So, I was wondering this the other day. If I was to buy my own forum software or forum site what is the best. Also, for those of you that don't use free sites, what is the best site to host? I very well might be total wrong here, so let me know if I am off my rocker too.

I like Invision Power Board 2.3.5 best. As far as hosts, I only use my domain to host sites of mine through xD I couldn't tell you about other hosts. I'm kind of biased >3 The only rules I have to listen to are my own if I use my domain xDD

Woo! Totally with you there, Akala. I'm loving IPB 2.3.5... it's not cheap, but it's smexxeh. I'm hosted with the software provider, IPS... and they've been really good.

It's awesome! At first I was like "...NOT WORTH IT D:" and was really mad but after I got using it I've found it's SOOO awesome. I love it XD

I bought it right out and am hosting it myself XD

I highly highly HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend SMF. v2 is still in beta-testing, but is definitely stable enough to run on a production site and the new features make it completely worthwhile. It's free, but the support community is still absolutely outstanding; I bought a lifetime IPB license in 2003 and I will still never, ever go back. :D

As for hosting, I can't really help you there because I maintain all of my own servers. I would not recommend this for those of you who aren't unix or linux administrators, though, simply because compiling Apache with PHP is basically a nightmare aaaalll the time. I'm sure there are hosting sites you can find with some googling; Akala hosts on IPB, for example, and I host others with SMF.

I'll host anything so long as you didn't download it through bittorrent and it's illegal XD;

D: I didn't have the option to buy a lifetime license. >>;; -wishes she had though XD-

I would love to host my own forum, if only to figure it out and be able to add another notch to my belt, but i just can't friggin afford it... :(

I've used downloadable forum software too.
Personally I found PHPBB3 to be the best free one and IPB for commercial if you feel like paying.

The permission masks is a bit dodgy on PHPBB at first but once you get used to it's okay. Themes are especially nice.

IPB is more advanced than on InvisionFree or some other IPB hosts since they restrict some features. However it should feel familiar to your users.

SMF is also good but I wasn't keen on some of the themes. That may have changed though by now.

For a free host, check out Phoenix Hosting.

Best thing is to look around though really. You'll probably find what's right for you after trial and error because everyone has a varied taste.

I will install and host small-to-moderate-sized SMF2 forums for free. :) I could probably get PHPBB3 working, too, I just haven't worked with PHPBB for yeaaaaaaaaaars.

PHPBB3 is a really nice free software. I like it a lot better than it's previous versions.

Why would you buy a domain name, then space, AND buy forum software on top of that when you can use things like phpbb which don't cost anything and offers as good as, if not a better service than what you would pay for else where? Buy your domain name (godaddy can be cheap as chips), server space (shop around!!) and take a look at the forum software that is ad-free that you do not have to pay for.

phpbb has come a long, long way over the years and is now easy to use, has countless walk throughs on the websites, patient and eager to help members of the phpbb community, as well as mods to improve usability, and a look that is 100% customisable.

Because the reality of it is PHPBB is not better than Invision Power Board 2.3.5. IPB 2.3.5 has SO many more features that are absolutely essential to me, eventhough the phpbb3 is a lot better than the previous versions. :-/ I don't find it helpful for what I do and use forums for.

Out of curiosity, like what? I'm always interested to hear what people find essential in their software.

I would definitely recommend SMF. Some people might not like the themes available, but there's always the possibility of making your own (it takes a little work to understand the variables and a bit of php coding, but after that you can basically use the HTML to completely revamp your setup however you want) or hiring somebody to do it if you've got a bit of dough.

SMF2 is in beta, as Cal mentioned, though it is quite stable. Still not 100% recommended, but there shouldn't be any issues with security or major bugs, and the release of Beta 4 (sometime very soon) should resolve even more bugs. It includes many new features, though the downside of using it is that many of the RPG friendly mods, like TinyPortal, SMF Shop (currency and store), Multiple Personas mod, Ultimate Profile, etc, aren't yet available.

