Recommended Forum Script?

[Menard]

I didn't want to add this onto the Simple Forum Script thread as it may take it in a different direction than intended.

What I am looking for is a forum script that is not too resource heavy (BBPress and Phorum would both fit the bill on this) but which I can also easily adapt to use my own template rather than having to modify the forum's template to come close to mine.

I am also wanting to be able to keep it as a private forum; you have to log in or register to be able to even view the forum topics.

I like BBPress and Phorum, but would either, from your experience, lend themselves to this, or would you recommend another forum script?


*EDIT*

Been taking a look at some other forum scripts. Too many of them just look like the same thing over and over and over again; just with their own set of bugs.

SEO Board looks interesting. Low if any graphics and fast. Seems to be an active development as well. I do like the latest posts plugin; something that I really like about BBPress as well, though default with BBPress.

http://forums.seo-board.com/


Though cool looking, Gravity Board X is still in beta. If they continue on this, it would be cool to try down the road, but I don't need a buggy beta version for a forum right now.

http://www.gravityboardx.com/community/index.php


As I mentioned with Gravity Board X, I have seen quite a few really good looking and featured forums, many that are light in resource usage, but many of them have not been that developed and may well have too many bugs and even security holes you can drive a truck through.

A textfile database system would be nice as it would cut down on resource usage, but they have a tendency to get sluggish as the database grows. Flatforum 1.4 (http://www.phatcode.net/downloads.php?action=search&find=flatforum) would be ideal if it had some kind of registration system. Alas, it is more of a feedback forum and not a community forum.


Just some notes I thought I'd add.


*UPDATE*

Gravity Board X, though great looking in Firefox, is seriously effed up in IE. Looking around at their bug reports verifies other have had problems with IE compatibility as well. Being those reports were last year, it doesn't seem like there is probably going to be a fix for that.

[Andy]

I am going with bbPress as you know. Since it's based on code that has had years of development put into it i.e. based on Wordpress, so the bugs and security holes should be few.

There is a plugin for private forums for it.

I like the idea of plugins since this prevents the code bloating as new features are added that you may not want. I am going to see if I can get away with never upgrading the script since I am customising some of the internal code to meet my needs.

[Menard]

Phorum, BBPress, and SEO Board are all three at the top of my list for speed and features that I like.

I am most familiar with Phorum, as a user though. Although BBPress is fast and lite, the user interface could be better for new users (though for anyone familiar with forums and coding, it is great like it is). Phorum and SEO Board both have newbie friendly word processor style interfaces.

I'll be considering different options and playing around with the different forums.

Nothing major going on here, I am just turning my z54.org site into a more of a regional portal (being that it is a short, easy to remember name, and is number 1 in a Google search for z54 just in case they forget which extension) that can be used by people in my local area with whom I work. I'm just looking to make it as user friendly and dial-up friendly as I can.

[Andy]

I recommend you write your own forum script from scratch since you are so fussy. It's a great way to learn to code. 

[Menard]

I have the forum script up and running now.

I decided to go with SEO Board. It's the most trivial little things that we sometimes use to make our decisions, and the reason I chose SEO Board is really trivial. One is that it fit the site in its coloration right out of the box better than the other scripts did. The other, though probably not an issue for someone familiar with PHP scripting (which I am not) is a simple user config to prevent admin spoofing by letting the user change and specify the name of the admin file so that it cannot easily be found.

Dang this script is fast!

Still need to do quite a few things on the site and correct the header on the forum. I am going to lighten the home page a bit so it is just a little faster at loading; also remove the adult DVDs and put some more mainstream DVDs in their place. The games are going to be updated to where I am hosting them rather than opening a page with ads and popups.

Only the home page and forum are operational at present. The sections called 'Homepages' and 'Notebook' are not.

Homepages is a simple profile script that will allow a visitor to make their own page. Nothing fancy, just a single page with one image, text about them, and some links.

Notebook is just what I am calling what would otherwise be a wiki/community blog where members can post and edit articles.

Other than some color tweaks and updating the links box, that's pretty much it. Just trying for an easy to use and simple site.


The forum is here: http://z54.org/forum/ if anyone wants to see the script in action.

[Andy]

I decided to go with SEO Board.

It looks like a good script but surprisingly for something with that name, it does not seem to have the option for URLs containing keywords.

If you search on google for anything, keywords are highlighted in the URLs of search results, so clearly this is important for SEO.

[Menard]

Just combining the site updates into one thread.

All of the scripts are up and running.

I found a simple article script for what I am calling the Notebook, rather than a wiki. There's no registration, so we'll see if that becomes a problem, but it is straight forward and pretty lite, both of which work for what I want; for now.

The Homepages script is up and running; this just simply allows someone to create their own page.

Have to update the front page and do some tweaks to get things aligned and spaced right. Going to adjust the colors a bit to make them work together better.

[Menard]

I just can't win for losing.

The z54 portal which I have just been wanting to keep just as a local portal has surpassed the CargoShip in Alexa rankings. (not like that's a big task anyway)

Of course, being that there is a z54 printer and the portal is the top Google result for z54, that might explain some of it.