forum software

[KRoberson]

Hello! I am designing a new website and am interested in including forums througout it. I am quite unfamiliar with how forums work and which one I should use. I am programming with Dreamweaver 4 and it will be remotely hosted. Could you please stear me in the right direction for a good forum package and what issues I might run into by using it. Thanks!

[SensoVision]

hi KRoberson! choosing of forum software depends on what feautes you have available on your hosting and form personal preferences. I think that the best way to find out this is to register with community and see how it's looking from inside... of course you'll now know what admin features presented on one community but not presented on other... My favourites are YaBB(we're using) and phpBB.
Please check out this thread to see what other people prefer, in this thread you'll find a links to other forums where I've post similar poll.
Check out this links to see what other message boards scripts are available:
http://www.hotscripts.com/Perl/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/index.html
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/index.html
hope it would be some of help, if you have more questions feel free to post them.

[12noon]

You should also check out :-
http://www.invisionboard.com
&
http://www.fusetalk.com/

Invisionboard is free to download, but you can pay and get more advantages.
Fusetalk will cost you, but is one of the best you can buy.
 

[Queen Bee]

I personally like Vbulletin http://www.vbulletin.com/ software, but then again, it's not free. I think PhpBB or YABB, or Invisionboard would do just fine for you.

[whiteRabbit]

phpBB and YaBB are good ones to start your forum.  If you have a very solid business plan and have a lot of money, then perhaps you want to get a commercially licensed BBS such as vBulletin, but if that's not the case, definitely phpBB or YaBB.  They are both GPLed, so they are free as free beer.  Invision Board has free version as well, but if I understand correctly, its free version is not the same free as GPL.

I hear some people saying that SQL routines in phpBB and YaBB are slow, they lack many functionalities and what not.  They are probably right, but both phpBB and YaBB should work fine for a quite while; my guess is that traffic is pretty slow initially, so they should work just fine.

Once you start getting some traffic and see some commercial potential and/or start making money, perhaps you can migrate to something like vBulletin.  I believe that various migration kits are available so that you can migrate to new BBS without deleting or modifying messages already posted.

[12noon]

Just to add to this thread :-

If you don't have PHP and need a CGI message board then CUTECAST is a good one to use. I'm sure others on here will point you to other boards that don't use PHP tho !
 

[SensoVision]

there is also YaBB Gold which are Perl driven, and soon probably new edition of YaBB will appear.