As for hosting, I can also provide small hosting if you have a site in need. I would prefer payment (since you're not paying for a forum software, you won't be sucked out of $200, and my smallest plan is just $18 a year (not even 10% of $200)) but I can also provide free hosting if needed. Though the options I provide will be smaller for the free hosting.

If you're interested, PM me here.

I second Cal and Jordan re: SMF. Easy to set up, easy to run, plenty of mods and customizations available. In the unlikely event you have problems, a thriving and very helpful support forum is just a click away, too.

And you don't have to keep paying protection money to keep the ads away.

I started out my RP career on an original phpBB board, so really - I should love it. But I don't, particularly. phpBB3 I got pretty excited about, because I was then looking at moving Tally to free software, but once I started playing around with phpBB3 after it's release, the shiny sort of... wore off. I'm not really sure exactly why I didn't like it, it just didn't feel right. Neither did SMF, which I also had a bit of a play with.

But then, I absolutely hate VBulletin, which is supposedly THE top forum software out there -- over IPB.

I am possibly nothing more than an Invision snob, but I do love the software. It was a gift for my 21st, so I don't need to justify the money. I love that the stalker list shows exactly who is posting in what thread, I love that it has RSS built in, I love the 2.x.x profile view, they're all silly and probably unnecessary features, but I love them all the same.

I also love the ability to customise the HTML templates. Now that, when skinning, is fan-mc-tastic.

I feel the same way with phpbb3. I mean it's SO much better than the previous version and I really stand by that but it's really not the software for me. I've never been a fan of SMF. Ever. I don't know why but I'm not. :-/ As for VBulletin, I've never used it but sites I have seen and been a member on with it running were really nice. I guess I'd just need to see it in action first, a little more like from an admin point of view before I bought it.

Invision adds a lot of stuff that I've come to find essential. I mean the reality of it is, you may not need it, but I've come to find it necessary XD IPB is so easy to skin, especially if you're an html nut like I am XD I love it.

I'm not asking you to justify your love of IPB, I'm genuinely curious about what it does that you find so essential. I promise, I'm not trying to change anybody's mind (except that I personally feel IF is a plague, but that's because I think adware is vile), I genuinely want to know what features it has. :)

For example, I will go first and I'll tell you specifically what I find essential with SMF2:

• I can customize all aspects of the profile. I can add, remove, and reorder sections and questions, basically making the profile the join form for a character. All of these custom fields are searchable, so if someone wants to write a plot for a character with something specific in their background, they can search all the background fields and turn up the characters that match.
  
• I can customize all aspects of the skin and layout with HTML, PHP, and CSS, reordering everything how I see fit, without just slapping in new colors and still looking just like everyone else's board.
  
• I don't have to rely on ANY third-party software at all, if I don't want to; I can run a self-hosted AJAX shoutbox that requires no reloading and no ads or limitations whatsoever other than what I personally put in.
  
• I can allow my players to have multiple accounts for all of their characters, each with their own individual graphics and profiles, and still only having one permanent login.
  
• Most importantly, I have a free, open, friendly community I can always count on. Mod requests are treated seriously instead of being randomly laughed off, and there's a host of people always willing to help -- for free. The sense of community is what drew me to SMF in the first place, and why I will always love it.

I would like to point out that this is a modification and not a default feature. I think that needs clarification, just so that nobody thinks they can simply install the newest version of SMF 2 and get that feature automatically.

Anyways, my personal favorites about SMF:

• Quick reply feature is default - This always annoyed me about phpbb, that the quick reply feature was a mod. It annoys me with IF as well that it requires you to make the selection on each board to toggle it on or off. It's a nice feature, but why is it off by default? Too many people make boards without even looking at the options, which has forced me to manually change it in the past. With SMF, that's not a worry, and each member can decide if they want to have it on or off or enabled but hidden until they choose.
  
