best open-source forum software?

Cultist · 01-05-2011, 01:57 PM

I'm looking for a good FOSS alternative to VBulletin. So far I've mainly considered phpBB, but I'm not an expert in any of them. Can anyone give me any suggestions for which would be best? I'd prefer sticking with something FOSS unless VB or another paid version is just worlds beyond it.

Its to be the forum for my guild in an online game I play, and I'm expecting forum membership at about 300 or so people. I'm looking for ease of use (on both the admin side and the user side), supports custom plugins, and comes without a restrictive license.

Like I said, I'm mainly looking at phpBB for this, but I'm completely open to better suggestions. I have almost no experience with forum ownership and management aside from being a general admin for the last year on a game forum with about 7000 total members.

Thanks for any input!

acid_kewpie · 01-05-2011, 02:36 PM

phpBB is all good and old and boring, works fine, but maybe you'd want to think about a shiny sexy stackexchange instance instead?

silvyus_06 · 01-05-2011, 04:45 PM

cultist i like your sig lol :

Quote:

slackware is for the pros . i use it anyways

hahaha ...

as of the forum... i once trie to make one using phpbb but i failed at making the database so the users can register so i gave up .

but anyways .. +1 phpBB .. it's open source ..

Kenny_Strawn · 01-05-2011, 05:32 PM

FluxBB — not only is it extremely full-featured, having plenty of features phpBB doesn't but it also is very good-looking (if you have no clue look at the Arch forums)… and can be easily themed with custom skins.

frieza · 01-05-2011, 05:42 PM

+1 for phpbb
or php-nuke, newest version is for pay, older versions are open sourced, uses phpbb for it's forums
another good open source cms+forums is drupal (version 5)

these sites for instance use drupal for example
http://www.arlingtonpark.com/
http://harvardmainline.com/
http://harvardradio.net/
https://www.longhaircomputers.com/lhcs
no i had nothing to do with the first site but i did help out with the other 3
note these sites are not listed with the intent of advertising the sites, just showing how flexible drupal can be

unSpawn · 01-05-2011, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frieza

phpbb

But only >= 3.0.7-PL1: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=phpbb

Quote:

Originally Posted by frieza

or php-nuke, newest version is for pay, older versions are open sourced

Open Sores more like it: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvekey.cgi?keyword=phpnuke .
Shows using old versions of PHP-based SW because one doesn't want to pay is a bad decision.

Quote:

Originally Posted by frieza

drupal

Probably a marvelous product but can you count the amount of Drupal or related CVE entries for 2010 alone?..

bertlef · 01-05-2011, 10:41 PM

You can try a CMS, it takes longer to set up, but you get A LOT more features in the long run.

I would recommend Drupal, you have to look for the appropriate modules like 'advanced forum'.

jaydot · 01-06-2011, 03:21 AM

sms for me. so many options. good to look at and infinitely skinnable.

Latios · 01-06-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenny_Strawn

FluxBB — not only is it extremely full-featured, having plenty of features phpBB doesn't but it also is very good-looking (if you have no clue look at the Arch forums)… and can be easily themed with custom skins.

+1