I am going to develop a forum-based community for a niche group of people. I'll refer to this as "Project X" in this post. I have done my research and spoken with the potential target audience. They want it, and I am positive it will be a hit. Google or some other big company will offer to buy me out later on. Since I plan on eventually selling the site down the road, it's been a little challenging figuring out what forum-platform / software to use. On a separate note, I currently run/operate a vBulletin forum/community. I recently installed vbDrupal on it, which integrates it with Drupal and adds more web2.0 type features like user profiles, etc. I also modified the vBulletin templates quite a bit to get it all integrated. While I really like this setup, I can't use vBulletin for Project X since I would run into legal/copyright issues if I sell it later on. In fact, I can't use any 'paid-for' forum package for this reason. The two remaining options that come to mind are phpBB and Drupal. I really like Drupal, but its standalone forum capabilities suck. phpBB can be tweaked quite a bit, but I will also need to integrate it with community features. My ideas so far: Integrate phpBB with Drupal Use Drupal and boost forum capabilities with lots of extensive tweaking Create an entire forum/community from scratch Basically, I want a community similar to the capabilites of Facebook, and developed around a forum with the capabilities of vBulletin. Any idea how much that would cost from scratch? Or if Drupal / phpBB could be tweaked to that extent? Cost is really not that much of an issue (as long as it's less than $9,000). The biggest issue right now is TIME. I have to get this done by November 1, so that I can launch/market it in mid-November. I would really appreciate any advice/tips/links. I would be especially interested in hearing from anyone who has developed a forum-based community from scratch or has done lots of tweaking with free-available forum software (such as phpBB or Drupal). Thanks for your time, and I look forward to your comments/responses.
Because, if and when I sell the site, I will run into legal issues...especially considering the concept of the site is based around a forum as the focal point of the community. But thanks for mentioning that. Even though I had crossed it off as not being an option, I'll give them a call to see if any legal issues would result in a situation or not. I'd called Invision...and they said I couldn't sell theirs. So maybe vB is still an option...I'll give them a call. I have done research on the concept of it, and have been in contact with some experts in the niche area that I'm targeting. There is nothing like this out there right now, I have information that certain large entities are working on something similar but I may be able to put mine out before them...it's only a matter of being the first one that catches on. I have good contacts in the niche area so marketing it will not be a problem, I can easily get it endorsed by several experts. There are sites that exist that have a component in common with what I will be offering, but they charge lots of money for that single component. I will be making it available for free, which is a huge advantage especially considering the target audience's financial characteristics. I think with the companies/sites that Google has bought out and things they have done, this is something they would be very interested in. I'm around 75-80% sure that it will get bought out. Other than Google, I know of several other organizations/businesses that would be very interested.
You know what, to follow up, I called vBulletin and asked for a clarification on the licensing and what would happen if I sold the forum/site down the road. Looks like I won't owe them anything. Well, thank you for pushing that option at me again...looks like it worked out, I'll go with vB. And according the guy I talked to, vB is working on more user-profiles and other web2.0 type, extended community features in version 3.7 of their software. It's not out yet, but that makes me much happier to know.
yeah i just went with vbulletin, very easy to use, easy to design the layout yourself or just download a template to work with
Google <3's open source. PHPBB3 when it goes gold is by far the best, free, and well supported by a massive community along with being publicly developed, option. Go try RC7. You'll see.
I don't think you can compete with other forums if you build it on your own from scratch, however you could use pbpbb3 and modify it to your own needs.
Try Invision Power Board, I find them to be a great software. Mod's are challenging to install for a newbie but not for anyone with basic ftp, html skills. SMF is also good, but I would not go with phpbb.