phpBB

bobsplans · 01-23-2012, 12:48 PM

Planning to set up a forum on my site but am a complete newbie to forums.
phpBB sounds good but would like to hear from someone with direct experience.
Thanks
BobR

**Bob** · 01-24-2012, 11:49 AM

Bob,

I don't have any direct experience with phpBB myself, however I do know from experience from the Service Desk that at times phpBB has had it's share, maybe more than it's share, of bugs in the past...

I have not seen anything that changes my opinion from 2010...
http://www.aota.net/forums/showthread.php?t=25334

VBulletin still seems to be the Gold Standard however the changes in VBulletin 4.x seems to have alienated some users and SMF (Simple Machines Forums) seems to be gaining traction (it's cost is far better than VBulletin, FREE) and I have seen some very large and busy Forums running on SMF successfully...

Just my two cents of course

(adjusted for inflation probably worth $0.001 today LOL)

-Bob

bobsplans · 01-24-2012, 10:50 PM

Bob,
Thanks for the info. I have been reading about some security weaknesses with phpbb. Haven't seen anything really negative about SMF.

My site was hacked a couple years ago when I was using Network Solutions hosting service. My traffic has never recovered and I suspect some of the sites who were linking to mine have quit.

I'm really reluctant to do anything new that may pose new hacking threats. Will hold off until I learn more.

thanks,
Bob

*Matt* · 01-25-2012, 01:36 PM

Bob R,

I'll vouch for SMF. Although I haven't audited the latest source code, previous security audits of SMF have turned up pretty clean. phpBB has been a security nightmare and unless they've entirely replaced the development team, I would not expect that to change.

SMF is also reasonably easy to integrate with. I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

Best Regards,
Matt

*kitchin* · 01-26-2012, 06:28 AM

I'm looking at BuddyPress, a sort of wraparound plugin for Wordpress. Haven't tried the forums it has yet.

oheso · 02-04-2012, 02:57 AM

I've used both phpBB and SMF. I have not had a security issue with phpBB (I came in after most of the problems had been already dealt with). I have appreciated the fact it is easily extendable and has a thriving community writing extensions.

SMF was fine, worked as advertised. But it was a bit more jumping-through-hoops to get it going.

*Dean B* · 02-25-2012, 03:33 PM

I've set up a number of phBB's. Easy to install and now seemingly secure. The earlier revisions did have security issues.