League website: choice of forum software

[satchel]

I'm about to make a forum for my new league site.

Any suggestions? Any particular brand I need to avoid?

Seems like a lot of people are using that Simple Machines forum software.

[Stu]

I'm a huge fan of vbulletin, but it's a little pricier than most are willing to pay. My previous site was with phpbb2 and I didn't like it much at all.

[Recte44]

phpbb2 is ok if you mod the heck out of it.

I prefer Invision Power Board.

[Corsairs]

Originally Posted by Recte44

phpbb2 is ok if you mod the heck out of it.

I prefer Invision Power Board.

Is Invision free or does it cost? We're using phpbb2 right now and it is indeed fairly archaic. I wouldn't mind upgrading but vbulletin is priced out of my range, I'm afraid.

[Recte44]

You can get certain versions of IPB for free, but you can also make phpBB2 work quite nicely with mods/hacks (see the Monty Brewster World Baseball Association forums).

[kq76]

Everyone's talking about how old phpbb2 is. Its successor, phpbb3, has been out for quite awhile now. Why don't you switch to it? Personally, I loved phpbb2 just because it was so moddable.

[Recte44]

That's one reason we're afraid to switch to phpbb3. That's free, too.

[Joy in Mudville]

Do you guys have any advice for someone looking for a host? I have virtually no knowledge in this area. Is there a how-to or FAQ available?

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Recte44

That's one reason we're afraid to switch to phpbb3.

You mean you're afraid it's not as moddable? I haven't looked at it in-depth, but the great thing about it to me was that so many things many wanted in phpbb2, and often modded into it, were put into the standard phpbb3 install. So while there are probably less mods for it, there are also less reasons to mod it. I'd recommend at least giving it a try with a test forum. It should also be a lot more secure and stable than an ancient phpbb2. Is there anything in particular you want/need in your forum that you know phpbb3 can't do?

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Joy in Mudville

Do you guys have any advice for someone looking for a host? I have virtually no knowledge in this area. Is there a how-to or FAQ available?

It'd probably be best to start another thread with that question. I'll post in it if you do.

EDIT: I PMd you with a link to some info on webhosts.

[RobertoClemente]

Try small machine forums with the TP Module.. excellent

[satchel]

I'm trying phpBB 3. The last time I ran a league I used phpBB 2 and it was easy to mod. The new version is hard to work with, maybe I'm just slow on the uptake, but I seem to remember that version 2 had a "fill in the blanks" page wherein one could choose background colors, etc. This new version 3 is much more complex. I'm going to wrestle with it some more, and at least it's free. Simple Machines seems more appealing now, I wish I'd gone with it first.

[jazzrack]

i'm a big fan of phpbb3, I didn't do the theme editing so i'm not sure how much more difficult it was to edit than the previous version, but 90-95% of what we wanted to use came with the install.

now the admining of it is a bit more complicated but i would expect that with all the added features. It has taken some time to get even somewhat used to all the new admin functions, but honestly i havn't tried that hard.

[fhomess]

I use Simple Machines Forum and like it.

[satchel]

Originally Posted by jazzrack

i'm a big fan of phpbb3, I didn't do the theme editing so i'm not sure how much more difficult it was to edit than the previous version, but 90-95% of what we wanted to use came with the install.

The Corporate League forum is quite different from the default install of the phpBB 3 forum. It looks great, although it doesn't seem to have much league-specific customization; its current style might have been easily downloaded and installed. I've wrestled some more with phpBB 3 but tonight I'm installing a second forum, with Simple Machines software. I'm going to work with it a bit, and decide which is better for my league.

[jazzrack]

Originally Posted by satchel

The Corporate League forum is quite different from the default install of the phpBB 3 forum. It looks great, although it doesn't seem to have much league-specific customization; its current style might have been easily downloaded and installed. I've wrestled some more with phpBB 3 but tonight I'm installing a second forum, with Simple Machines software. I'm going to work with it a bit, and decide which is better for my league.

other than the rotating banners (and that ability was with either with the theme or with the install, i can't remember off-hand, but if you didn't notice go back and hit refresh a couple/few times) i can't think of anything we modded, eveything we wanted to add was already there. we force the guys to use the website instead of linking everything to the forums. it was a design decision a long, long time ago.

I wanted to be able to do things on the admin side i couldn't do with other free software without modding, but these things are always a personal prefrence deal.

edit: we did bridge the user DB from PHPBB3 to the joomla website, but that is a joomla mod, bb3 just made it possible. that was a major reason for our choice.