Hi, I have a website which is for writers (www.penster.fyi.ph) and right now I am planning to convert my website into a pure forum website. Anyway, I am looking for these features for my new forum: -Credit system- I'd like to encourage posts by having a credit system wherein members can only post in a certain forum after they have replied to two other posts..something like that -Rating System- a system wherein writers will be having a rank based on the rating given to him by other members...sort of like a kudos system... Anybody knows of a forum which can do these things and is for free? Thanks for the help guys.
You need to do some mods but basically I think the forum you are posting right now is the best forum, Vbulletin! There are free ones PhpBB3 SMF But you need to add in more efforts to mod them to your requirements. But I think if you are aiming for long term and lots of members, Vbulletin is the choice.
If you can wait, phpBB3. The modification you want are being devloped i think.. If you cant, try SMF.
vBulletin has some addons over on vBulletin.org that will most certainly suit your needs. On top of that, they now have an official Blog Addon that would be simply FANTASTIC for writers and for site content creation. They are also moving into a more social aspect with many new and exciting options that are currently in Beta. I think you should at least check them out. Yes, I know it costs, but it is well worth the investment, and if you can find a few investors you can offer them special "founder" status for the duration of their stay. I built a vB forum with nothing out of my own pocket through the good will of interested individuals....so that's why I mention it here.
Most people who haven't tried a lot of software, only go for what's popular, or are not sure of what they're needs are go vBulletin. Since I have an anime forum, I went Invision Power Board. Great ACP, features, and it's very user friendly. My need was a good gallery and other add ons. IPB has IP Nexus: http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?showtopic=237153 Even an official CMS in the works.
MyBB has a "Credit System" as you put it, you can set minimum number of posts for a user enter a forum, number 2 I don't think any forum software has without mods. MyBB has a reputation system (like Ebay) but it doesn't alter yor rank. MyBB 1.4 will have more/better features than vB 3.6 including a ModCP and Warning system as well, Cheers, BP
if you have a budget for paying a forum software, vbulletin rocks the others but if you dont want to pay, phpbb3 is the second choice