Open source forum software

i92guboj · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:11 pm Post subject: Open source forum software

I am looking at the available forum software and I wonder what you guys would use nowadays and why.

I've used phpbb in the past (with not few security problems by the way). I would like to know the actual scenery because it's been long since the last time I had to use or maintain this kind of software. I've made a poll, but if you think there's another option worth mentioning, just go ahead and let me know. I am mostly interested in security and usability (in that order). Features and extensibility would be cool as long as the main requirements are fulfilled.

Please, I am only interested in open source software for this concrete task.

avx · Advocate Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 2152

SMF - simple, standards-compliant, good extensibility, nice and helpfull staff/community - but, doesn't scale so well with more than >1k users(may also be my hardware) -> http://simplemachines.org

If you want to stay with one from your poll, I'd go vanilla or phpbb.

i92guboj · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject:

Tekeli Li · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Jan 2009 Posts: 95

SMF all the way. Never had scaling issues with it, and I ran a site with thousands of users. The best thing about SMF, opposed to phpBB, is that it has an aggregate of Unread topics where you can manage and track them much more effectively than with phpBB. Also, unread topics don't reset their status after you logout.

However, having used phpBB only up to version 2, I don't know if version 3 has the same feature now, or if any other app on that list has it. But that's something I very, very much liked with SMF and was the primary reason I started using it, few years ago. That plus the out-of-box text formatting options which were (still are?) more advanced than with phpBB.

I have no significant experience with other forum systems listed.

i92guboj · Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 9:22 am Post subject:

I am testing SMF and really loving it. Thanks again for all the input.

nuhiNlow · n00b Joined: 07 Jan 2009 Posts: 46

what happened to the SMF ebuild??

gringo · Advocate Joined: 27 Apr 2003 Posts: 3793

lostinspace2011 · Apprentice Joined: 09 Sep 2005 Posts: 230

Since both phpBB and SMF are not stable(masked) or available in portage, what is the suggested solution on getting a web based forum installed ? I don't want to seem controversial, just hoping for a solution to this ?

Thanks in advance.

i92guboj · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2009 8:58 pm Post subject:

I've never used those ebuilds, never felt so comfortable about the Gentoo way to handle www software. I just download whatever package fits me better from the author's site and do it the traditional way. To tell the truth I never tried so hard to change my ways in that regard, so maybe it's just me. But specially for this kind of application, staying up to date from minute-zero is a must, specially when php is involved. Portage simply can't keep the pace there. Web apps are also very prone to the usage of custom patches, plugins, customizations, etc. Handling that via portage is also impossible the way it is right now, at least I can't image any straight way to do so.

So I rather maintain the whole thing by myself.