I am soon going to have forum board for my website.
So i need your suggestion regarding choosing the
best board.
So can u please tell me out of

Invision Board
phpBB2
YaBBSE

Which one you think is best forum board,in looks,in smartness
ease to use,custominize


Regards

You're never going to get a unbiased review, so the best way is to try them all and see which you like.

However much I hate their business plan lately, I think Invision Board is the best amongst those you've listed.

So true Chroder. The debate over forum software would be biased, and Invision does have a pretty convoluted pricing structure -- downright misleading in places.

One that was not mentioned above is vBulletin. Right now, vBulletin (since version 3) seems to be one of the more popular software amongst biased polling. I must admit, it is pretty good and feature rich -- $80 pricetag makes it pretty cheap too (compared to Invision).

YaBBSE, which was a perl script with a flat database (in the beginning) and just recently went to php/mysql version ... I don't know much about or have had time to really critique it. My feeling is that it has not matured enough in this area to make any sound judgements on it.

phpBB is still my favorite. It is the "build it your way" type of software. A lot of the features you can find with the others can be added onto via a mod. Of course, you have to use a little elbow grease to get the board the way you want it -- but it is worth it (IMO).

For instance, this board here is vBulletin. One attractive feature is the Archive link at the bottom of every page which makes for some spider friendly content. I took a mod that simulates this feature and improved upon it to emulate the vBulletin feature a little better. Compare it here.

I would have chosen vBulletin if it were listed, I use it and love it.

For instance, this board here is vBulletin. One attractive feature is the Archive link at the bottom of every page which makes for some spider friendly content. I took a mod that simulates this feature and improved upon it to emulate the vBulletin feature a little better. Compare it here.

You are using mod_rewrite? vBulletin has to respect that not all of their customers will have the ability to use mod_rewrite.

mod_rewrite is not used at all with this hack. It is all done progmatically.

There is one tidbit to add to an .htaccess file however to force the PHP interpreter ON for these files (since they end with an .html extension)

<files archive>
  ForceType application/x-httpd-php
  #AcceptPathInfo On # uncomment this if you have apache2
</files>

Nice, though same thing still applies -- Windows users would be in the dark.


I think I'm going to hack my vB to act this way. SE's will eat up those URL's

Originally Posted by Chroder

Nice, though same thing still applies -- Windows users would be in the dark.

Why would Window's users be in the dark? That link for my version is running on a Windows box running XP.

I do all my testing and development on a Windows machine running Apache Server, PHP and MySQL.

One thing I do not like about either version though is that link is always to the root of the Archive rather than the page you are currently looking at. I am going to retrofit this puppy more so it will act more like a "printer friendly" page instead. The current printer friendly mod I have in there sucks. This will solve both problems.

I think I'm going to hack my vB to act this way. SE's will eat up those URL's

I think vB has a hack for it (not positive). If not, let me know and I can zip up what I have so you can adapt it. Not that hard to do .... just run thru the sql & db statements and swap em out to match vB -- should work real easily.

I want to make some more improvements on this script also -- add in a column of links by month for instance (ala the blog archive link list), latest (started) topics, etc. Just pure spider food. (Plus I am patching in Dynamic metas for keywords and description too). This puppy ain't finished yet.

Why would Window's users be in the dark? That link for my version is running on a Windows box running XP

lol I'll rephrase (my third time lol): IIS users will be in the dark My original point was Jelsoft is a professional company with many customers and has to take into account all the different systems their customers may have.

I think vB has a hack for it (not positive). If not, let me know and I can zip up what I have so you can adapt it. Not that hard to do .... just run thru the sql & db statements and swap em out to match vB -- should work real easily.

I assume it's posted on phpbbhacks? I'll have a look when they're back up. With vB already having a working archive, it'll be simpler I think. Just have to write a block or two and trick the original script into thinking I'm doing it the old way (setting values explicitly).

I don't think IIS users would be any more in the dark with phpBB than they would vBulletin. No comparison there, both require PHP to operate and both have the ability to use any database server of their choosing. I am not sure about vBulletin but phpBB can run on MySQL, MS-SQL, PostGres SQL, Oracle, MS-Access, and MS-SQL ODBC.