• Subforums unlimited! - Another thing that annoyed me about phpbb, no sub forums! It was, once again, a mod, yet it was a feature that nearly every other board released around the same time came with. IPB 1.x had them (and thus IF and IPBFree). Proboards had them. And SMF has them, plus the ability to create as many subforums (called child boards in SMF, just because it's the proper name in the Tree structure, not because of some pedophile tendencies ;)) as you want. Literally. You can go as deep as you want, even having 20 subforums under one forum. And deeper than that. Helpful for organizing information or IC places.
  
• Permissions are King - Away with password protection, which becomes void if someone gives out the password. Permissions in SMF can help control exactly what a membergroup can do, from whether they can reply just to their own topics or to everybody's, to whether they can vote in polls, give out karma, or even access the Who's Online list or the memberlist. Very useful when you don't want members who haven't gotten their profile approved to post ICly yet, or see a certain section.
  
• (SMF 2.0 only) Join a group and say, "Look, Ma, no admins!" - The one thing about phpbb that I longed for in SMF, was the ability to have different ways to join a group. It was tedious for admins to add members of groups in SMF 1.1.x, and in SMF 2.0, it's a lot better. Groups can be set in the traditional way, to require somebody to invite them to the group, or they can be set so that members can either freely join on their own, or request access which a group moderator (which can be a non-admin) or admin could accept. Very useful depending on your forum setup.
  
• Simple in name and in truth - What gets me most about IPB and vBulletin, is the overwhelming amount of features. I despise the way vBulletin handles permissions, it's like a nightmare to me. And the bloated admin panels, if a software has an option to customize what an admin sees in the admin panel, that tells me that they have too many features available. One of SMF's winning points is its simplicity. It strives not to be bloatware and to tone down features to what the average user of a forum will need. It's nice to have every option I would possibly need available, but if I'm not going to use 70% of it, what's the point? A forum should be just that, a forum, and everything else be something nice added on later. Mods are really the best way to add features, especially for specific things like blogs, chat/shoutboxes, shops/currency, stores, multiple accounts/switching, etc. I don't need my forum turned into a social networking site the minute I install it, which is what I see vBulletin offering in its features. Really not my cup of tea. If I want it to be one, I'll customize it to be one, but I would prefer if every forum didn't come with those options. I'll leave the blog to the appropriate forum, the shop/currency to the appropriate game, and the stores selling items for real money off my sites entirely.
  
• Mods - SMF has over 500 mods in its customization site, all with features useful to somebody. If you want a blog, there are about 4 different blog mods. Shoutbox? 3 for those, plus integrations with a few 3rd party softwares. Karma? Well, SMF has that by default, but there's a number of karma enhancement mods. Want to tweak your forums a bit, put the avatars on the memberlist, make people's names the color of their membergroups all over the forum, etc? There are mods for that, too. Whatever you want to do, there's probably a mod, and if not, you can request one. There's a few ways to do it, either in the normal Mod Request forums, or in a Help Wanted section, which isn't for support but kind of a job-oriented forum for people to put up requests, such as needing a mod built or a theme made or just someone to help them setup and install their forum, designated to be free or paid. Like Cal said, mod requests are taken seriously, if there is opposition it's usually explained pretty well and alternatives are generally provided. And nobody ever objects when someone decides they want to pursue a request anyways.
  
• SMF Community - Like Cal mentioned as well, the SMF community is strong and courteous. Disrespectful attitudes are swiftly dealt with, and troublemakers usually get the ban. The community is friendly, the team is polite and helpful and there are lots of non-team members who help out with support, or mods, or coding or themes or whatever. It's enjoyable, and I get a real kick out of it. Some members have trouble understanding where to go, and it can be a confusing place sometimes, but people are usually quick to point a link to the proper place to go for help, or direct a Team member to move the topic to the appropriate forum. Nobody is put down for their ideas or for ignorance, everybody's been in that position before.

Anyways, that's my list of reasons why I like SMF.

Yeah, IPB 2.3.5 can do all that too. What's the big deal? So we like different software. If I choose to spend money on a board system that I like, it's my money not yours and I don't feel I need to justify how I spend my money to you or anyone else. Same with paying for my domain or hosting.

