phpbb = your site will get hacked soon (happened to me 3 times and do a google search for phpbb hacked to see why NOT to choose this software) I Recommend SMF http://www.simplemachines.org/ - In regards to your questions: It is Free It has a well established SMF arcade Mod - http://www.smfarcade.info It allows you to give Karma points to members It has the SMFShop Mod which allows you to give "credits" to members that post whereby these credits can be exchanged for various types of rewards (virtual or physical) It can integrate with Gallery 2 as well as CopperMine (ie memberbase is common and you can theme them to match your SMF as well). As these 2 are the best picture gallery software for websites out right now, SMF would be perfect for you. Check out the Mods page http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/ You can do many excellent things with them. Another powerful feature of SMF is the SSI which allows you to have parts of your forum appear on any page of your website - check it out http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=400 Simple thing here is, people will tell you other forum software which are "good" or "best" etc - notice how none actually answer your question or provide example/features?
Your phpBB more than likely was hacked because it wasn't kept upto date. phpBB may not have the best source code, nor the most features but it does the trick and it does it well when it is modified with some of the mods from the big database they have over there. I've been using phpBB for my forums for probably more than 3 years. In that time is has only been hacked twice and that was when it wasn't kept up to date. Since it has always been upto date I have had no such problems.
The first 2 that got hacked were perhaps a month behind in updates. The 3rd one that got hacked was always kept up to date. I went on a holiday for a week to come back and find it hacked. The problem here is that I wasted so much time and lost many members as a result of this. Basically put, I have had a return of members and income since I have moved to SMF which is why I recommend it.
The hacking is a real problem with phpBB, because it is so popular it is often the target of attacks. It is a similar story between Windows and MacOS X. However because phpBB is free they don't have the resources of a Microsoft to make it so secure like Windows is getting to be.. I run a vBulletin at http://ww.mapforums.com SMF / TinyPortal at http://forums.new-eastside.com YaBB on the http://www.learnsvg.com forum I think that's it.. for years I ran a phpBB at http://www.mp2kmag.com/mappoint/discussion but it has been migrated over to www.mapforums.com. On another note, it looks like here's all the mods in phpBBFM -- http://phpbbfm.net/support/docs/project_mods.html Impressive and scary! I don't think I would ever learn how to handle or manage all of them properly Eric
AdminFusion has a comparison system to see the features of each major forum software including the ability to log into the backend and see for yourself the admin areas. It's really worth a look for anyone considering forum installations. http://www.adminfusion.com/
Thanks, I'm checking it out. I noticed one of their sponsors is vbulletinsetup.com. I mentioned in another thread I am looking for help with my vBulletin forum. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=223520 vB Setup looks like a good resource. Eric
Did you keep it up to date? You can get hacked just as easily with VB or any forum software if you do not keep it up to date.
i dont know. i just downloaded it 3 days ago... then got hacked today... can anyone please tell me how to transfer my php DB to vbulletin? Thanks in advanced
For those of you who have tried visiting AdminFusion since edr posted, you probably ran into a server down or error message...Sorry about that, but we've had some pretty bad problems with the database these last few days. I think we've solved these problems, and if you're looking for those demo's that edr mentioned, you can get to them via a direct link here I don't think that there is one particular forum software that is the best in all situations...What you need to do is find one that is best for you, because every forum is going to have its own special needs...You need to figure out what you need out of forum software and then see what software has that to offer. Go to www.vbulletin.com and read around about a tool called ImpEx...That is what you use to convert phpBB to vB, and it's actually a relatively simple process.
SMF is the best by far, No exploits available, Very easy to customize, friendly layout & SEO options and best of all its Free i use it for all my forums and it is a dream to use. Copes with high volume traffic very well & never had an issue in the 15 months ive used it. Also there are alot of Mods & themes available.
the home site of the company is simplemachines.org i have it running on 2 sites runescapetrades.cohm sythe-fahex.cohm Ignore the h, wont let me post live links still.
Also got it running on my site: http://www.forumaffiliates.net Switched to SMF after my phpBB forum was hacked (and it was up to date). Got sick of all the updates and all the mods you had to ad to get a nice running phpBB forum. Noticed that lot's of features in SMF needed a mod in phpBB. So I decided to switch. Haven't regret it for a single second since then. If you want free, SMF is definatly the way to go.
Jesus, hate to bump a 120 day old topic.. Yes SMF has a great SEO mod available from the Mods page on simplemachines.org