Joined on 06-12-2007
TechSoup Member
I am looking for a way to incorporate message boards into a website. I have looked at phpBB, Phorum and Snitz. Has anyone used these recently? Is there anything better out there? Does anyone know of a site that might compare these services/programs?
Thanks!
I have set up and run small phpbb boards in the past and found it easy to use and reliable... I also frequent several sites that use it without problem, and some of them are quite large.
Not familiar with the others you mention.
I have also used VBulletin in the past and this would be my choice if I ever needed a large, stable board and expected medium to high traffic. It isn't free, but imo the price is worth it for some situations.
You might also want to add
vBulletin to your list.
ForumMatrix.org is a site where you can compare many different forum software tools.
Which forum tool to choose really depends on the features you're looking for. Both phpBB and vBulletin are popular options, but there are many others to choose from.
You can start by making a shortlist of your "must have" forum features vs. "nice to have" (optional) features. The
Choice Wizard tool over at ForumMatrix can also help you narrow down your options.
Hope this helps.
Yann
Joined on 06-12-2007
TechSoup Member
Thanks for the Forum Matrix website - that is exactly what I was looking for!
If this is a public facing website, be prepared to deal with the spam that bulletin boards attract.
One of the keys to minimizing the garbage is to institute a process of approving registrations for the board, rather than allowing EVERYONE to sign up automatically without human intervention.
Some of the boards attempt to deal with the registration process effectively, while some do not. Controversial methods such as Captcha technologies attempt to minimize the "non human" registrants and cut down on the spam bots, while other boards provide no methods of combatting the problem at all.
Don't underestimate the potential spam problem. It brings many a web forum to it's knees.
It's a little off-topic, but I'll contine with advising that you look for forum software that is keeping up to date with security issues. Forums can be a choice target for a number of reasons, and I manage one for a non-profit that is PHPBBS were I deleted all the files in the admin directory and only restore them when I need to work on the site. Darn hackers kept trying to get in and did once and defaced a number of pages with their nasty junk. But there have been no problems once I pulled the admin files.
The second issue is that you should have a plan to get your forums going. This means either paying for a forum-posting service, or getting a number of people to create accounts and post a lot of messages to get things started. Then you have to keep at it until you get enough members that it continues by itself.