Simple Forum Script

[Andy]

I am planning to use bbPress for a new site to power a forum.

This script has just enough features to make it useful with a fairly easy template system to modify. You only need to customize the actual template files that you want to change with the minimum being just the style sheet. So in your custom template folder, if the script can't find the template it needs for a page, it uses the default template. I think this is a great approach to take.

I used this script a while back but was disappointed that it did not have keyword-based URLs for the threads for SEO. But now it has! Also it has Avatar support in the form of Gravitars. These are gaining support as a common standard for Avatars to be shared around social networks such as blogs.

There is also plug-in support for developers to make Wordpress-style plugins for enhanced functionality.

The code is GPL so it is free software.

So if you want a light-weight forum that is easier than others to customise and has nice SEO features built in, I suggest taking a look at bbPress.

Once I have my theme sorted, I hope to publish a version that is suitable for general use.

[Queen Bee]

It seems to be pretty nice software. I took a look at the coding-- it's very clean and looks like it would be easy as cake to modify. This is the one terrible downside to the SMF software. The nested tables are a nightmare to work around.

Looking forward to seeing the theme.

[Andy]

it's very clean and looks like it would be easy as cake to modify

The theme is easy to change, but the code is a bit involved. I had to do a lot of searching with Notepad++ for the origin of functions but it is as easy as it gets with CMS scripts I guess.

Like it took me a few hours to add another tab panel to the user profile area, but now I worked out how to do that it should be a lot easier. The thing I am doing is to add extra functionality for registered users and people that paid to list real estate.

I could have coded a separate area but it is nice to have a common user experience and one login for everything.

My theme is pretty basic at the moment but it should be easy to change later.

I like the idea of working with this script and never upgrading it. All the popular scripts balloon out of control I think. This one is nice and neat now.