# What is your favorite forum / community software?



## MannDude (Apr 6, 2015)

I'm curious what everyone's favorite forum / community software is, whether as an end-user or administrator, doesn't matter. There are a lot of great options out there and due to some recent gripes about IPB and lack of excitement of IPB4 I'm just wanting to look at other platforms that may be comparable or better. 

(No promises though, platform changes are a huge PITA and my gripes about IPB are generally temporary...)


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## Servers4You (Apr 6, 2015)

As to free forum's I'd always recommend SMF, we used to always use it for our forums (when we had them), mainly because it was simple to use and could be customized easily. However if you are looking for a top notch forum software I'd recommend Invision Power Board.


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## Criot (Apr 6, 2015)

For free the best I've used would be MyBB, paid would be vBulletin, however I did always find that the MyBB Control Panels seemed a lot neater and better laid out in comparison to vBulletin, and there are a lot of addons/mods available for MyBB which meant it could be customized to offer similar functionality to vBulletin for the users.


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## mojeda (Apr 6, 2015)

Free: MyBB, it has a IPB 2.2.6 look to it which I liked.

Paid: Xenforo.

I do like IPBs admin control panel,something I feel both vBulletin and Xenforo lack.


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## drmike (Apr 6, 2015)

Most of these are rather similar.  I don't care which one you use   

Wait, changed my mind already, Vanilla sucks.


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## WSWD (Apr 6, 2015)

Xenforo for sure.


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## joepie91 (Apr 6, 2015)

Certainly not IPB. It ate my post twice yesterday because it doesn't save drafts, and breaks my form data recovery extension.

XenForo and Discourse are nice.


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## drmike (Apr 6, 2015)

Joepie makes a good point on lack of draft save.  That eats my homework all the time.  But honestly, I know better than type directly into a browser


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## joepie91 (Apr 6, 2015)

drmike said:


> Joepie makes a good point on lack of draft save.  That eats my homework all the time.  But honestly, I know better than type directly into a browser


The problem is that IPB doesn't use something like Markdown, so you can't do "proper" quotes unless you use IPBs own editor, unfortunately.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Apr 6, 2015)

IPB's drafts work just fine.  I've had it recover both replies to existing threads, and entirely new threads after either closing out the wrong tab or killing the browser proc.

In fact, is an excellent example of that.  I had all but the last paragraph or so typed, lost power, came back up on a UPS and it was still there waiting for me.


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## drmike (Apr 6, 2015)

That's interesting if we actually have Draft Save function here.   With my intentionally rigged setup, something must be filtering out / pruning something that makes that work.  Apologies if so from my end.

I have other edit issues with quotes all the time where I'll toss quotes then paste in text.  Once I go to add more beneath such, I cannot and have to flip to viewing source to inject a return and filler char, then back to editing graphic side.  Might be something knocked out by my setup also.


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## Aldryic C'boas (Apr 7, 2015)

Adblock/Noscript maybe?  There's few sites I visit with a GUI browser, so I run neither of those.  Unless @MannDude broke it in an update, but the autodrafts were working fine when I wrote that 'doing it wrong' piece


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## drmike (Apr 7, 2015)

[SIZE=13.63636302948px]Oh yeah, I have multiple browser destroyers running [/SIZE] opcorn: 

Everything is whitelisted for vpsboard... so I thought... Clearly something is not...  I can live without those Drafts. prefer / aspire to live in word processor. Less fubars...


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## joepie91 (Apr 7, 2015)

The draft saving feature just started working for me like an hour ago. @MannDude did you fix something?


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## MannDude (Apr 7, 2015)

IPB saves drafts?

Didn't know. Have never seen it work on my end.

No, I didn't do anything... <shrugs>

I did an update/upgrade a week or so ago that appears to have broke a few things (Sphinx search, media embedding, and a report of notifications not working but unable to replicate on my end) but haven't touched or heard about the draft feature. The other things have been fixed though.


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## mojeda (Apr 7, 2015)

Draft saving feature has worked for me for quite a long time.