But you weren't told that you had to justify anything. You were merely informed that SMF has a lot of features.

Come on now, Akala. You were asked to explain the features. Help us out here.

The problem is that's exactly what's being asked and personally I don't feel the need to and I'm not going to.

If Akala doesn't want to share his viewpoint, that's fine. I'm disappointed, I was hoping to hear a perspective from an IPB user of why they used it. A lot of the forums share features now, either by default or in popular mods, and it's interesting to find out why a particular person decided to go for one over the other. I can't find myself ever migrating to a paid forum software that does, as you've mentioned, the same things as SMF when SMF is free. But I'm curious as to why you use IPB.

Any other IPB users care to share why they use it? I don't think anybody here is intending to force you to justify your opinion, we're just sitting around talking about what we like about each software, not attacking or saying one is better than the other. I'm sure personally we all feel that ours is better, but I don't see anybody coming out and saying, "IPB is terrible," or "PhpBB sucks!" If we keep it that way, I don't see why we can't have a civil conversation about the differences or our personal tastes for each software.

I'm a girl actually.

Features
Features List Explained

Get a trial version.

That really does nothing for me. If I look at the feature lists, my first thought will be comparisons with SMF. If I get a trial version, I'll be comparing its feel to SMF.

I'd rather hear from somebody who uses it what they think.

...you wanted a feature list so bad. There it is.

So which of these features do you consider essential that other boards don't have? this is a features list but doesn't support your point on what YOU require that other forums do not have. I assume in making your original statement, you've done your research and not just gone, 'IPB, you'll do!'. So please, share with us so other people can have the benefit of your know-how.

For my two cents, I finally made the conversion away from IF/PB to using my own hosted software and, after much research, decided to go with phpbb3. Initially, there was a steep learning curve with the transition and, the first month or so with it, there was lots of frustration. But, once I got the handle of it, I was very glad I made the transition. I'm a bit of a control freak and have some OCD and really like the level of control I have. And even with it being new and the number of mods / hacks being smaller, there's little I've found I can't do with phpBB3.

But, my biggest input, since I know there is more discussion on that end here, was about the hosting. I spent a lot of time looking at potential hosts and have found that harder to deal with then the software. There are lots of claims out there and I admit, I'm not thrilled with the host I went with. I'm with Vistapages and they are alright, but not as good as I"d like. Initially, there was a fair amount of down time, but that seems to have gotten better. After more research after the fact, I've gotten really interested in Nearly Free Speech web hosting. Once I'm done with the year I signed up with Vistapages, I'll probably switch to them. You get the benefits of setting your own terms but without the higher prices. From waht I've seen from my disk space usage and bandwidth with my current host, I'd probably be able to run my site for less than a buck a month of NFS. I haven't met anyone who's used them so, I'm going by reviews and anecdotal stuff, but all that stuff has proven rather unreliable online as it is. But, they'd be my recommendation.

Mkoi, as I said before.. I am an IPB user who did a lot of research though different board systems before selecting IPB as my one true love. Most of this was based not on the features, but how comfortable I felt with the software, and my ability to admin across it. Because I was so familiar with Invisionfree before the move, this did have a huge impact on what I chose.

A lot of the things I frequently use, I'm aware are available on other boards. But at the same time, I know how it works for Invision, and that familiarity with the software wasn't something I was willing to trade.

Which makes me a stick in the mud, I know.

I like that I can have members in two usergroups if needed. There are occasions where it happens.

I like that I can override a member's permissions with a separate mask without changing either of their usergroups. Particularly useful when you have different accounts but still want access to the staff forum.

I love the IPB Mod panel, and that I can move/delete straight out of the topic list view... just tick the boxes, and tell it what to do with the selected topics. Invaluable for advertising.

I love multimods, and wish I'd used them more while on Invisionfree!

I love that I can see the Google Bot, know which Guesty he is, and change the way his name displays so that everyone else knows he is Google.

