View Full Version : Best free forum scripts?
Which do yo think is the best free forum scripts?
What is your personal experience with them? Is the installation easy or the modification of templates easy?
For me I had used phpBB2 and Ikonboard (CGI version) before before moving to vB for my main site.
phpBB2 is easy to install and relatively easy to modify the templates. While Ikonboard I had not used for long time.
Well ...
My vote goes to PHPBB2
Simply because its the easiest to install and maintain.
True... it uses more resources that VBulletin and has slower response rate but for a free script / program - I think its a good product.
Certainly worth supporting - like what we are doing here at SGWHT.
Well ...
My vote goes to PHPBB2
Simply because its the easiest to install and maintain.
True... it uses more resources that VBulletin and has slower response rate but for a free script / program - I think its a good product.
Certainly worth supporting - like what we are doing here at SGWHT.
Yes, we may consider vB if we had enough membership base and when the site grows larger.
Nowadays people seem to prefer Invisionboard. Don't know where's the URL also, seems that it's superior to phpbb2 in terms of features.
Nowadays people seem to prefer Invisionboard. Don't know where's the URL also, seems that it's superior to phpbb2 in terms of features.
http://www.invisionboard.com/
kraystone
05-07-2002, 00:48
well I'm using ikonboard 3.0x for my forums now at http://www.sganime.com
Urm why? is because its easy to make own skins... well i'm doing artndesign so... anyway ya know lar... oh yes even version 3.1's skin making is kinda wierd... a bit different...but anyway i can't import in correctly so i'm stuck wif 3.0x anyway...
phpbb i tried to install it... the skin is cool, anyway ib3.1 copied frm it i tink (the site says that their design inspired certain forum software to copy? I forgot...)... urm anyway, i have prob doing the usergroups.... so complicated and a bit wierd so i gave up... (but installation much simpler than ib)
next...well.. invisionboard... ibf, i tried the stable release 1.0, well skin making is even harder than before... don't get it (i'm not IT person anyway...), so well i gave up again~
oh yesh, another thing the import export dun really work well, my board was migrated from my prev host who insisted flat file... so after importing to new place, the polls r mostly screwed. I then tried to export the flat file and import into ib3.1 to mySQL database, but din work... :?
redemption
08-07-2002, 01:41
yeah Invision Board's been pretty popular lately... but i still stick with phpBB cos it's pretty fast (beats ikonboard at least)...
but if you're willing to pay, nothing beats vBulletin imho
yeah Invision Board's been pretty popular lately... but i still stick with phpBB cos it's pretty fast (beats ikonboard at least)...
but if you're willing to pay, nothing beats vBulletin imho
Yes I myself owned a vB license and operate a site that used vB .
We "might" switch to vB in the future if we had the fianical support . No promise though.
Marcus Lau
10-07-2002, 08:43
Yup......invision boards certainly has been increasingly popular but wbb is good too. As for me, i used to own a vB and i can confidently say that vB is still the best!
P.S. For those who wanna wbb, kindly icq me @ 114189008. Thanks!
Hey..
I being dumb here but Marcus... whats "WBB" ???
Hey..
I being dumb here but Marcus... whats "WBB" ???
Its a german board...
redemption
10-07-2002, 14:04
it's Woltlab Burning Board -> http://www.woltlab.de/
Thanks for the information... like I said before ...
give me some time, I'm learning something new everyday.
Mmm... on first look WBB looks cool and somewhat like vB...
will need a more indepth review.
Marcus, since you brought this WBB up - mind giving us a feature comparision ?
Thanks for the information... like I said before ...
give me some time, I'm learning something new everyday.
Mmm... on first look WBB looks cool and somewhat like vB...
will need a more indepth review.
Marcus, since you brought this WBB up - mind giving us a feature comparision ?
I had seen one of my friends installed WBB before. However judging from their version,"RC1" I guess we better wait for the "Gold" version to be released before considering to test it.
