SMF vs PHPbb

[nafets7ro]

I need to install a forum board on a site. Which is better PHPbb or SMF?

Thanks!

[Andy]

SMF 

[SensoVision]

that's matter of personal prefernces. I've choose SMF because I like their community and for me it's more easy to configure and customize, for the time I'm using SMF(maybe 4 or more years) I've saw a lot of good plugins for PHPbb which could bring more fun to forum and which wasn't available for SMF but I never even consider to move to PHPBB since SMF is suit all my needs as for now. (BTW I've played with PHPBB for a while and I didn't like their permission system, for me it wasn't flexible enough after one I had with SMF).

[Andy]

I evaluated both and found SMF to be ahead of PHPBB in terms of the development cycle.

Don't get me wrong, the guys behind phpbb are very commited and they put in a huge effort so deserve alot of praise. But the same is true of the SMF team and they are ahead in my opinion.

Each will have it's own loyal following and people that participate in the development discussions will get to favour one over the other. It's all good for the web community whichever path you take.

[nafets7ro]

Thanks for your answers! ... I'll go with SMF 

[dojo]

Cannot say which is better. for me phpBB at any time, but SMF seems to be OK too

In the end it's not the script but the admin. I have seen some dreadful vBulletin forums that rely on a great script but the admin didn't do anything to develop and make them stand and some SMF or PHPBB sites that are just awesome because the admins have worked a lot into making them great.

No matter what you chose: develop the theme more. Don't let it be similar to anyone online. Make it unique. Install mods and hacks and take care of the people on the site. And  .. best of luck

[Andy]

How about posting examples of customized versions of forum scripts?

This is how I changed SMF: http://lotterytips.co.uk/forum/ I implemented a mod for search engine friendly urls (no ?), added a column to the right for ads, added a logo, main site link in the main navigation links, removed outbound links to script validation sites and used a custom color scheme. I found it hard to get all the colors to work, mainly because I used a dark background. Some of the link text tended to almost disappear in some pages. Even now, the colors of some links are not as I would like but there comes a point when you feel it is good enough and it's time to do something else. If the styles were easier to modify with SMF it would be helpfull.

p.s. I found that BB code links from weblamp (which is based on SMF) work ok in getting Google to spider your site so it may not be much of an advantage to implement the so-called search engine friendly links mod.

[dojo]

Ok, here is MINE

Have: modded the iCGstation theme: This is how it looks when downloaded, modded the index page, installed 20 hacks or more (the most important for my community: profile control panel and hierarchy mod - huge and take a lifetime to install, but are awesome, quick reply, cash mod, shop mod, referral system, photo album, calendar, archive, well many). As for the theme: the entire header was deleted, I recreated it in Photoshop, sliced it and then put the code for guest/members view. Overall it took me more than 100 hours to make it look and work like this ..

This would be my example of phpBB

[Andy]

That's a nice example of phpBB customization. Nice and colorful and looks like a fun place to be. I just didn't like the session id's on the links. I think, this is  what put me off using phpBB before.

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I was just just wondering if it's best to develop a forum when you start a new content site or build a traditional website? A forum is a great way to get free content added by posters and it's so easy to add new topics and post material. A standard website needs careful planning and the pages soon start to become very static and tired but you have absolute control and can highly optimize it for search engines. Forums can drift away from your focus and people maybe ignore any ads or monetization features?

I started my lottery forum to market lottery-related products to my visitors. I'm not excited by the lottery since I regard it as a stealth tax on the gullible, but I do believe in alternative products that people that waste their money on the lottery should be interested in.

[SensoVision]

dojo, you've done great customatization job! I also like the way table which display  "Recent Topics
 Popular Topics (by reply) Popular Topics (by view) " I should consider of making something like this here.
Regarding Andy's question I believe that it's somewhat easier to build forum powered by content site as in my case it drives most of my initial traffic and make new posters to sign up.