Best free forum

[FRANK(WGH)]

ok i'm sure this has been passed around alot but i can't seem to find it.
What is everyone's favorite free forum along these lines:
- Ease of use
- Customization

I'm looking for a new forum for our site and just wanted to see what others use and like. :]

[dragonpaulz]

I find vbulletin to be my prefered forum system. However it is not free.
Invision power board is the next best thing and is free. Some would argue the order of this.

[Max Lobovsky]

I agree that vBulletin is definitley the best, but IPB and phpBB are both pretty good.

[FRANK(WGH)]

How far can you go when customizing the invision power baords. Aren't they hosted on another server. this is where i run into problems. i'd rather host the baord and be able to alter the design and maybe even some of the coding because i know that most seperate hosts only let you do a couple of things.

[Max Lobovsky]

IPB and phpBB are both PHP/MySQL based systems you can run on any server with PHP and MySQL installed. I don't know about IPB, but phpBB has a Smarty based templating system that makes customizing pretty easy.

[dragonpaulz]

Invision is to be hosted by yourself and not only remotely.
phpBB is also a system of note.

[sanddrag]

I've used XMB and really liked it, but some versions have bugs and security holes.

[Stephen Kowski]

phpbb....the best FREE solution.

[Billfred]

I umpteenth the phpBB praise.

I've been on three or four phpBB boards--no problems that I can think of for each, and they can shine up nice and purdy.

(Stock, it looks like this: preston.sc.edu (http://preston.sc.edu/prestonforum/index.php). With some work, I've seen them get about as slick as this: Pokémon ZEO! (http://zeo.qasic.net/). Yes, I still go to a Pokemon site. Don't hate the playa, hate the game. :D )

[dragonpaulz]

I love that phpBB is open-source, is very stable/secure, and has a great deal of developement performed with it. But...The system isn't as nice as vbulletin or IVP. In conclusion, look at different examples of the different systems and chose which one you feel comfortable with and like the most.

[NoodleKnight]

Not to be redundant, but of all the forums I've used on my server, phpBB has been the most pleasing. If you're looking for a forums with a load of features and utilities that come in the stock-install package,then invision board or vBulletin would be a good choice; but if you're willing to wait and use phpBB for a while, the developers at phpBB are currently working on phpBB version 2.2.x which will compete with IVB and VB feature wise and also have the strengths of phpBB.

I prefer to wait =)

Also, I'd like to add that phpBB doesn't bug you to pay them for the full registered version of their board.

[Aignam]

I use a phpBB board on my (cheap plug) FREE MMORPG (http://www.playcruentus.com/) and it works perfectly. You should come and check it out....;)

[Denman]

if you want to get a forum up and running , try proboards.comthey will host a simple forum (ableit with some adverts) and it is very customisable... otherwise, php is fine, but phpbb is good for ahurry, i just dont like how all phpbb sites are the same .......

http://hrsfcrowing.proboards37.com/
thats just one i made for our rowing team at college....

[Raven_Writer]

If it's possible, I'd say just make your own.

Here's my favorites:
PHP
- phpBB
- IBP
- vBulletin (somewhat)

ASP*
- WebWiz Forums

*- I don't really care for ASP, so I can't say to much on the boards and stuff for that language.

[theory6]

I can't be too sure about this but I believe Invision is not offering free message boards. Unless you happen to have downloaded one of their older versions (2.0) the new versions are not free anymore.

[sanddrag]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned about the boards, is that some web hosts come with a feature called Fantastico, which can automatically install a forum (ususally phpBB or IPB). This makes it really easy to get up and running.

[Astronouth7303]

I, personally think vB is the best, but it's also a bit $$$.

But nobody's mentioned [url=http://www.yabbforum.com/]YaBB[/a], an open source option.

[NoodleKnight]

there are also XMB forums, I used it before phpBB, pretty good forums.

[Raven_Writer]

I can't be too sure about this but I believe Invision is not offering free message boards. Unless you happen to have downloaded one of their older versions (2.0) the new versions are not free anymore.It seems that you are right (didn't even realize this til now though). IBP is no longer a free board. You can either get a yearly ($69.95) license, or a lifetime ($199.00) license.

Here's a place that has some free boards you can get though:
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/index.html

[Joe Ross]

IPB was never free. The offered a full featured non time limited demo version, but once you decided to use it, by the terms of the license you had to pay for it.

All they did was remove the free demo.

[KevinH]

Let's see, I've tried a lot of these, here's what I've found...


vBulletin - (as far as I remember, php/mysql) seemed a little cryptic for customization, but not bad.
phpBB - (php/mysql) My favorite forum backend, wonderful support, addons and has a very straightforward interface.
YaBB - (perl/cgi) Older engine, lots of support, but not as configurable or understandable as most.
YaBBSE - (php/mysql) Nicer, but not quite as many features as phpBB.
openBB - (php/mysql) Couldn't ever find much information on this.
As for forums that you don't host yourself, I liked the one supplied by chatarea.com the best. If you have any questions regarding setting these up, toss me a line and I'll try to be of service.

[AIBob]

phpBB is a very good one... I like the way that they lay out the administrative tools and such, I also like the whole forum look, but its not the best look.

[Goobergunch]

I'm personally an Invision Power Board fan, although I also like phpBB.

Regarding the licensing issue: It is my understanding (based on the documentation to the IPB sitting on my computer) that you could run an IPB for free, but would not be entitled to any support or upgrades.

Just a note about ProBoards: On the online "NationStates" game I play, many people have had their passwords stolen (http://www.nationstates.net/news/2004/03/04/index.html#bluemoon) by unscrupulous forum administrators, as it's not difficult for a ProBoard admin to get one's forum password. So unless you really trust the administrator(s), I recommend against registering on ProBoard forums.

[NoodleKnight]

Recently IPB has stopped handing out their forums for free, you can get a demo by installing stuff on your computer (you also have limits on posts and such).

Anyways, phpBB is skipping their 2.2 version update and decided to hop into version 3.0.0 -- to compete with other bulletin boards.

[RIgnazio]

Now, here is the tricky part. Are you running a Linux or Windows server?
Pretty much, I love phpBB2, and it is free. www.phpbb.com

If you are running a Windows server, all you need to do is create a blank Access 2000 Database, and post it where the instructions tell you to. If you are running a Linux server, it does not accept Access 2000, and you must create a SQL database. Comes with very detailed instructions for both.

Hope this helps.

[devicenull]

I'm a phpBB fan.. can't beat it.

Instead of using something like access.. you might want to just install MySQL (www.mysql.com) as your database. Setup is pretty simple, and if you learn to use php and MySQL on your site, you can create some nice content (Like pulling news from a forum), even without the fourm, its a nice combo.

[syntaxers]

My forum uses PhpBB and before, for ultimate freeness, inlcluding site and stuff, you could get http://invisionfree.com/ which I have used before.

My forum: http://jljfdesign.net/forum