Free Forum Software

[FN-GM]

Hi,

 

My brother is abit of a gamer. He is apart of a group on an online game (The name i cannot remember). They would like some free Forum software to make a forum for the group. They would like a self hosted solution.

 

I have found this - Home of SMF: Free PHP and MySQL forum software i played around with this a few years ago and it seemed ok.

 

Does anyone else have any suggestions please?

 

Thanks

[SYNACK]

phpBB • Creating Communities Worldwide

 

EduGeek 1.0 used to run it

[Devontechie]

MyBB - Free PHP and MySQL Forum Software

[localzuk]

Forum software is much like the eternal mac vs windows vs linux debate, or the emacs vs vi debate. Very much a personal preference.

 

I know someone who swears by simplemachines, others who adore phpbb etc...

 

The best option is to set a few up, try them out and see what you think.

[Edu-IT]

There's also Vanilla Forums.

[Dos_Box]

Actually, we started a variant of phpbb called Dragonfly.

[Arthur]

I would say phpBB3 looks like a pretty good choice based on the recent forum upgrade Ars Technica did. Their forums are super fast now - although this probably has more to do with how their servers are set up than anything else. I also really like what Neowin did with their forums using IPB3, but this is not free.

 

A good point mentioned in the first link above is the number of security vulnerabilities the forum software has, or has had. The less, the better IMO. MyBB has a massive amount of them.

 

MyBB: http://secunia.com/advisories/product/4479/

phpBB3: http://secunia.com/advisories/product/17998/

PunBB: http://secunia.com/advisories/product/3700/

Simple Machines: http://secunia.com/advisories/product/5285/

Vanilla: http://secunia.com/advisories/product/16237/