»

[Etan]

I hope this isn't OT for this forum but it seemed to be the place to place this.

I was interested in opinions regarding the virtues of phpBB Bulletin Board software versus the free InvidionBoard software. From what I've seen the seem to be almost equally popular throughout the web. Although there's always YABB as well.

It seems to me that phpBB is a much simpler produce versus Invision BB.

Could anyone enlighten me with their opinions?

Thanks!

Nate

[Travis]

i like phpbb because the administration is a snap

with invision you get cramed with way to much administration

[Nara]

I don't really know enough or have enough time to go into lots of detail, but here's my basic opinion:

phpBB is easier to use, but more limited
IBF is slightly more complicated, but because of its complexity also has more functions [that I've been able to find and use]

Overall my opinion is that if you're running a relatively small board with just one or two admins, phpBB will do just fine.. however, if you have multiple admins with different levels of experience, and lots of members, lots of forums and sub-forums, etc. IBF seems the better choice.

I think overall IBF has a better, or at least more organized admin control panel. I can't even remember if there's a mod cpanel in phpBB. *someone refresh my memory*

Now that I think about it, IBF is more organized overall. So again, that's much better if you're dealing with a large-scale message board. The complexity of it all may not be worth it for small-scale projects.

I only recently found out about the hacks/mods for phpBB; before I'd used IBF for anything I needed hacks for. Seems to me like IBF has the better hack support of the two.

Anyway, there's just some random thoughts and opinions.. sorry I can't help you out that well. Hope it helps at least a little!

[MrCoolDale]

I'm understanding that these forums are Invision Board, so you can see how nicely they can be in the right hands. The control panel is more complicated, though not too hard to figure out given enough time (I played around with it for about an hour and figured everything out). Since it is more compplicated, you have more control. However, I am using the phpbb forums, simply because I can update them extremely fast, and I am used to them seeing as I have modded 2 different forums running on phpbb.

it really comes down to personal preference, and what you will need to make it work. will you need a complex system for total control, or do you just want something simplistic?

:MCD:
:signing out:

[miakeru]

Originally Posted by unleashed

i like phpbb because the administration is a snap

with invision you get cramed with way to much administration

I completely agree with that. Though I do like Invision a bit more from a users point of view, the administrative section is a real pain to get around in.

[AJPayne]

Originally Posted by MrCoolDale

I'm understanding that these forums are Invision Board...

no these forums are vBulletin 3.0 (see credits at bottom of page)

[betajaen]

There is a 3rd option, Ikonboard. I used this for nearly a year on my previous website, and it ran pretty well considering what I did to it.

It showed it's cracks in the end, probably due to myself pushing it do things it wasn't really meant to do.

But definitely worth looking at.

[javaqueen]

Personally I like Invision, altho I haven't tried phpbb. It loads really fast. Seemed easy enough to come to grips with when I had a play around and it's available for a quick easy install thru surpass !

No complicated downloading and installing, I'm for the easy life

[AJPayne]

Originally Posted by javaqueen

No complicated downloading and installing, I'm for the easy life

well sometimes easy installation doesn't always mean easy (more powerful) administration.

what I would suggest, is to try them all and see which one you like best, and suits your needs, since opinions vary a lot from user to user. Give it a shot, and see which one you prefer.

Personally, I love vBulletin, as it is extremely easy yet powerful administration. Of course bare in mind that VB is not free sofware, and will cost you either $85/year (leased version) or $160 one time fee (owned license)

http://www.vbulletin.com/order/

I prefer to have a paid script over a free one just for the support, as a paid script you get faster (sometimes) and more accurate support.

hope this help