Having a forum is a good thing. You can interact with thousands of people from all over the world and share information over the internet. If you want to learn easily and free, a forum is the way to go. You will find people who are ready to answer the most stupid of questions and help you understand. If you want to start your own forum, there are several alternatives out there. We will review the best of BB and help you choose which one is the best for you.
1. MyBB – Starting as a very small forum software, MyBB has grown to be very popular forum software and powers a good portion of bulletin boards across the internet. The reason for its soaring popularity is simplicity, ease of use, has a good administration panel and some excellent mods (plugins) system. Built with PHP/MySQL technology it is also free and open source. It’s licensed under LGPL.
2. Simple Machines Forum (SMF) – If you ever need cool forum software that works and has extensive support through an active forum, go for SMF. I use simple machines because it works for me. If you ever face a problem, chances are that somebody else did and there is already a solution to it. If FTP and code sounds like a foreign thing to you, you can even hire somebody to work for you. For a few dollars of course! It’s completely open source. It is also easy to use, easy to administer and very powerful. Mods (modifications) will help you add extra functionalities. Uses PHP and MySQL.
3. UBB.threads – In its earlier releases, it was known as WWWthreads. It was originally written by Rick Baker. As WWWThreads, it was written in Perl until 2000. After acquisition by Infopop Corporation, it was renamed the Ultimate Bulletin Board, UBB for short. Starting with version 5.5, it has been released in the popular language PHP. Supports integrated photo galleries, forums and sub forums.
4. phpBB – Just like the name sounds, it is written in PHP. It is actually an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board. It is not only free, but open source too. Provides support for several databases such as PostGreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server and oracle database. Supports several ways of communication such as Atom feeds, private messaging and chat.
5. XenForo forums – Starting from 2009, two guys from vBulletin started developing forum software. Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan after leaving vBulletin the two developers used the classical PHP and MySQL combination to come up with one of the best engine to power a bulletin board out there. Using AJAX, user experience has been greatly improved (fast is always better).
6. Phorum – This is forum software written in PHP. Its open source.
7. Invision Powerboard(IP Board) - For those looking for awesome paid software, this is another one of them. There is however a free version with an option to upgrade.
When choosing forum software, the best way to go about it is try several of them and choose the one that works for you. You will also have to see the server requirements to determine whether you meet the requirements to use. If you are using a popular hosting company, you probably do. Just go ahead and install your engine and say hello to the world out there.
1. MyBB – Starting as a very small forum software, MyBB has grown to be very popular forum software and powers a good portion of bulletin boards across the internet. The reason for its soaring popularity is simplicity, ease of use, has a good administration panel and some excellent mods (plugins) system. Built with PHP/MySQL technology it is also free and open source. It’s licensed under LGPL.
2. Simple Machines Forum (SMF) – If you ever need cool forum software that works and has extensive support through an active forum, go for SMF. I use simple machines because it works for me. If you ever face a problem, chances are that somebody else did and there is already a solution to it. If FTP and code sounds like a foreign thing to you, you can even hire somebody to work for you. For a few dollars of course! It’s completely open source. It is also easy to use, easy to administer and very powerful. Mods (modifications) will help you add extra functionalities. Uses PHP and MySQL.
3. UBB.threads – In its earlier releases, it was known as WWWthreads. It was originally written by Rick Baker. As WWWThreads, it was written in Perl until 2000. After acquisition by Infopop Corporation, it was renamed the Ultimate Bulletin Board, UBB for short. Starting with version 5.5, it has been released in the popular language PHP. Supports integrated photo galleries, forums and sub forums.
4. phpBB – Just like the name sounds, it is written in PHP. It is actually an abbreviation of PHP Bulletin Board. It is not only free, but open source too. Provides support for several databases such as PostGreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server and oracle database. Supports several ways of communication such as Atom feeds, private messaging and chat.
5. XenForo forums – Starting from 2009, two guys from vBulletin started developing forum software. Kier Darby and Mike Sullivan after leaving vBulletin the two developers used the classical PHP and MySQL combination to come up with one of the best engine to power a bulletin board out there. Using AJAX, user experience has been greatly improved (fast is always better).
6. Phorum – This is forum software written in PHP. Its open source.
7. Invision Powerboard(IP Board) - For those looking for awesome paid software, this is another one of them. There is however a free version with an option to upgrade.
When choosing forum software, the best way to go about it is try several of them and choose the one that works for you. You will also have to see the server requirements to determine whether you meet the requirements to use. If you are using a popular hosting company, you probably do. Just go ahead and install your engine and say hello to the world out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment