We’re looking at rebuilding our Forums here on ChurchCrunch and around the 8BIT Network. We used BBPress historically but are looking for suggestions.
So, let’s have them! What do you think would be the best solution? I’m open to pretty much anything.
Tell me in the comments.
I’ve used XMB, phpBB, and IPB. They’ve all worked great in the past, but if I had to pick one, it’d probably be phpBB- it’s just simple.
I’ve not used BBPress before so I can’t compare, but I’ve been a fan of SimpleMachine Forums (http://www.simplemachines.org/) for a while. I run it on one of my sites currently and used to have it on a few others. It’s proven to be way more stable than some of the other free options were and the SPAM filtering plugins work fairly well.
+1 for simple machines. Tons of functionality. Not sexy out of the box, so don’t judge it on the default themes…do a little work and you’ll have an elegant forum.
I once did a shootout of several different forum systems and I preferred SMF. The default template isn’t the best, but you can always make a custom template (or use one of the many pre-made templates out there).
I’ve been using PHPBB for ages now and would highly recommend it.
I have a working example here http://www.aobot.org/
+1 For Simple Machines Forum. I am currently the IT help behind a board thats running well over 1,000,000 pageviews over the last 12 months so there is no doubt it could handle the traffic.
Personally I would like to see a well laid out implementation of Buddypress, as a social network for the entire 8bit network…Its especially getting interesting with wordpress and wordpress mu getting merged in 3.0 and Buddypress now able to run on non WordPress MU installs. An example of technological excellence?
I agree
I hope 3.0 is all it’s cracked up to be.. I think buddypress still has a way to go though..
Agreed on the Buddypress/BBPress/3.0 suggestion. I’m all about the integration. However, I suppose if you’re looking to have something up and running tomorrow, this may not be the ideal option.
Well, we’ve used vBulletin over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com all along. A bit clunky, but works. Integrating it via the wordpress bridge plugin has been awesome, because our wordpress articles automatically post as a new thread in the forums, and all wordpress-oriented comments are forum comments, and any forum comments are also shown as wordpress comments.
It has it’s pros and cons, like anything else, I suppose, but has worked well for us!
I have heard good things about vBulletin. Although I have never run a forum, pretty much every forum that I am a member of runs Vbulletin.
A spin-off of the open-source reddit code would be amazing. It’s better than regular forums, since the community can freely prioritize what they think is more constructive under a topic.
+1
I’ve always loved Vanilla Forums (http://vanillaforums.com/) which is what FreelanceSwitch started out on before they moved to something else. It’s sweet!
phpBB is a very interesting looking forum software
Last time, I wrote them myself… I don’t suggest this is the best idea unless you are a student with lots of time on your hands
-1
Yeah, I am also trying out bbpress over at http://synapticlight.com/bbpress – just to try something different
then I was looking around for some options and thought http://www.vbulletin.com/ would be cool – albeit at a price $285 for the Publishing Suite, but it offers:
CMS built for Communities
Forums
and Community Blogs
I did post something but the comment disappeared when I wanted to check if I remembered the link – check out http://www.vbulletin.com/
phpBB is good looking software
I’ve honestly never looked into this- so it looks like I’ve got some reading up to do.
I thought it was going to be a great way to get more engagement and conversation on my blog, It did not really make a difference, yet. Maybe, it’s just lack of awareness.
WordPress blog with threaded comments.