Message boards - which?

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brianpaxton

brianpaxton

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Aug 18, 2006
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I'm interested in using "community building" as a tool to get regular members to one of my sites I want to develop, but I've come across many different message board platforms.

Does it make sense to buy a platform, or are the free ones as effective and safe?

Are there benefits to the purchased ones? (i.e. better support?)

What are the Moneymaker's favorites to use? (i.e. vBulletin?)

Anyone willing to offer up a shortlist of pros and cons?

Thanks in advance for your input.
 


VBulletin is one that will establish you as a "big" site, compared to using a free one (ie: phpBB, or invision powerboard, ect)

If you do not mind buying the lease for vb, i would suggest that. Most people who post on boards typically like the VB and feel more comfortable registering a vb (i dont know why, but they do).

- Robert DeVore
 
[R]DeVore said:
VBulletin is one that will establish you as a "big" site, compared to using a free one (ie: phpBB, or invision powerboard, ect)

If you do not mind buying the lease for vb, i would suggest that. Most people who post on boards typically like the VB and feel more comfortable registering a vb (i dont know why, but they do).

- Robert DeVore
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The type of forum software you use doesn't mean shit in terms of how "established" you are. And Invision Power Board hasn't been free of years.

Robert, do you have any evidence that more people are willing to register if the forum is vBulletin as opposed to some other software? Or was that merely an assumption?

Let me give you an example:
http://www.big-boards.com/

The largest forum on the internet uses a free solution, phpBB, yet they're the "biggest" site out there. (Gaia - 4475151 members.) Hell, vBulletin doesn't even rank on that list until you look at #7. Your argument isn't holding up too well. The average internet user probably doesn't pay as much attention to the forum software as you think.

I believe a lot of people use vBulletin because it's extremely easy to manage users, skin, and add hacks to improve the community experience. If you think your site will stick around for a while I suggest purchasing the owned license. It'll pay itself off after 2 years. However, if you're building a community to filp or your unsure of it's success then go with the leased license.
 
All the best boards on the net are mainly VB. So i'd say VB is the way to go. Even if it costs alot of money to purchase, the support is great and the features are even better.
 
Pain said:
All the best boards on the net are mainly VB. So i'd say VB is the way to go. Even if it costs alot of money to purchase, the support is great and the features are even better.
Click to expand...

not that I'm suggesting anything... but if you just want to "try" VB, there's a few places you can download it
 
I'm a bit amazed at the number of users online at howardforums (over 6000), and the number of registered users. Are cell phones really that exciting?

To keep this ontopic they use VB.
 
If you want a free solution and like the looks of VB go with www.mybboard.com. I set most of my forum up in about an hour. Very easy to install, change colors, edit css, etc. I think it all depends on who you ask also. Seems like the tech/web community all like VB. I was on a forum the other day (can't remember which one) but EVERYONE on there hated VB with a passion. To each their own I guess. I don't think the forum software makes a difference with the end user though, unless of course you're targeting tech/web people, they like VB. The average person wont know the difference.
 
I would either go with VBulleitn, or if you're looking for something a bit different, you could go and check out Vanilla (getvanilla.com I think).

One of the reasons I would shy away from phpbb is because I hear it has some serious security flaws, not to mention it does't have as many features as vbulletin.
 
Vbulletin is my personal favorite after using phpbb and having it hacked 3 times.
 
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