Building a Bulletin Board Forum

[Raven Hawk]

I'm trying to put together a forum for a professional group that I am part of and I was wondering if I could get some feedback Bulletin Board Software/Administration. I know that we have some people on the board here that have done this or know how to do this.

First off, looking around, it seems like there are a couple of choices for the Software that I might use:

vBulletin
phpBB
ezBoards

Since it is for a professional organization, I really want a professional look/feel to the software. If anybody has any opinions/biases for the softwares listed above, please share. Also, since it is for a professional organization, we aren't afraid to spend some money for a better product.

Additionally, I was hoping that somebody could give a short ins & outs of getting a Bulletin Board set up. How much space do I need? What are some basics that I need to do? What are the pitfalls to avoid? What do I need to know before I start building? etc . . .

I appreciate whatever help I can get.

[Deattribution]

The only advantage of an ezboard is it's already hosted, other than that they're pretty shoddy, especially for anything professional.

Vbulletin is going to be your best choice concerning flexibility - as far as how much space you'll need , that will depend on the amount of traffic youre expecting and what exactly you intend on doing with your board (allowing image hosting, file hosting ect).

I'm far from an expert in the area, so perhpas someone else can give you a bit more advice.

[AZSpeechCoach]

I'm also interested in this topic. It seems that I will need to begin working with a BB for the Speech Coaches of Az. Improve communication and all that jazz.

[Celeval]

I don't like ezBoard for anything professional. phpBB is free and (to me) easy, but needs hosting.

[BrianD]

You need to be very careful if you choose to use phpBB. Since it is free and used quite a bit, there are plenty of hacks developed against it. If you are going to use it, you have to stay on top of the development of the software and upgrade frequently. I've seen some Vbulletin problems as well, but not nearly as many as with phpBB.

[WVUFAN]

I would suggest Simple Machines Forum software.

[Franklinnoble]

I would suggest Simple Machines Forum software.

Seconded. I hadn't even heard of it before we set up SportsDigs with it, and it's pretty nice. I've been very pleased with it.

[Franklinnoble]

Oh, and it's free.

[Raven Hawk]

So I've heard alot of good things about Simple Machines now. The big question is: How much do I need to know about MySQL or PHP to run it? vBulletin seems pretty straight forward. Is Simple Machines the same?

[KWhit]

I'm trying to put together a forum for a professional group that I am part of and I was wondering if I could get some feedback Bulletin Board Software/Administration.

You're lying. You're really about to start FOFG aren't you?

[PackerFanatic]

phpBB boards are pretty easy and self-explanatory to setup. I have used a view Invision boards as well, but those are a little more indepth. I have never used a vBulletin, but I have heard good things.

[PackerFanatic]

dola, best part about phpBB (and I think vB too) is that they are free.

[Yellow5]

Raven Hawk, Simple Machines and vB are easy to setup. You just need the access to create the mysql database and edit some php files if you want to customize the forums.

[Subby]

Talk to Simms about vBulletin...or VPI about phpBB. Those two know more about forum software than anyone I know...

[Mac Howard]

I use phpBB. I have no problems with it and it's pretty easy to use. In my case it's part of the web hosting package.

It was hacked once by an eastern European political group which caused me to learn more about admin than I wanted to know but the user support forum was extremely useful in fixing things - several phpBB boards were attacked simultaneously by the group. Otherwise it's been reliable for several years now with no other major problems.