How many forum software platforms and hosting services have you used for all of your forum experience?

 

List them all in a reply - but don't submit it yet.

 

Under each one, tell us why you left it to use another platform.

I tried many forum platforms, mostly to see what they all offered. I mostly stayed with SMF and later StoryBB because familiar with the codebase and they did what I needed (and in StoryBB’s case nothing else does what that does)

 

Tried: phpBB (didn’t like the ACP), MyBB (no responsive by default), SMF, Wedge (couldn’t deal with the other dev), MiniBB (no ACP), CBACK (confusing ACP), Flarum (no attachments by default), XF (pretty good, wish there was a better content solution), Invision (expensive, and I dislike the shrinking addon ecosystem), vBulletin (hate the ACP), Woltlab (it’s alright but it doesn’t wow me), Flatboard (dislike how it handles users), NodeBB (I don’t like Node much), Discourse (lots to dislike about management at scale, not to mention it’s in Ruby)

 

There’s probably some I’m forgetting.

I tried many forum platforms, mostly to see what they all offered. I mostly stayed with SMF and later StoryBB because familiar with the codebase and they did what I needed (and in StoryBB’s case nothing else does what that does)

 

Tried: phpBB (didn’t like the ACP), MyBB (no responsive by default), SMF, Wedge (couldn’t deal with the other dev), MiniBB (no ACP), CBACK (confusing ACP), Flarum (no attachments by default), XF (pretty good, wish there was a better content solution), Invision (expensive, and I dislike the shrinking addon ecosystem), vBulletin (hate the ACP), Woltlab (it’s alright but it doesn’t wow me), Flatboard (dislike how it handles users), NodeBB (I don’t like Node much), Discourse (lots to dislike about management at scale, not to mention it’s in Ruby)

 

There’s probably some I’m forgetting.

I was hoping you'd reply :D

I left one previously because I didn't get along with the new owner...

I left one previously because I didn't get along with the new owner...

Which forum platform or software was that?

Which forum platform or software was that?

Off Topix, previously owned by Nebulous. Things weren't working out for me with the new guy when I was administrating over there.

Off Topix, previously owned by Nebulous. Things weren't working out for me with the new guy when I was administrating over there.

I'm talking about platforms not forums.

 

The platform that runs the forum.

I've only used non-self-hosted forum platforms:

• InvisionFree: I left InvisionFree to convert to ZetaBoards.
  
• ZetaBoards: I left ZetaBoards due to issues I was having with people and later on, closing down.
  
• ProBoards: I left ProBoards to return to ZetaBoards.
  
• Jcink: This is the platform I currently use.
  

I may consider creating a new forum on the recently established, ForumSpark.

I may consider creating a new forum on the recently established, ForumSpark.

I've been playing with it and I personally like it a lot!

I've been playing with it and I personally like it a lot!

It could be the next "big" thing for free, non-self-hosted platforms. It has a structure similar to ZetaBoards, which many users admire. It's being actively developed, and it's being driven by dedication to help it succeed.

I've used most platforms, especially the free ones. If I start a new forum, it has to be Xenforo.

• My own.
  
• Considered switching from my own to MyBB/phpBB. I can't recall exactly which two they were, but I believe those, as they were the only free options that I could one-click install. However, after playing around with them for far too long, I reconsidered my position on an external communications platform as I wanted engagement to remain on my text-based RPG, so members wouldn't lose focus on playing too much.
  
• vB3
  
• vB4
  
• XF 2
  

I have used a wordpress (used multiple forum plugins), SMF, MyBB, phpBB and XF. I started with Wordpress because it was really easy but had to move to SMF because wordpress forums had limitations. Of all open source I have used, I think SMF is good. I am using XF because most people are using it.

• BraveNet (Left because it was incredibly limited);
  
• Aimoo (Left because a lot of the basic features were only available for premium users);
  
• InvisionFree (Stuck with it until it became ZetaBoards);
  
• ZetaBoards (Stuck with it until it got taken over by Tapatalk);
  
• MyBB (the platform I currently use).
  

Throughout the years I've used MyBB, phpBB3, SMF, Woltlab, Invision, Xenforo, Zetaboards, InvisionFree, Jcink, BraveNet, FluxBB, PunBB, XMB and I tried Flarum a little bit. I'm currently using ForumSpark on a test board and I'm really liking this free hosting, it's like Zetaboards like mentioned in the thread. Of course this wasn't on the same forum, these were all different forums I've had throughout the years and honestly a lot of them were for testing purposes because I wanted to try out different forum software. I'm currently using SMF, Woltlab and soon vBulletin for another forum once it gets migrated over. I switched from Xenforo to Woltlab because I didn't like the direction the staff were taking with the software at the time. They were taking too long for updates. The forum that will be hosted on vBulletin's cloud servers I felt needed more than what phpBB offers so that's why I switched plus they had a sale going on at the time.

I used vBulletin 3(4) in the past, then I moved to Xenforo. I also used SMF along with invision community, so I’m quite familiar with most of these platforms. It’s been years since I last used SMF or vBulletin though.

I have used phpbb, vBulletin and now xenForo. I try to stick with one type of software as I'm not very technically minded and trying to learn about multiple eco-systems is tough on the old grey matter.