Favorite Forum Software

[kzuich]

What forum software do you like using (as an admin, I mean), and why?

I've been experimenting with local installs of both phpBB and myBB, and so far, I've actually found I like myBB a little bit more, at least in terms of the user-friendliness of it. That said, I haven't tried to rip up myBB and do my own custom themes with it yet, so we shall see.

Both are free, so that's awesome!

[nuclearblues]

I used to operate a very niche (like 15 members at our peak) metal gear fan forum using proboards a good while ago. I found it pretty easy to use, especially considering that I was maybe 14 and had little to no htmlcss knowledge. I also don't know much about administration, but from what I can tell it has pretty solid administrative tools. that said, I vaguely remember some security concerns people had about it on a larger scale, at least with the free model. they definitely seem to have shifted towards promoting their paid model, but that's not exactly uncommon with corporate-operated tools.

[Slix]

I've only ever worked with phpBB, but I've found it to be fairly good on the backend, for things like moderation and customization and stuff too. I've probably edited my forum more than most people have that have used the software, because every so often I need to find a way to change something and it's near impossible to find on search engines. :P

[PossiblyAxolotl]

I’ve experimented with Simple Machines Forum which is actually what this one’s made with, and it’s pretty cool with a lot of extensions available, but currently I use Flarum which is a more modern simplistic-type thing which also has a lot of extensions available, Flarum is almost more of a super basic one that’s made to be developed into a forum with extensions versus SMF which comes as a more complete thing. Simple machines is also super easy to run on literally anything, while Flarum was a little more difficult to get up and running on digitalocean.

Personally I really like Flarum now that I have it set up, but both are pretty well made :)