Simple, Secure, Reliable Forum Script?

[Bob Crabb]

A friend of mine is thinking of starting her own internet forum. I set up a demo for her of two systems that I have some experience using, phpBB3 and SMF. I think that the administration of phpBB3 is probably way too complicated for her, and of the two, SMF is probably best suited to her needs.

 

However, I wanted to ask all of you for some suggestions if you have any experience using a simpler, less featured BB script, that is secure, reliable, and supported.

 

For example, I've looked at one, PunBB, but haven't had a chance to really check it out. Does anyone have any thoughts on punbb, or any other simple forum script that is written in PHP?

 

Thanks,

Bob

[SteveW]

I'm sorry I can't comment on any other forums, but I love SMF both as a user and administrator, and it's secure, reliable, and supported. It's light on images, so pages load fast even on dialup.

 

Any new forum admin should expect that it will take a few hours going carefully through the admin panel before they are comfortable with it, but I find SMF's to be intuitive and relatively easy except for some advanced features like user groups with specialized permissions, which a new admin probably won't be concerned with at first, anyway.

 

Basically, I can't think of any reason to steer someone away from SMF, and that's why I'm posting this.

 

A place to look up security issues with any forum or other script you're considering is http://secunia.com.

[TCH-Bruce]

Bob, I'd recommend SMF for a beginning board as well.

[carbonize]

It all depends on what you are after. Smf and phpBB are the two main free forum scripts these days but there are so many other such as Phorum, UNB etc. Have a look at www.opensourcecms.com where you can play with a lot of forum scripts so see which you like best.

 

If you want a powerful, fully fledged, whistles and bells forum then go for SMF. PHPBB for some reason has yet to embrace the world of Ajax for quick editing. If you want a simple but good looking forum try UNB.

[Bob Crabb]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have now had a chance to check out a few, and although I am biased toward phpBB3 for my own use, for someone who is opening their first forum I still like SMF the best. PunBB is also nice too if a person doesn't want a lot of features, but I don't think it is any easier to administer than SMF.

 

After all this, I think that my friend has come to realize that there is a heck of a lot more to administering a forum than what she initially thought, so I think the project is shelved for now.

[carbonize]

Explain to her that the hard part is only in the initial set up after that it's just maintenance like deleting posts and banning members.

[Bob Crabb]

I agree with that, and once it is set up, running a forum can be as simple or as complicated as a person wants it to be. She just has to decide if she really wants to do it.