. islesv

    islesv Novice

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    I had tried SMF in the past, but its plugin system annoys me - sometimes incompatible plugins mess up the PHP files. I've switched to MyBB almost a year ago, and I had been contented since. :)
     
  7. Crank

    Crank Novice

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    You are absolutely correct. I still like it though. I am just stubborn I guess. I am newly getting into VB now so lets see.
     
  8. Ashley

    Ashley Regular Member

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    I've always used PHPBB as that is the easiest forum software for me to wrok with. I won't go with any other one at the moment. Maybe when I get more experience with forum owning I'll go for something more advanced... but not now.
     
  9. Bonbref

    Bonbref Newcomer

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    I believe phpbb is free and is highly recommended on other boards.
    Demo : forum hosting
     
  10. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    Yes, PhpBB is free but I would recommend self-hosting the forum if you're serious about it. I don't think Forumotion gives up the database if you ever decide to switch later on, which means you will have to start from scratch.
     
  11. Justin S.

    Justin S. Regular Member

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    I think it's obvious that MyBB is my choice, based on my position on the MyBB team. Despite this, I still feel there is little reason for me to think otherwise. SMF is just a mess in general, and phpBB3, though it does look pretty good, is not really as well designed as it first appears.
     
  12. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    While I primarily use commercial-grade (paid) software, I will say that MyBB is indeed my favorite free script.
     
  13. Rafael

    Rafael Regular Member

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    The first forum I made was using YaBB.

    Sticking to my roots :}
     
  14. lordtopcat

    lordtopcat Adept

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    I used to stand by phpBB religiously, nothing could beat up. Until phpBB 3 came out, which completely disappointed me, so I went on the hunt for other software. I came across vb (but this isn't about paid software :p) and also MyBB. I wasn't too impressed with MyBB, but that all changed upon the release of MyBB 1.4, that all changed :)

    So MyBB is my favourite free forum software.
     
  15. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    Oh wow! I haven't used that script in years. :speachless:
     
  16. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    MyBB seems to be the favorite here. I wonder why they don't have a larger community.
     
  17. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    That's a good question. Look at the strong following that phpBB has. Then again, it has been around a bit longer.
     
  18. Nick

    Nick Regular Member

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    I never really understood, either. Almost everywhere I go, MyBB seems to be the alternative-of-choice yet phpBB seems to always be in the lead. I guess PhpBB is the most popular and since a large margin of free-script users are teenagers and kids, they don't take the time to research other solutions; they just use the first one they come across, which apparently is phpBB.
     
  19. Tyler

    Tyler The Badministrator

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    And most free create-a-forum-in-5-seconds-or-less sites use phpBB (some Invision). A quick Google search for "create a free forum" will probably give you some form of one of them, not MyBB.
     
  20. Chris

    Chris Regular Member

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    And the free forum hosts that are using IPB are using the older, buggy release (due to license restrictions).
     

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