Best Forum Script, mailing list programs?

[brian]

I just wanted to get everyones feedback regarding what the best forum script is and why. I see that Insiderhosting uses vbulletin, but are there any good free ones? Once I get my site done, I want to put forums on them. Also, I want to use a mailing list on my site, which ones do you recommend and why? Are there any features that one has over another?

Thanks for the help

[Eric]

Hi Brian,

I belive phpbb (http://www.phpbb.com/) is free and is highly recommended on other boards.

As far as mailing list programs go, I've only used Mailman that comes with CPanel and have found it to be a good program. I use it for the classes I teach to maintain a class list for updates, so my needs are pretty basic. It seems to be a pretty flexible program though.

Eric

[brian]

thanks for the reply Eric. I have seen phpbb, I am also thinking about www.ibforums.com as that looks like a robust bulletin board as well. Right now, those are the two that I think I will decide between. I have seen a lot of others but they either lack functionality or features, and the ones listed above appear to be just what I need.

I will take a look at mailman, but I like the one that Insiderhosting uses to e-mail us updates as well. That looks professional and I don't need anything real fancy shmansy.

[Steven]

Brian,
I think that phpbb or ibforums would be a great solution for you. They both are great and have a good team of developers which is really important. For your mailing list program, I strongly recommend mojo which can be seen by going to http://mojo.skazat.com . It is easy to setup and a very good system.

-Steven

[Charles O'Brien]

Well well well, forums are a touchy subject to me, but personally I would have to recommend OpenBB. May not have as many features as the rest, but still, in my opinion is a sleek piece of software.

phpBB I find to be large, especially with its flat file templating scheme.

iBforums I could say about the same thing as I would iKonboard, lots of little quarky features added that *most* ordinary users will never take advantage of. Bogs down speed.

As for mailing list, I highly agree with Steven for mojo.

[SmackDaddy]

I have grown to like phpBB...especially their latest 2.0.1 release. I am currently using it on two boards I help administer.

http://www.osso.org/phpBB2/ (forum which has Gallery 1.3.1 integrated as well as integrating a Calendar with it soon)...

http://discodave.tokomak.net/phpBB2/ (using a custom theme for our gaming community)

And phpBB is developing a portal (similar to Xoops, PHPNuke, PostNuke) around their website (similar to vbportal for vbulletin) but with phpBB, it all is free. :D

[Steven]

Originally posted by Charles O'Brien
Well well well, forums are a touchy subject to me, but personally I would have to recommend OpenBB. May not have as many features as the rest, but still, in my opinion is a sleek piece of software.

phpBB I find to be large, especially with its flat file templating scheme.

iBforums I could say about the same thing as I would iKonboard, lots of little quarky features added that *most* ordinary users will never take advantage of. Bogs down speed.

As for mailing list, I highly agree with Steven for mojo.

Well the reason that you probably see that IB forums is like ikonboard is that it was created by the same developer. Care to share why it is such a touchy subject, not sure I know the whole story yet, waiting to be filled in ;) Maybe this can help you get that feeling off your chest. Eric is a graduate psy student :)

Also this is my take on forums and other software that people want to use to enhance their sites:

One of the major reasons why we selected vbulletin was that it was a paid product. There were many free alternatives like the ones listed above, however with a paid product, you get quality support. Now I am not saying that with the other programs you won't get quality support, but there comes a time where developers and programmers will need some sort of compensation for their time. They can't work for free, in my opinion, and that was a major factor in our decision. Vbulletin has an active community and active development team where new features are always introduced in newer versions. What allows them to constantly concentrate on the coding is the money that is paid for the product.

Take for example the helpdesk (perldesk) that we use. The developer used to be so active in releasing updates and added functionality, but then the demand became so great he had to take down the forums on the site, and moved to a paid support type of solution to recoup some of the costs for his time. We are now evaluating different helpdesk solutions, hopefully Charles will have his out soon. **hint hint**


I think that there are certain things that need to be paid for, if you intend to make money on your site as they can only function as a major advantage. The billing system that we use is phenominal (again in my opinion) but it is another paid product. We don't mind paying for something as mission critical as a billing application. So if it helps us in our quest to automate our systems that much more, I don't mind paying for it.

Sorry for all the typing, but just wanted to give my opinion on this matter.

-Steven

[Charles O'Brien]

Well, as for why it is a touchy subject I have had some personal encounters with some developers, and I would prefer not to go into the details of this on a public forum.

As for vBulletin, I agree with all the points you made. I use it as well.

[michael]

I would highly reccommend mojo mail as mentioned by Steven above. I use it for all my mailing list needs. One of the best free programs out there.

[hekimce]

hi,
I am using mojo mail after your advice.

I want to learn how must I set my mojo mail batch settings in order to get the best result. And how should I use mojo mail to send messages to my subscribres ?

is it okey if I prefer 5 (five) messages at every 20 (twenty) seconds.

thanks

[Sam]

phpBB is the one I use on a rather popular forum. There are errors about too many people connected on at one time sometimes at peak times. (Around 100-200 on at the same time usually is when it happens) It handles posts very well.

Another one that I recommend is Invision Board. I don't have much administration experience in it, but as a user and moderator on one, it is very nice to use.

I hope this helps!