I've been running my busy forum on MyBB but it's a hard to manage script, lacks essential features and in two years I have not been able to get a reasonable support. Free or not, a script with issues and no decent support is worthless. I believe the time has eventually come to consider different script cause I'm tired of having to have this one fixed all the time. Which forum script would you recommend to replace MyBB with? I would like one which allows for easy conversion from MyBB. Does any of free forum scripts have decent support? If there is none, I will opt for paid script, but since the board is not monetized, I would prefer free script. Any recommendations?
I know of VB, but would like to consider free scripts first. If I don't find a suitable substitution, I will go with paid scripts. But free would be preferred as my forum is not a revenue generatig forum, rather my personal passion of sorts.
I used PHPBB about 3 or 4 years ago when admin interface was an extreme mess and security was not up to par at all. Do you know if this has approved since. I've heard positive things about security since v.3 but how is administration of the forum?
MyBB is one of the best (if not the best) free script in my opinion, so if you want to stick with a free script, you won't see much of an improvement. It will just be different. I'd normally recommend switching to vBulletin, but they've got so much crap going on, and they have created a mess of their own, so you should probably look into IP.Board.
MyBB most likely doesn't have friendly nor helpful development team. That's the main reason I want to switch. Free or not, any script that doesn't have reasonable technical support is worthless.
Traveling - you have touched on one of the issues with using a free scripts - and that is the support. Regardless if its phpbb, msf, mybb, your only going to get a certain level of support. With paid forum scripts such as IPB and VB, you can submit a real trouble ticket, and get support from a real support tech - who is getting paid to help you. If you want real support, your gonna need to pay for it.
I have to agree with ~kev~ here. Its a Free open source script {we don't pay a penny for it} It's not like that support is "dead" , I would still say its OK. Again if you want to heavily modify your forum you would either need to "self expertise" yourself or hire a freelancer. If you need a standard forum with some basic features, the resources available in the community is enough to achieve that.
If you can spend the money, buy vbulletin. Its worth the money. Free plugins, support everything pays off.
I prefer using SMF. It's easy to manage, great support forums, and it has a huge database of mods and skins. For a preview of a nicely designed SMF forum, check out this site: http://www.exchangehunt.com
Looks cool. How long have you been using SMF and who designed your theme (I guess it's called skin, right)?