What forum software are you currently running on for your community? Are you using popular options like jcink, phpBB, MyBB, or XenForo, or perhaps something more modern like Discourse or Flarum?

 

 

 

What made you choose that particular software? Was it ease of use, customization options, or maybe even cost?

 

Feel free to share your experiences, the pros and cons of the software you’re using, and any tips for others who might be considering the same platform!

My forum is on Jcink, but I did consider moving it off from there at one point...

 

I only chose it because everybody else did so in light of the ZetaBoards/Tapatalk crisis years ago...

I am in process of converting from xenforo to Invision Community.

 

There are so many thing you can do with it that you can't with other software. It's easy to create a skin for it. It's easy to change the layout to a more modern design. Not to mention pages which is a powerful CMS. I create a directory with it.

I’ve been trying out Woltlab on my new community. It’s nice but the content side of it isn’t quite what I’m looking for - what I’d ideally like is the ability to run multiple sets of articles rather than just “articles” in categories, on the basis that I also want to run reviews of things which aren’t really articles, but I’d like to collect them together in a way that isn’t pages.

 

Guess it might be an Invision job after all, though that doesn’t feel quite right either. I’ve been trying to figure out if actually I want to drive interaction through the content rather than the forum itself. Hmmm.

 

(I am aware I am procrastinating. I have been unwell this week which really has knocked me off my stride in terms of setup and content creation. It took me half an hour to make my hosting work with CloudFlare to get HTTPS going. Which given that that server already has half a dozen other sites of mine on it, really took 28 minutes too many.)

While I don't run a forum anymore my last few were on Xenforo. I love how simple it was to use yet so effective. It had everything I needed.

I currently use SMF for Gex Forums, Woltlab Suite for Thee Zone, and I'm waiting for Free To Be Us to be converted from phpBB to vBulletin. I'm not sure how long it'll take for the conversion process, my ticket hasn't been looked at yet and Wayne mentioned it may take sometime to convert from phpBB so I'll just need to keep being patient.

I currently use SMF for Gex Forums, Woltlab Suite for Thee Zone, and I'm waiting for Free To Be Us to be converted from phpBB to vBulletin. I'm not sure how long it'll take for the conversion process, my ticket hasn't been looked at yet and Wayne mentioned it may take sometime to convert from phpBB so I'll just need to keep being patient.

Going with vBulletin Cloud? :)

Been with Ic community for awhile now and enjoying the experience of it. The Pages feature is even more improved with the v5 update and the only thing I'm disappointed in was the removal of the source code feature. It was where you could enter the HTML code of say something like, iframes, which I did with embedding the Owncast video and chat feed into the site as a new page.

 

Other than that, I've been doing some experimenting with some page setups. Ultimately I don't want to have so many things going on within the forums that whole sections are being left to rot without any interactions.

Going with vBulletin Cloud? :)

Yep! Will probably eventually switch to self hosting at some point down the line. Their black Friday deals were too good to pass up lol.

Yep! Will probably eventually switch to self hosting at some point down the line. Their black Friday deals were too good to pass up lol.

I hope you won’t regret it. vBulletin isn’t exactly the greatest option, even for the discount it had. But who knows, you might enjoy it. I’ll join up when it’s ready though.

I have 5 forums on XenForo 2.3, 2 forums on vBulletin 6, 1 forum on SMF, 1 forum on phpBB3, and 1 forum on MyBB.

 

The forums on SMF, phpBB3, and MyBB are more there for me to play with the software since its been years since I used any of them. I don't really plan to make those communities active.

 

So, I have 7 forums that I try to keep active. I told myself just 1 forum when I came back but I know me and I'm too addicted to them LOL but so far, I'm not overwhelmed.

I'll be honest, I've never used paid software or even self-hosted software. I've used non-self-hosted software all my life; starting with InvisionFree, ZetaBoards, a short period on ProBoards, and now Jcink.

 

I dislike messing with server-side stuff, I've always preferred the front-end side, which is why JavaScript has always been my go-to language.

 

Despite it being old as dirt, I chose Jcink for several reasons:

• It seemed in need of a resource board that consistently grew and catered to the needs of board owners.
  
• It was the most similar software to InvisionFree/ZetaBoards, which I was used to.
  
• Being free has its perks keeping your wallet fuller.
  
• I feel some forum software needs more love than it gets, which is why I don't mind what may be considered somewhat of an "outdated" software.
  

I gain 30 - 50 members a month, so it seems like my work has paid off in finding a niche where I can cater to those in need.