The .htaccess file forcing to parse .html extensions as PHP can be gotten around I am sure. If not ... no problem, just change the extensions on the keywod rich URL's to a .php extension and get rid of the .htaccess file altogether.

The script in its original state did not follow thru on most of the key aspects that it was billed to do. It was purporting to be an SEO-type script, and outside of one file that did the filename parsing -- it was far from it.

It may be listed at phpbbHacks, but I am not sure. I found the script at TheForumZone in this thread . This site is geared for Forum Owners, all flavors.

I just looked at that thread, and yes it is at PHPBBHacks here. But it appears that they have exceeded their bandwidth ... **** that is a first. The original script is here. It also appears that he has a version that does not use the ForceType in the .htaccess file. hmmmm....I think I will check that out.

Another version of this (but uses mod_rewrite) is at ScriptWiz -- but again, this one falls a little short of what I was looking for (although the Urls are a lot cleaner).

I don't think IIS users would be any more in the dark with phpBB than they would vBulletin. No comparison there, both require PHP to operate and both have the ability to use any database server of their choosing. I am not sure about vBulletin but phpBB can run on MySQL, MS-SQL, PostGres SQL, Oracle, MS-Access, and MS-SQL ODBC.

I was referring to the hack, not the forums themselves.

On IIS there is no way to forcetype without specifially mapping it with an ISAPI extension. Most professional companies are not going to make their users install extensions or buy them (such there is a mod_rewrite type package for IIS), they want it to work out of the box. A large number of people aren't tech savvy as web dev's. My whole point was Jelsoft did what would work for everyone.

The .htaccess file forcing to parse .html extensions as PHP can be gotten around I am sure. If not ... no problem, just change the extensions on the keywod rich URL's to a .php extension and get rid of the .htaccess file altogether.

From other SEF articles I've read elsewhere (basing on those as the phpbbhacks site has exceeded their bandwidth ), the forcetype is just to get the file 'archive' to work as a PHP file. Everything else, including the .html extensions are just 'illusions' for SE's. Since ForceType doesn't work on all computers, vB uses index.php -- SE's generally don't notice the difference. It makes me wonder though why the devs don't include descriptive URL's. Nothing would change =/

If a Linux vB user didn't want '.php' to be part of their archive, they could simply create a symbolic link to the index.php file. Problems solved.

All this chatter about one archive hack

Yep a lot of talk about one hack.

I have been away for a while, just noticed your new blog! Looks interesting, just the kind of thing I am always on the lookout for. You may see me from time to time.

What do you think of WordPress? I had my eye on that for a while (and Drupal).

I like it, but I haven't tried many blogs before

I'm not used to skinning around PHP (used to template engines) but not bad. A bit annoying in some spots. I had to hack some stuff out, like it replaces single quotes with some crazy &<something>; business (that isn't a single quote at all) which made my posted code muck up.

Drupal looks interesting though, I'm looking at it now

I'm a happy customer using Invision Power Board and although new users may see the changes happenning with the software and company a little disconcerting, those wanting a professional bulletin board now have a viable alternative to vBulletin. A problem for IPS was that they were branded as creating poor software and support, simply because it was free. Now users can use the board without members branding the site as "cheap" because they are using what was a free product.

I like vBulletin 3.0 - in its full screen format like at Web-Talk, but I prefer Invision in most aspects. It depends what you like because your users will more than likely not give a ****.

IPB is not free?? Did I miss something or is 2.0 changing that drasticly?

My vote is with Invisionboard or phpBBS.

Invisionboard offers a "free trial" which means you get to download the software but that is it. If ou ever run into a problem then your on your own unless you want to go ask for help at non-official sites.

I wish it was so simple.

Then thats what you get when you have a template system. You need to write your own damned forum to keep inline with the rest of your site.

Saying that writing forums takes up time and its fun so work can't be too bad (if it passes quick)

Ibbo