phpbb or simple machines?

What would you choose from these 2 free scripts and why?

 

SMF. Its' feature rich as compared to phpBB and members seem to like it more than phpBB.

 

Ive used them both and like them both but I would say SMF. Im using it at the moment and it has some great themes and mods

 

I'd also go for SMF until phpBB3 is out of beta.

 

I bought a forum in phpbb and converted it to SMF, thinking it was the better choice. Then I came across the discussions on how ridiculously bad SMF was for seo and reverted to phpbb.

I'd go for phpbb.

 

SMF...
But if you have some money in your hands and wanted to build a semi-large forum or so,go for vBulletin.

 

I'd say do a bit more research rather than take in so easily other peoples negative thoughts. Here is a SMF site, http://www.google.com/search?client...e.com&sourceid=opera&num=25&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I'd say 103000 results says it is not doing too bad in SERPS.

 

There are SEO mods for smf, check smf site in the mods & package board. if you need help i can install if for you.

As prove we are running it take a look here:
http://www.engineeringserver.com although we have fully custimized the site, we still use the default theme.

Google around 500/1000 results:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&q=site:www.engineeringserver.com&btnG=Search

 

And I'd say that that doesn't disprove anything - no more than an unindexed smf forum proves that it is bad for SERPs.

Obviously it wasn't quite as basic as reading the discussion (link for those interested) and switching back. For instance, individual posts are linked to as topic34.msg2432.html (or something similar) rather than the more normal topic34.html#msg2432.. guess which one might come under 'duplicate content'. I also had googlebot attempting to access a number of pages that included the session id.

Yes, SMF may have a few more features and be a little more user-friendly but as I'm able to add functionality to a phpBB board fairly easily myself and with the risk of losing out on SEO, it seemed best to stick to phpBB.

 

Problem with PHPBB is waking up and finding it has been hacked. Happened to me 3 times and I never looked at it again. SMF does have seo mods as already mentioned.

 

SMF - I think it's more secure.

 

So seoo mods for SM is a must then... Will it be same seo friendly as phpbb after the mod installed?

 

But i cant know if my forum will succeed.... My plan was- start with free software and after i see forum is rolllin full power switch to vbulletin

 

Be confident!
Yeah,it would be good to start with free software,good luck!

 

None of them, why?
Everybody is running any of those forums and after the monster we built choosing free IPB (when it was free) what for attempt to create another.

I prefer play with other forum scripts, fully featured, and with some innovations that none of these forums have.

Have a look at: www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Discussion_Boards/index.html

Regarding paid IPB and vBulletin, too lazy to run those monsters since I have no time for managing community sites.

 

Pat Gael, name some of them you like, will take a look

 

smf i think
their stats and features are getting more popular
that's if i have to choose between these 2

 

These three are actually my favorites:

• www.usebb.com <<< easy to install, manage and decent layout and features
• www.xennobb.com <<< looking like vbulleting, with good plugins and RSS support. currently offline, but have a look of it here: http://zeruth.ecxol.net/forums/
• www.mybb.com <<< the first with features resembling IPB and vbulletin alike, including numerous plugins and themes.

 

Definitely SMF or if you want something similar to vbulletin use mybb
Good Luck!
Saad

 

yeah mybb is great as well.