Urgent Forum Script Help Needed

[Andy]

I just realized that I want to establish a forum on my Lottery Tips site to get visitor feedback, post lotto results, discuss strategy etc. What I need to know is which forum script to go with, I just read somewhere that SMF or vBulletin are best but I was thinking to go with PHPBB2 since it is supposed to be easier to get it to look like your own site which is most important to me. I know how to install and tweak SMF but I don't think it's easy to customize.

Does anyone have any strong views on the pros and cons of each particular forum script?

[xazweb]

Hi Andy , I am not sure about PHPBB2 I never used it, bUt vBulletin is great they have good support also so many hacks 

[Andy]

Hi xazweb - glad I don't have to try and pronounce your name 

Thanks for the tip on vBulletin, I found many examples of it being used before and it seems to be one of the top choices for forums.

In the end I used SMF since it was familiar to me but it was quite difficult to customise since the template mixes php and styles and is a bit of a mess spread over many pages. Even so, I got it to work with search engine friendly urls and changed the layout and colors.

[SensoVision]

Andy, I thought you've had similar question ages ago and after few tests keep on using SMF or my memory fails me? anyway my choice is still SMF, I still believe that it could be customized to anything you like, one of the earliest version (for charter members) have a skin(just for fun) which make SMF generate pages which look almost exactly like PHPBB, this should prove how versatile it is.
BTW why don't you search for some themes for SMF and see how they can change look of the board and learn from them? I've did quick search and find this showcase thread of the themes for SMF: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=15620.0
maybe you'll find something interesting for you...

[Andy]

My choice in the end was SMF. Since it's free and advanced in it's development was also a big plus.

Also, I am a "control freak" so I don't like to use other people's templates, hence my critisism about the difficulty of customizing the scripts.

I learn't that I was a "control freak" ( ) during a training seminar where as soon as I entered the building where the training was taking place I saw a bunch of strangers and homed in on the person that looked like they were the most in-control or power person and engaged them in conversation. Then she said I was a control freak which knocked me back. She hit the nail on the head. This person was the trainer. This really helped me understand my personality and why I never liked being an employee 

Any more control freaks out there?

[SensoVision]

Also, I am a "control freak" so I don't like to use other people's templates, hence my critisism about the difficulty of customizing the scripts.

actually I never suggest to you someone's else template but just learn using them how you can customize board look like part of your site.

Any more control freaks out there?

Guess I can call myself control freak to some level... I prefer to do everything myself, but in some cases e.g. when someone can provide me with script or template of better quality than I can do myself, why I shouldn't use it? As a nice example you can see forum and template used on it

[dojo]

I would chose phpBB over any free script, not because other are not good, just because I have become too experienced in modding it and the theme to try anything else. For an advanced phpBB admin, the script is just awesome. But it does take tens of hours of dedicated work to succeed