Duskette
12-07-2002, 16:08
PHPBB2 is much better IMHO. why?
1) most important factor, its free. If you consider downloading internet time as money, then make it 5 mins worth of internet time spent then.
2) great support. Those mods programmers in phpbb.com like Niels for example, are great! they will help you if you got any prob, but of coz, must wait till they are free lah.
3) lotsa mods. Goto www.phpbbhacks.com and there is so many to choose from.
My vote goes out to phpBB team! :D
DoorKeeper
12-07-2002, 16:17
Great site you have, singaporebikes ! Will send some of my biker friends your way.
Duskette
12-07-2002, 16:41
Great site you have, singaporebikes ! Will send some of my biker friends your way.
tat's great! The more the merrier.
redemption
12-07-2002, 23:01
PHPBB2 is much better IMHO. why?
1) most important factor, its free. If you consider downloading internet time as money, then make it 5 mins worth of internet time spent then.
2) great support. Those mods programmers in phpbb.com like Niels for example, are great! they will help you if you got any prob, but of coz, must wait till they are free lah.
3) lotsa mods. Goto www.phpbbhacks.com and there is so many to choose from.
i pretty much agree :) the support is very good (check out the forum at phpbb.com) since there's a large user base (probably the largest of all the free PHP forum scripts)...
but almost everything else is free too (WBB is free, so is InvisionBoard, Mecury Board, YaBB... lots of them)... there're lots to choose from... if you do go with phpBB2 be sure to take an effort to customise it so it isn't the same as all others (if you want to give your board a distinctive look that is)
kraystone
12-07-2002, 23:59
one thing i dun like phpbb is the usergroups, its not so nicely designed... and far too complicated...
ikonboard's group setting is still the best I find other than ibf, its simple
but prob is the ib support forums are getting lesser and lesser people, ibf on the other hand is exploding... thanks to matt...
but ibf's skinning is hard to understand...
kraystone
15-07-2002, 23:59
anybody installed ibf n having luck changing to own skin? hee...hee...hee...
eyes_only
30-07-2002, 23:57
Hey chin,
if u see this, i installed phpbb locally for testing purposes and also downloaded the "Cold Steel" template. It was SO cool!! Reminds me of high gizmo techno movie setting. Maybe this forum can use it..hehehe
Just a suggestion. :lol:
Hey chin,
if u see this, i installed phpbb locally for testing purposes and also downloaded the "Cold Steel" template. It was SO cool!! Reminds me of high gizmo techno movie setting. Maybe this forum can use it..hehehe
Just a suggestion. :lol:
yah, we will see how :)
Draculax
26-08-2002, 12:54
I think everyone here prefer phpbb2 more however I choose invision board.
What makes me do that?
I have used wbb, phpbb/2, yabb, iB, ibf. however I still prefer invision board.. maybe you will ask why? The reason is simple ibf come with quite a number of functions that is very useful (eg: attachment, custom user title) and the most important thing is it's faster.
Before I changed from phpbb to ibf sometime when about 200 users online at peak hours the forum will be kinda laggy but since I switched to ibf there is no such problem and feedbacks from my members is ibf works better
Maybe I will download it and test it out.
Marcus Lau
26-08-2002, 16:33
I think everyone here prefer phpbb2 more however I choose invision board.
What makes me do that?
I have used wbb, phpbb/2, yabb, iB, ibf. however I still prefer invision board.. maybe you will ask why? The reason is simple ibf come with quite a number of functions that is very useful (eg: attachment, custom user title) and the most important thing is it's faster.
Before I changed from phpbb to ibf sometime when about 200 users online at peak hours the forum will be kinda laggy but since I switched to ibf there is no such problem and feedbacks from my members is ibf works better
I totally agree with Draculax.
With regards to free bb, i will choose ibf too which is friendlier and has many functions that is fantastic. :)
vBulletin® v3.5.6, Copyright ©2000-2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.