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## joepie91 (Apr 7, 2015)

MannDude said:


> IPB saves drafts?
> 
> Didn't know. Have never seen it work on my end.
> 
> ...


Try typing something, and then pausing for a while. In the bar below the editor, a 'saved at <date>' text will appear. After reloading the page, you can click that bar to restore your post (it's not automatic).

... and of course that has now stopped working again.


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## Ishaq (Apr 7, 2015)

I quite like esoTalk, although it's probably too simple.


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## MannDude (Apr 7, 2015)

Strange. I'll continue to look into this.


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## Mayday (Apr 7, 2015)

Always been a fan of VB, though as of the last 2 years I have been using IPB and find it works well for most stuff. Support though is pretty damn clueless. 3 tickets I submitted for tech issues and 3 I ended up solving myself after being annoyed with supports generic unhelpful answers.


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## tk-hassan (Apr 8, 2015)

Mine is "VBulletin". I am surprised to see the voting results which suggest that I am the only one who has opted for VBulletin


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## blfr (Apr 11, 2015)

I'm currently testing NodeBB. Feels modern and offers a plugin to use it as a backend for comments on your Ghost or Wordpress blog.


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## Mayday (Apr 11, 2015)

blfr said:


> I'm currently testing NodeBB. Feels modern and offers a plugin to use it as a backend for comments on your Ghost or Wordpress blog.


NodeBB looks good. Pretty similar to Discourse at first glance but smoother.


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## HalfEatenPie (Apr 11, 2015)

Mayday said:


> NodeBB looks good. Pretty similar to Discourse at first glance but smoother.


Isn't NodeBB like a branch of an old abandoned project from a while ago?

I think it was similar design to another forum software that quit and rebranded as another forum software.


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## Vega (Apr 12, 2015)

I am going to go ahead and vote IPB. I used Xenforo TWICE and it was an awful experience. I don't have any experience as an admin with Vbulletin but it is a bit outdated and Woltlab Burning Board is nice but I am not a fan of the design really and the ACP is a bit meh.
 



MannDude said:


> I'm curious what everyone's favorite forum / community software is, whether as an end-user or administrator, doesn't matter. There are a lot of great options out there and due to some recent gripes about IPB and lack of excitement of IPB4 I'm just wanting to look at other platforms that may be comparable or better.
> 
> (No promises though, platform changes are a huge PITA and my gripes about IPB are generally temporary...)


 
God please don't change  Especially not to something like Xenforo. Ugh. 

I am also curious about the lack of excitement? If you are referring to a site like TAZ, they are heavily Xenforo biased so you wont find much excitement there for anything not xenforo....*eye roll*

But on the IPB support forums, excitement is high especially since they are gold now with IPb4.
 



drmike said:


> That's interesting if we actually have Draft Save function here.   With my intentionally rigged setup, something must be filtering out / pruning something that makes that work.  Apologies if so from my end.
> 
> I have other edit issues with quotes all the time where I'll toss quotes then paste in text.  Once I go to add more beneath such, I cannot and have to flip to viewing source to inject a return and filler char, then back to editing graphic side.  Might be something knocked out by my setup also.


I am curious what browser you are using when you access VPSboard?


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## drmike (Apr 13, 2015)

Vega said:


> I am curious what browser you are using when you access VPSboard?


The issue on my end was more of blocking elements - javacript namely.   Something plugin wise was fubaring/conflicting.   Draft functionality working now for me, per se.


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## cociu (Apr 14, 2015)

I love vBulletin because from my point it's the best forum software out there. It's not cheap but I believe it's worth every single penny.


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## Hostissimus (Apr 14, 2015)

Paid: IPB

Free: SMF


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## nixstats (Apr 14, 2015)

Last forum i used/installed was vbulletin and the code was a mess (vb4.x). Discourse seems interesting, like the way it looks.


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## jacobg830 (Apr 15, 2015)

Sadly it seems FluxBB is only going to have maintenance and security releases from now on and will eventually go EOL 

They are directing users to http://flarum.org/on the homepage.


