There are many popular forum software's out there to choose from. However, many require you to have a mySQL or some other database set up in order for them to run.

There are a lot of people who don't have these databases set up, don't have the time or energy to set them up and are left in the dark. In addition to this, I've heard from numerous sources that mySQL databases can cause slow load speeds when there is low amounts of traffic.

I encountered these problem when setting up my forum, and eventually looked into flat file database forums. I found a couple and they work great, There's a great forum software that I just set up on my site a couple days ago. I would suggest everyone to look into http://forum.myupb.com/ It's a great from software, and runs great on my site. I personally don't know why more people don't use it. It's easy to modify and work with. I hope you try it out.

Hope this helps those people looking for some great forum software

To be honest, I haven't tired that software. I have used vBulletin, phpBB, but not this one. I will give it a shot.

Thanks

I'm not sure I understand the advantages of using flat files. Is this similiar to flat file "hit counters" that simply increment a number in a .txt file?

I'll definately check it out though it will take a lot to convert me away from Fluxbb

Originally Posted by konetch

mySQL... don't have the time or energy to set them up

But setting up a mySQL database on a Linux server takes about 6 seconds!

Well, I know I'm using a server with a friend of mine who for some reason doesn't want me to set up a mySQL database. Plus some hosts still don't have mySQL, but for most people it probably isn't a problem.

@downliner

Actually it is a little more complex than that. It has all the features that most forums have(eg phpBB, vbulletin), just uses flat files. I have heard from sources (I don't know how accurate they are) that flat files can run faster on low traffic sites than the same site would run with a database like mySQL. I think that would be a big advantage to it. I have it on my site and it's great.

I'm not that fully informed about mySQL, I'm more used to PHP. I think I'm going to try it too.