16 replies to this topic

[signature16]

What is the BEST online forum system that meets these two requirements:


1) Not insanely difficult to template. I will want to change around a lot of stuff. If it is easy to template like Joomla or Drupal, everything will be good.

2) Is fairly easy to create hidden forums that are available only to members of a certain group.




VBulletin? Invision PowerBoard? Maybe even Simple Machine Forums?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Spart]

It depends on how much you want to spend. vB and IPB are both quite expensive, and SMF is free I believe (?)

So, if you want something cheap but still decent, use SMF.


IPB is probably better for skinning (not fully sure) and vB is good for management and there are more mods for it if my memory serves me well.

[signature16]

It doesn't matter how much it costs. Mostly how well it performs.

How hard is vB to skin? I found SMF difficult and time consuming to skin so I don't really want to use it.

[CrazedLlama]

IPB is used alot, but personaly i prefer vB not beacus its simpler or w/e just has better free skins:P

[Donna]

IPB and VB both have free demo trials so why don't your try them out yourself?

I've used IPB since it first came out and prefer it over any other forum software.

[signature16]

I signed up for the IPB demo and I definitely like it.

I think im going with IPB. It sucks that it cost an extra $250 to remove the, "Powered By IP.Board © 2007 IPS, Inc." at the bottom. Oh well.

[Spart]

However, you can legally remove the (Powered By Invision Power Board) thing at the top

[U1]

BTW don't go with IPB latest version or any version, youl prob see what i mean, old bugs come back to haunt! Anyways vb is tight (safer) easy to config and the skins are easily modified or created, has a wealth of plugins and better community and "Support".

Oh btw if your using Joomla why not take a look at http://www.bestofjoomla.com/ , they got something good going on over there

Edited by Unknown1, 05 June 2007 - 08:35 PM.

[Hoot]

I think IPB is way better than VB (vb is ugly) I would go with that or phpbb 3.0 it is very similar to IPB 2.2 (still doesnt have the same features)

Hoot

[/quit]

One word: Vanilla.

[tomos]

I much prefer IPB.

I find it easier to use, and easier to customize.

[Wes]

VB is definitely more professionally run (fewer bugs, probably coded a bit better), but I prefer IPB. I used IPB for a forum a while back about a year ago and it was great. I found it decently easy to skin (I don't know about VB). I also preferred the general feel of the generic skin from IPB.

Definitely stay away from phpBB. Yes, the coding is fine, but if you base your skin off their generic templates... Well, they turn out pretty ugly if you ask me.

[Hoot]

Creative Insanity, on Jun 6 2007, 09:22 PM, said:

Quote

I think IPB is way better than VB (vb is ugly)

So you cannot skin it to look nice huh LOL

no, over all design vb is just ugly.

Hoot

[U1]

^^ Would you rather an unsecure forum or an ugly one? and anyways vb aint that bad looking.

Edited by Unknown1, 09 June 2007 - 09:40 AM.

[signature16]

I can't imagine IPB is insecure. Thats a bunch of hooey!