Best Forum Software?

tomyates

tomyates

Web Developer
Nov 25, 2010
437
1
0
UK, England
Hi Guys

I own a gaming forum and am thinking of migrating it to a new forum platform.
Im willing to pay for a license but am looking for the best overall forum software to use. Ive heard VBulletin is good (WF & DP use this). Theres stacks of them tho like PHP BB , MY BB etc... No idea which one to choose.

Which would you recommend?

Thanks Guys
Tom
 


VB - no reason to look for anything else. It's the most supported, easy to troubleshoot, tons of addons/updates/etc. I went through this too (a few times now), VB comes out on top for me each time.
 
ncmedia said:
VB - no reason to look for anything else. It's the most supported, easy to troubleshoot, tons of addons/updates/etc. I went through this too (a few times now), VB comes out on top for me each time.
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VB is still one of the top dogs but since being bought out, it isn't the only choice like it used to be. There are several others that are giving it a run for the money. VB4 is bloated.
 
The forum at the moment heavily relies on SEO , so i need the forum software to be fast and very seo friendly... Can VB offer this?
 
tomyates said:
The forum at the moment heavily relies on SEO , so i need the forum software to be fast and very seo friendly... Can VB offer this?
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I'm not familiar if VB4 handles SEO well, or if you still need a SEO friendly plugin. Either way, yeah there is a plugin that will make it SEO friendly.

just built a game site myself and i was faced with a difficult decision.. go with something like vB/phpBB/IPB or build the forums from scratch.. I chose to build them from scratch because there's no way I would have been able to hack away at something so complex like vB.. vB is a REAL pain in the ass if you need to do anything custom; though there are a ton of plugins to accomplish most of what you would want to do.

So just go vB if you don't need anything too customized; or also consider IPB, I don't have any experience with it. If budget is an issue, go with phpBB then.
 
yeah i built my own custom forum, So ideally looking for something which I can import the posts,threads & members quite easily
 
the site is CodMB.com ... Its custom built but i dont think it needs to be, doesnt have anything that VB doesn't I dont think. But Its missing alot!

Looking to do a relaunch so I think some new forum software is a good start
 
tomyates said:
yeah i built my own custom forum, So ideally looking for something which I can import the posts,threads & members quite easily
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Nothing that PHP and some well-written SQL queries couldn't do. You can migrate nearly every forum installation's database that way. You'll only run into issues if you happen to have to include certain information in your new forum installation that your old doesn't support. For instance, if your new installation requires certain member data that you don't have, or if they require certain information be generated for each post.

tomyates said:
the site is CodMB.com ... Its custom built but i dont think it needs to be, doesnt have anything that VB doesn't I dont think. But Its missing alot!

Looking to do a relaunch so I think some new forum software is a good start
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VB is great. It's got a lot of plugins that make managing a forum easier. If you also have another part on your site that pulls the member data, then you'll want to account for that.

For instance: teamspeak that only allows registered users to enter, custom high score lists or rankings tied to each member and appear under their avatar, etc.
 
Cheers for the reply.

Yeah I wasnt sure how complex the DB structure is to import the members & threads etc.
Any idea what encryption they use for the passwords etc?
 
VB is great but it's also much more customizable and complicated than it needs to be for the average person--just throwing it out there. It's also the standard when it comes to online message boards, so whatever. I definitely don't recommend phpBB though.
 
tomyates said:
Cheers for the reply.

Yeah I wasnt sure how complex the DB structure is to import the members & threads etc.
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It's not that complex. You'll have to figure out which tables require which data and piece it all together. It'll take a few hours to do, but if you make notes, you can easily come back later to mod anything with that information and won't have to figure it all out again.

tomyates said:
Any idea what encryption they use for the passwords etc?
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This is what I got from Googling "vbulletin password encryption"
vbulletin password encryption

Honestly, I wouldn't keep the same passwords when you migrate. It's much easier for you and safer for your members to just make new ones. Just go through and have everyone's account generate a new temporary password and mail everyone saying that they need to change it.

You also eliminate accounts that are inactive.
 
Rexibit said:
It's not that complex. You'll have to figure out which tables require which data and piece it all together. It'll take a few hours to do, but if you make notes, you can easily come back later to mod anything with that information and won't have to figure it all out again.



This is what I got from Googling "vbulletin password encryption"
vbulletin password encryption

Honestly, I wouldn't keep the same passwords when you migrate. It's much easier for you and safer for your members to just make new ones. Just go through and have everyone's account generate a new temporary password and mail everyone saying that they need to change it.

You also eliminate accounts that are inactive.
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Thanks very much for your input buddy - really appreciate it.
Yep - you make a good point , resetting the PW's will help get rid of the inactives great idea.

Thanks again for your time guys!

Tom
 
I used to be a vBulletin guy just like everyone else and have managed (and still do manage) a couple of large forums. However, as of late, I have been playing around with Xenforo - XenForo - Compelling Community Forum Software

It was built from scratch by Kier, Mike & Ashley - all ex-vB developers. And I find the entire piece of software quite intriguing.

I like the fact on how simple the overall admin panel is, yet at the same time managing to include every single detail of running a forum.

I bought a license in February just for the heck of it and I am already advancing on the overall feel of the script. So much so, that I might just move one of my larger boards over to it anytime soon.
 
vBulletin was great until the Internet Brands buyout and VB4.

IPB was vBulletins closest competitor.

XenForo is a new one to take a look at. XenForo is made by some of the old vBulletin developers that left after the Internet Brands takeover including Kier Darby, the lead developer of vBulletin from 2001-2009. I just bought a license for it last week.
 
AuthorAji said:
I used to be a vBulletin guy just like everyone else and have managed (and still do manage) a couple of large forums. However, as of late, I have been playing around with Xenforo - XenForo - Compelling Community Forum Software

It was built from scratch by Kier, Mike & Ashley - all ex-vB developers. And I find the entire piece of software quite intriguing.

I like the fact on how simple the overall admin panel is, yet at the same time managing to include every single detail of running a forum.

I bought a license in February just for the heck of it and I am already advancing on the overall feel of the script. So much so, that I might just move one of my larger boards over to it anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Kier made VB what it is and like netphase said, it lost it's soul when IB bought it.

Def going to check out xenforo. I'm asuming Kier's non-compete ran out or that he never had one.
 
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