software recommended for an online forum?

[cooperplace]

I'm looking for online forum software for a professional body I'm a member of. The functionality seen here in the site would probably be ideal. If anyone has any suggestions for affordable, or free, software, I would be most grateful.

 

Ian, obviously your thoughts would be much welcomed, and those of anyone else with suggestions.

 

Thanks

 

Peter.

 

 

[Rocketing]

Hi Peter,

 

One of the most popular free forum software out there is https://www.phpbb.com/

 

Here is a good list of open source (free) forum software http://hellboundbloggers.com/2010/05/18/free-open-source-forums/

 

PM me if you have any specific questions.

 

 

[cooperplace]

Hi Rocketing, that's great, thank you.

 

Congrats BTW on the recent first solo

 

 

[Admin]

It does depend on many different things like age group of your audience, features that are required or like to have, your ability to create the extras that you want etc etc etc.

 

Many of the free software versions become popular simply because they are free and therefore become the focus of hacking attacks...paid for software less often.

 

Forum software is a business and the internet is littered with failed sites, empty forums or forums full of spam and crap. To do it properly you need to be aware of the forum software industry, know what is getting developed, what is up and coming and why, trends in technology, hosting administration, html/php coding conventions etc OR you can install a forum software app and hope for the best. For example many many many of these forums that are installed by non-IT people are continually hit with spam driven by the X Rumer forum attack software, software that even beats the Google recaptcha simply because they install a forum software app without knowing that running a forum is extremely hard work in ensuring that it runs properly. Note, I developed our own anti spam system here on Recreational Flying which is why we have never been attacked by X Rumer however many other sites are attacked on a daily basis.

 

The point I am making is the first part of installing a forum software app is making sure you select the right one and 99.9% of the time the right one WILL cost you money, and secondly, once you have installed the forum software app the work you need to do is only just beginning.

 

(don't forget the legal aspects of having a user integrated site...I spent a lot of money getting all this right not only in site rules but also the makeup of the behind the scenes ownership etc)

 

Ring me on 03 9444-8025 if I can help

 

 

[Jaycee]

One of the most popular, and in my opinion the best commercial package is vbulletin - https://www.vbulletin.com/

 

It's not free, but very well supported and offers great features.

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

This one, (recflying) is very good, and if yours becomes this good it'd be very hard to move it from a poor (read cheap, or free) platform, to another one if you wanted to, especially without effectively starting again.

 

So you need to have a good understanding of what your site might end up as, and how expandable/developable the software is/will be.

 

Not to take anything away from Recflying, but the very best platform that I know of, with the best features, support, development etc is the one HBA uses - there's a link in my signature and developer details at the bottom of each page, but it's far from free software... expect around $10k for a basic template. Then, as Ian alluded to, expect to pay a full-time IT man to deal with spam and other idiots. The bigger the site becomes, the bigger the attacks it will attract.

 

Quality blog sites carry heavy ongoing costs and workload, so it requires a big commitment or will assuredly join the smoking heap of previous well-intentioned projects.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

I just checked the HBA platform and was very surprised to see it is a vbulletin product, as mentioned by a previous poster here. What I do know, though, is that the development cost exceeded $16k and it has one very dedicated IT bloke to protect against the hackers and organise the several times daily backups, a heap of vigilant moderators and the site owner is also an IT wizard...

 

It seems big blogsites are definitely not for the faint-hearted.

 

 

[Jaycee]

This one, (recflying) is very good, and if yours becomes this good it'd be very hard to move it from a poor (read cheap, or free) platform, to another one if you wanted to, especially without effectively starting again.

So you need to have a good understanding of what your site might end up as, and how expandable/developable the software is/will be.

 

Not to take anything away from Recflying, but the very best platform that I know of, with the best features, support, development etc is the one HBA uses - there's a link in my signature and developer details at the bottom of each page, but it's far from free software... expect around $10k for a basic template. Then, as Ian alluded to, expect to pay a full-time IT man to deal with spam and other idiots. The bigger the site becomes, the bigger the attacks it will attract.

 

Quality blog sites carry heavy ongoing costs and workload, so it requires a big commitment or will assuredly join the smoking heap of previous well-intentioned projects.

 

The site you link to uses vbulletin, which is what i linked to in my post above. The software costs less than $400, and decent templates can be had for less than $100. I'm not sure what you have been quoted for $10k, but that would have to include some fairly heavy customisation. A basic forum using vbulletin can be setup in less than a day... But you're right about the ongoing commitment.

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

 

[Admin]

Guys, this site has been there and done that with vBulletin. Many users here on Rec Flying will know the trials and tribulations that has been with vb and the work loads that it has to maintain it plus the higher costs in hosting needed to run its very old code.

 

At one stage when we were using vb v4 there was an update every 2 weeks to fix bugs, which caused more bugs, which caused another update...etc, this went on for about a year and ended up basically a full time job fixing things. The code in vb is extremely bloated requiring many more resources ram and processor power to run it. There is also the law suits between vb and Xenforo, vb and Wikipedia plus many others and vb is destined to lose them. vBulletin is owned by Internet Brands which owns Pprune and Internet Brands has been passed from one financier to another since it went bad about 2 years ago. The best version of vb was v3.8 many years ago and it has gone down hill ever since and their latest offering which is v5 is a complete dogs breakfast...it is up to Beta v21...with thousands of bugs still listed.

 

What you guys are seeing is simply just a front end and not from a forum administrator's view, unless you are managing web site forums all day every day. Take it from me, having used vb for many years, to recommend vb would be setting a person up for failure unless they are an IT professional with extensive knowledge in web development and html/php coding.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Guys, this site has been there and done that with vBulletin. Many users here on Rec Flying will know the trials and tribulations that has been with vb and the work loads that it has to maintain it plus the higher costs in hosting needed to run its very old code.

At one stage when we were using vb v4 there was an update every 2 weeks to fix bugs, which caused more bugs, which caused another update...etc, this went on for about a year and ended up basically a full time job fixing things. The code in vb is extremely bloated requiring many more resources ram and processor power to run it. There is also the law suits between vb and Xenforo, vb and Wikipedia plus many others and vb is destined to lose them. vBulletin is owned by Internet Brands which owns Pprune and Internet Brands has been passed from one financier to another since it went bad about 2 years ago. The best version of vb was v3.8 many years ago and it has gone down hill ever since and their latest offering which is v5 is a complete dogs breakfast...it is up to Beta v21...with thousands of bugs still listed.

 

What you guys are seeing is simply just a front end and not from a forum administrator's view, unless you are managing web site forums all day every day. Take it from me, having used vb for many years, to recommend vb would be setting a person up for failure unless they are an IT professional with extensive knowledge in web development and html/php coding.

I was aware of the very hard work it takes to keep HBA running smoothly, so the background you listed here is good information to know, I didn't know about the competitor's disputes though. Thanks Ian.

 

 

[Jaycee]

Yes it's important for people to know that administering a forum is not as easy as it might first seem from looking at the front end. Obviously a great deal of work goes into well-run sites such as this one. Also, choosing a platform requires some careful consideration of a lot of factors, including budget, knowledge and resources - what might suit one forum owner may not be the best choice for another person due to different skill set and willingness and ability to hire someone with the right skillset.

 

Cheers,

 

John