Forum Software

[JimW1949]

A buddy of mine has a wife who is a genealogy buff. She is part of a "family group" of about 30 people who are researching their genealogy roots. According to my buddy his wife spends a great deal of time on the telephone talking with all these people and using up a whole lot of minutes on their cell phone.

He has been thinking about starting a forum and then all these people can post their "new findings" for everyone else in their family group to see and that way they won't have to call each other so much.

He has found some free forum software, one is called phpBB and another one is called SMF (Simple Machine Forum) and of course there is vBulletin which isn't free, you have to pay for it. My question is, or I should say my friend's question is, does the free forum software work reasonably well, or is it better to just pay for the vBulletin software and not even bother with the free stuff? Does anybody know the advantages and dis-advantages of the free forums versus the paid for forums?

 

[HAL9000]

phpBB is awesome. That.

 

[Crusty]

Wrong forum.
Free is fine.

 

[Texashiker]

MYBB is probably the best free forum software going at this time.

phpbb - seen too many forums hacked to even suggest it

smf - has not received a serious update in years

vbulletin and invision powerboard cost money

 

[JimW1949]

Thanks for the comments. Appreciate your help and I will let my buddy know what you said and he can decide what he wants to do.

 

[gophins72]

if they are into talking for talking's sake, they could also use a free ventrilo or something otherwise the free stuff is good.

 

[NutBucket]

Start a yahoo group?

 

[crashtestdummy]

Something like google groups would probably be best for what you're describing. You don't need a web server or domain name, and can keep it private to the family group.

 

[Duder1no]

Something like google groups would probably be best for what you're describing. You don't need a web server or domain name, and can keep it private to the family group.

this

a forum requires someone admining it, setting everything up and it can be complicated or overwhelming for some

 

[ViviTheMage]

SMF rocks for free...v2 is in RC mode, been testing it for a while now, I like it.

 

[Ichinisan]

phpBB is awesome. That.

Yup. This forum is PHPbb (and most other good messageboards). It's super-flexible and highly-customizable.

...but, it's also targeted by spammers. You'll have to actively moderate it and make sure there are captchas to discourage bot accounts.

Something like google groups would probably be best for what you're describing. You don't need a web server or domain name, and can keep it private to the family group.

Yeah...this.

 

[Alone]

Smf > *

 

[Texashiker]

Yup. This forum is PHPbb (and most other good messageboards). It's super-flexible and highly-customizable.

What forum is phpbb?

The bad thing about phpbb, its been around so long that if you install any modifications you have to make sure the mod has been tested that its secure.

From the look of things, the OP should look at free forum hosting. There are lots of free forums out there, you just sign up, create an account, and let someone else host the forum for you. smfforfree.com is one example of free forum hosting.

 

[Twista]

Yup. This forum is PHPbb (and most other good messageboards). It's super-flexible and highly-customizable.

...but, it's also targeted by spammers. You'll have to actively moderate it and make sure there are captchas to discourage bot accounts.



Yeah...this.

Huh? THIS? as in Anandtech?? Nope, AT uses vbulletin.

And i recommend invision for paid
and
smf for free

 

[JimW1949]

Gosh, I will have to print this information before I see my buddy. It is too much information to try and remember it all. Thanks again for all the replies.