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## Mayers (Apr 16, 2015)

Free: MyBB

Paid: Xenforo


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## icy (Apr 18, 2015)

For paid, IPB is a clear choice for me. This is due to the user interface and rich management features.

I will always use MyBB when creating a test forum or for development purposes due to its flexibility. Many plugins/themes are supported and is constantly updated.


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## Coastercraze (Apr 19, 2015)

I have to say I've gotten used to IPB lately and have stuck with it for a while. I do have an XenForo license though from when it came out and haven't used it lately.


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## MannDude (Apr 20, 2015)

Coastercraze said:


> I have to say I've gotten used to IPB lately and have stuck with it for a while. I do have an XenForo license though from when it came out and haven't used it lately.


Would you be willing to sell the XenForo license? Been looking for a second-hand one as I want to do some testing and play around with a install, but don't feel like committing to a full year license just for testing.


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## Vega (May 17, 2015)

MannDude said:


> Would you be willing to sell the XenForo license? Been looking for a second-hand one as I want to do some testing and play around with a install, but don't feel like committing to a full year license just for testing.


Hope you wont convert Vpsboard to Xenforo. 
Still loving IPB and find it to be the best software hands down compare to XF and VB. IPB4 does have some bugs but nothing showsotpping and I have enjoyed upgrading my forum to IPB4 this past Wednesday and the users really love it


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## willie (May 18, 2015)

nixstats said:


> Last forum i used/installed was vbulletin and the code was a mess (vb4.x). Discourse seems interesting, like the way it looks.


A project I'm involved with is using discourse... it does have nice design but it's a big ram hog, demanding on browsers, downloads a huge blob of static javascript that slows down page loading, and overall seems kind of tasteless in these regards.  I prefer the simpler offerings and even think of writing something.


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## Vega (May 23, 2015)

Been running IPB4 on our site nearly 2 weeks and for the most part our users love it.


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## MannDude (May 23, 2015)

Vega said:


> Been running IPB4 on our site nearly 2 weeks and for the most part our users love it.


I like it as an end-user, but couldn't stand the admin area.

I am having issues with 3.4.x though and IPB staff seem to just want me to upgrade to 4.0.x now to 'fix' the issues they're unwilling to fix with 3.4.x. It's frustrating. If I upgraded to 4.0.x I have to do a lot of custom work and get someone to re-skin it so it looks (similar) to how the site looks now.

Figured I'd give 4.0.x enough time to mature before I upgraded but at this rate I may just be forced to in the next month or so... =/


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## eva2000 (May 23, 2015)

MannDude said:


> I like it as an end-user, but couldn't stand the admin area.
> 
> I am having issues with 3.4.x though and IPB staff seem to just want me to upgrade to 4.0.x now to 'fix' the issues they're unwilling to fix with 3.4.x. It's frustrating. If I upgraded to 4.0.x I have to do a lot of custom work and get someone to re-skin it so it looks (similar) to how the site looks now.
> 
> Figured I'd give 4.0.x enough time to mature before I upgraded but at this rate I may just be forced to in the next month or so... =/


Xenforo


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## Mid (May 24, 2015)

voted for FluxBB

just because it is lightweight (for the user)

I once was in a fluxxbb forum and never experienced anything faster (page loads, etc)

for e.g, go to archlinux forum (uses FluxxBB) and see the difference

if many (currently 63,471) seasoned linux gurus (yes those running arch are) are using it, why not you? 

I would say anything other than commercial would be better

all those vB/IPB/etc adds bulk to the *visitor* (who is more important than the admin on any site/forum)


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## RoldanLT (May 24, 2015)

XenForo all the way!


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## AMDbuilder (May 25, 2015)

cPanel is using xenForo on their forums


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## cociu (Jun 7, 2015)

I hope in the near future vpsboard for the moment i like LET


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## HBAndrei (Jun 7, 2015)

Vanilla is surprisingly awesome, which I did not know until recently.


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## stakehost (Aug 30, 2015)

phpBB is my favorite.


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## ALN2015 (Sep 2, 2015)

I Personally Like Xenforo It is a great software and there is good support and constant updates.


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