Starting a Forum

Doolally · #1 (**permalink**) 9th-August-2008, 11:31 AM

I'm giving serious consideration to starting a user forum on my Doolallys.com site. My question is which forum software should I be looking to use? vbulletin? phpBB? Others?

Has anyone has experiences, good or bad with different forum software?

Ideally, something that is straightforward to install and manage but that gives plenty of customisation options.

universal4 · #2 (**permalink**) 9th-August-2008, 02:56 PM

I have looked at both phpbb as well as VBulletin.

Personally I think the security is tighter for VBulletin, but phpbb is fairly tight as well.

Both have very strong communities for support, and each one has many addons and plugins to add features.

Phpbb is free and VBulletin is not.

I spend a good bit of time in VBulletin so if you decide to go with that I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have, if you go with phpbb I have a good friend who has set up a forum on it so I would have someon to bounce questions off of.

Rick
Universal4

Doolally · #3 (**permalink**) 9th-August-2008, 05:11 PM

Rick,

Thanks for the info and offers of support, much appreciated.

WagerX · #4 (**permalink**) 9th-August-2008, 05:45 PM

I set up an article exchange site using VBulletin ( around $200). What I noticed is that you must get VBSEO (around $200 also) to go along with it to make SEO friendly urls.

Overall, it was easy to install, easy to make the customized templates, and supported well. It's the platform I see major forums use. For around $400 total you get minimal headaches.

When you do get your user forum up and running PM me, I'll help post to get get things going.

Chips · #5 (**permalink**) 9th-August-2008, 09:19 PM

I use YaBB for my board, the community is consistantly upgrading, updating and there are many additional mods you can add. All open source and security is very good. I have had no issues to date. The board runs in/on Perl script and has a cook feature that will auto ban harvesters. Not as widely used as PhBB, VBulletin and others but still very friendly and powerful. Personally I would not use another. They have a good codex and support forum just like all the others. www.YaBBforum.com will get you a look. I kept my board plain, but you can customize to the nth degree, don't know if it is due to my lazyness or that I enjoy the lack of glitzy.

mojo · #6 (**permalink**) 10th-August-2008, 02:06 AM

I know this is not what you are looking for Dool but here is our humble forum:
xxxhttp://paydayjoesforum.proboards84.com/index.cgi

It's simply a place for our players to talk to us and we offer exclusive promos and a mojo tourney.

If anyone wants a minimum on cost and simple-to-set-up forum then something similar like this is the ticket. We just don't have the time for a bigger forum though that may come in time. Time is a big factor for the forum we chose. We just can't do it.

In the end it is what you make of it that is important. You could have a forum from your Van Down By The River and that's cool too.

AK · #7 (**permalink**) 10th-August-2008, 11:02 PM

v-b is a much better forum software to get. You can also find free vb-seo hacks out there as well which comply with vb.

Good Luck

aksana · #8 (**permalink**) 11th-August-2008, 07:05 AM

Use VBulletin, I'm using phpbb because it's free and I don't have serious plans regarding my forum, but if you want to create a large forum, I think VBulletin will be better.

pompeyrayuk · #9 (**permalink**) 14th-August-2008, 12:24 AM

euserplane have just today launched a very nice free forum that can be integrated in your site and is deffinately worth checking out.

SharBear613 · #10 (**permalink**) 14th-August-2008, 01:57 AM

I recommend Vbulletin. That is what we use at our fourm. It takes some getting used to and learning, but well worth it. It is very secure and dependable. There is a great forum for Vbulletin for any issues, problems, or questions you have. I'm still learning it, but I really like it and highly recommend it.