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Hey folks I am asking about forum software

 
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anarchy99



Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Posts: 102
Location: Austin TX

PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:44 am    Post subject: Hey folks I am asking about forum software Reply with quote

If I were to set up a new internet forum, what would be the best software to use? Free stuff would be best, because man I'm not really down with paying $160 for a message board.

What do you folks think?
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KlarthAilerion
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Joined: 26 Aug 2003
Posts: 673
Location: New Orleans, LA

PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, we've obviously got pHpBB running over here. It sucked to set up and customize the first time through (god, that was a long time ago), and you can ask kap how much it's sucked to keep it up to date and keep the formatting in place since he's running that show now.
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ProgrammingAce



Joined: 26 May 2006
Posts: 580

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I setup my forums as phpBB, but damn... if i had to do it all over again vBulletin is sooooo worth it.

I ended up recoding half the site. Takes me 4 hours now to install patches. phpBB is only free if your time is worthless.
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 2103
Location: I hate you.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 12:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's not that bad to keep up to date.. and phpbb3 is supposed to be better, and because it's so ubiquitous it's really to support, but you MUST keep it up to date, or your phpbb install will get hacked to fuck and you'll be sorry. Since the people that write it are supposedly complete fucking idiots.

(ok, I'm lying, it sucks to keep it up to date. If you pay attention to what's going on with phpbb via rss feed or email list or something you're fine, but you're kinda screwed if you don't.)

Spinner, check out Vanilla, it's a different look but you may like it. I dunno.

There's other stuff out there and I don't remember what any of it is. And fuck paying for anything.
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Dot50Cal



Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 111

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vbulletin is nice if money is no object. An "Owned License" isnt so bad, its "only" 30$ a year then once your initial update expires to receive further updates. Plugins/Hacks for it are pretty nice too and has a great community around it.

I never really liked PHPBB, partially because of what Kap said. I see sites using it get hacked to shit all the time. Then again the sites I visit with it are using ancient versions of it so maybe that plays a large role in why I dislike it (there are hardly any options in the Admin CP).
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ProgrammingAce



Joined: 26 May 2006
Posts: 580

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 5:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just to put it in perspective, a default install of phpBB doesn't have an option of merging or splitting threads.

On top of that, the capatcha (the image with random numbers/letters) uses to prevent bots from signing up is bypassed 7 ways from sunday. I had 40-50 bots signing up per day at one point...

Don't get me started on phpBB...
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 2103
Location: I hate you.

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hrm. I'm pretty sure merging/splitting is possible with phpbb2, I'm sure I've done it, and I know I've never installed any mods for that.

Regarding the captcha/spambot thing, yeah, phpbb could do a better job with that. We have some custom stuff to prevent spambots, and things were getting kinda bad without it; the only reason it isn't defeated regularly is because it's a hack and not a widespread thing. Captcha's really are easily broken now, I wouldn't blame that on phpbb. What it the registration system really needs is some sort of challenge/response system (or question/answer, I guess) like what we have, with the question and answer being determined by whoever is running the board. Make that unique everywhere and you make the people running the spambots have to do something unique to register on every board, so all of a sudden it takes a lot more time and manpower to be an annoyance.

Regarding getting hacked, really, anyone running any public-facing package on the interweb these days really must keep up with that package, or they eventually will be compromised somehow. That's just a fact of life these days, whether you're talking phpbb or sshd or whatever. It's easy to harp on phpbb because it's had so many fucking compromises, but it's been relatively smooth sailing the last couple years.

Anyway, personally, I still miss wwwboard. I wish someone would recreate that in php that knew what they were doing (ie, not me) with good administration and archiving features. I can think of lotsa other stuff I'd add to, but those were the biggies. Mmm, database-free web forum software.


Last edited by kap on Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:26 am; edited 1 time in total
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

But, uh, enough about me. Vanilla
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Dot50Cal



Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Posts: 111

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Our VB install was getting compromised by spambots with the default capatcha but once I changed it to "GD (True Type Font)" they stopped registering entirely.
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MathUser2929



Joined: 20 Nov 2007
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I got a crazy idea. instead of a message board why don't you upload a txt file. And when someone wants to talk they just download that txt file and write their responce and then reupload.
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ClamIAm



Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 139
Location: the frozen northland

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

deespence2929 wrote:
I got a crazy idea. instead of a message board why don't you upload a txt file. And when someone wants to talk they just download that txt file and write their responce and then reupload.


...isn't that called "e-mail"?
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anarchy99



Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Posts: 102
Location: Austin TX

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Vanilla looks pretty nice. I like the fact that it's so incredibly simple, but it makes me wonder if it's a little too simple. But, I'll give it a shot.[/i]
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kap
Minister of Paranoia
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Joined: 28 Aug 2003
Posts: 2103
Location: I hate you.

PostPosted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey, lemme know how it goes.

ClamIAm wrote:
deespence2929 wrote:
I got a crazy idea. instead of a message board why don't you upload a txt file. And when someone wants to talk they just download that txt file and write their responce and then reupload.


...isn't that called "e-mail"?


It's called a wiki.
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ClamIAm



Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 139
Location: the frozen northland

PostPosted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 2:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kap wrote:
ClamIAm wrote:

...isn't that called "e-mail"?


It's called a wiki.


Oh right. I'm still so Web one-point-oh.
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