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Best forum software

by affenpinscher
6 replies
Is it worth buying vBulletin rather than using SMF or phpBB, both of which are free?

Any recommendations also on plug ins to reduce spam?
#forum #software #spam
  • Profile picture of the author adsense786
    yes, i used SMF and vbulletin .. as my experience vbulletin far better than other free forum software
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  • Profile picture of the author bfas
    We just switched our private forum to vBulletin from SMF.

    SMF is a very nice, functional forum. It's surprisingly easy to set up, use, and manage. And it's free. Really, you can't beat that combination.

    In our case, we were running into limitations of SMF. We looked at plugins & patches, etc., and could have done what we were needing done right now, but we'd end up with a platform really at the limit of it's functionality, with no where to go from there.

    vBulletin is an entirely different class. It's an industrial platform, ultra flexible and customizable, serious functionality out-of-the-box.

    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author GAVROCHE
      As mentioned by vpexplosion and bfas, SMF is a good free software and vBulletin, as paid, is better.
      But you should check some alternatives, the field of forum software is changing fast:
      - MyBB - FREE, voted by users as the best in 2010 and 2011;
      - Burning Board - probably best commercial forum software, voted #1 by users in 2011, stable;used on an Apache server is the best way to go.
      - ProBoards - Best Hosted Forum Software award of 2011...BUT...I'll not go with it, better use your own host.

      See all of them and decide which one is better for you, we all are having different needs.
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  • Profile picture of the author RankSale
    We have 3 vBulletin forums so far so good.
    As for the spam, I think there is no easy to stop them.
    Any rules by script will stop regular users as well.
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    CryptoCurrency Market Forums
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  • Profile picture of the author chicka
    I would recommend vBulletin and Xenforo. I know that a lot of you are already familiar with the former but Xenforo although still a baby compared to other forum softwares is better in the sense that it has less bugs.
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  • Profile picture of the author komplex
    Banned
    vBulletin is the best hands down, period. Nothing even comes close. Would never run another forum without it.
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