I was just thinking, is it even possible to create a professional, good community without using a fee required board software?

What do you think?

The base software doesn't matter, it's how YOU present it that counts.

That's definitely true,

but if you check the major, huge communities they usually use vBulletin or IPB, why? Is it so much better? Or do you think Visitors, see those boards as more reliable, because the Webmaster invested something?

Not all Professional Communities use vB, many just create there own messaging system (look at Youtube, Facebook, Digg, etc. for example, all custom-tailored to suit the website's needs).

From a personal perspective though, I only participate at forums using vBulletin, I can't stand the other ones out there. The user interface is very clean and friendly, the mechanics and features are easier to understand, and I just find it presented as a better package overall than anything else out there currently. Just personal preference though...

Of course its possible to create a god community with free software, as chris says its how you present it thats key, althought vbulletin is better overall, im sure if you really learned IBP, you would be able to design something just as good !

Woc

There are lots of other commercial forum solutions out there. But some of them are so expensive the average person can not justify the price.

For a commercial grade forum, go with a commercial grade solution.

Another example is called webwiz forums. Its a commercial grade forum, but not as popular as VB and IPB.

Not forgetting that the webwiz forum runs on ASP whereas Invision and vBulletin are PHP.

What degree of understanding of php is required to get a forum up and running?

Shadrach

Originally Posted by chrishirst

The base software doesn't matter, it's how YOU present it that counts.

This might start a debate, but I have to disagree.

I do not sign up on forums that use PHPBB. The reason being is that phpbb has a reputation of not being secure. I have personally seen several phpbb communities brought their knees and one forum that belonged to a buddy of mine taken off line forever.

This buddy of mine, we live about 45 miles part. We were talking on the phone the other day and I asked him why he took his forum down. He told me that he got hacked so many times, the forum was not worth the stress and worry of having to do backups and restores. And he just happened to be running phpbb.

Another forum I used to visit was hacked on and off for around 6 weeks. The site would get defaced, fixed, defaced, fixed, defaced, fixed,,,,,,, This went on for at least a month, maybe cloesr to 6 or 8 weeks. The forum just happened to be running phpbb. The owner closed the forum, switched to SMF, and the hacking problems stopped.

Because of these reason, and several others, I no longer sign up on phpbb forums.

So yes, in some cases the forum software does have a factor.

The only reason the phpBB is attacked more is because it's use is more widespread. If the site operator (or the hosting provider) keeps up to date with security fixes and the forum administrator takes proper security precautions on passwords etc there is no reason for it to be less "professional" than any other forum software.

Some versions of Invision and vBulletin have security issues and installations are "hacked" on a regular basis.

I am going to retract part of my statement of phpbb. After thinking about my post, I signed up on one phpbb forum in the last year. So its not that I will not sign up on phpbb forums, its that most of the time I will not sign upon a phpbb forum. If I see a forum that is using phpbb, there is a greater then 90% chance that I will not register.

I agree that if a site owner keeps the forum software up to date there is a less chance that the forum will be hacked. But, it is also how the developers handle the exploit. From the time the flaw is found, until a patch is released, that time span is critical. Some forum developers take their time in releasing updates, some are more proactive. It is my opinion that at one time the phpbb community dropped the ball on their security measures. The community was not proactive in notifying members of exploits and updates.

It is because of this that I choose not to register on too many phpbb communities. But that is my personal choice.