I love that my members can add comments to each others profiles, see who was viewing their profiles, who is set to male or female according to their profile, etc. Profile view also lists the members' most recent posts and topics.

I love that it will give you the option of listing the subforum links on the index itself, or turning them off if you would rather do it yourself.

I love that I can have a separate set of Header/Footers, CSS and HTML Templates for each skin in my skin changer, creating an entirely different look with a flick of the chooser.

I love that when I look at a topic, or topic list, I can hover over the names of anyone else in that topic, and see what they are doing. XD Mousie ish all about the stalking.

I love that I can use the active topics list, and get a list of what was actually posted two days, two weeks, two months to now. Invisionfree's never seemed to work except for the past 24 hours.

I love that the search function works! My goodness! So handy! I can search a particular forum, the whole board, or a particular topic if I like.

I love that it's a software my members are familiar with, and can use competently.

I love that I can submit a support ticket to IPS, and have the answer in less than an hour. I love that if I really screw the board up... they'll fix it for me! Essentially, that's what I'm really paying for, and they've been absolutely fantastic.

None of it is essential, but just some of the features that I use that I like. But I think the main one over phpBB3 (and this sounds petty, lol!)

I love that it displays the last updated topic name on the index.. without needing to be modded.

I'm sorry you're feeling defensive, Akala. I wasn't asking you for justification at all, I wanted a current IPB user's perspective. I WAS one, but as I mentioned, that was years ago, so I was curious as to how it felt now.

Mousie, THANK YOU. That is exactly what I was looking for! What I find particularly interesting is this:

That's awesome! Could you conceivably use that like a plotting page, then? Someone could come in to the profile and leave a comment like 'hey, my character does X, yours does Y, maybe they knew each other' and run from there? That is an incredibly cool feature! I also admit that there are times when I miss member-specific permission masks. XD

And Jordan is right to note that the single sign-on is a mod -- I'm sorry I didn't specify. But one of the interesting things (and my loves) about SMF is the package system -- installing a mod is (usually) a one-click button change. Granted, I tend to go through and tweak specific things myself, but if you don't want to you definitely can get almost everything running straight out of the box.

Here, specifically, are the packages I run:
1. Member Color Link - This displays the member name in t he group color everywhere. It's purely aesthetic, but it makes me happy.
2. nneonneo's AJAX ShoutBox - My favorite of the shoutbox mods.
3. Bookmarks - This was actually a request from a couple of my players -- it allows you to bookmark specific users, threads, or posts. SMF does some of this by default with topic subscriptions, but the Bookmarks mod lets you have it all under one tab.
4. Aliases Mod - The aforementioned single sign-on. I am so desperately in love with it I have no words. And it should be noted that even as complicated as the mod's functions are, it was still a one-click install.
5. Anti-Bot Registration Puzzles - Perhaps absolutely the most important thing about SMF is its ability to completely stop all bots in their tracks. I like to make very sure, though, that I never have to deal with spam -- and I haven't had even ONE. I don't have to restrict guest posting at all, except to ask them to answer questions like "what is 1 + 3 + 1" or "what word is the same as its color". No matter how many times the online list shows a pile of bots, SMF never lets them through. <3 <3 <3

I love sharing personal admin experiences and reading those of others because when it all comes down to it, the system you run is your personal choice. It should be well-reasoned and researched, because this is something that you're going to be running and maintaining; if you don't like what you're using, then you won't want to run it. XD

If you are not looking to pay a whole lot, then I would trot myself right over to phpbb3. I'm not a real big fan of SMF but granted they have come a long way and Cal's sites look pretty damn good and kind of make me wanna take back my suggestion to phpbb3. Next to customizability and such, phpbb3 would be really close to IPB. While you have to pay quite a bit for IPB, its all a matter of taste. I've been able to poke around in PHPBB3 admin cp a bit and still I come running back to my IPB.

As far as hosts go, I couldn't really tell you who the best is. You just have to shop around.

I am not completely sure how customizable PHPBB3 is but I know IPB has tons. Its practically limitless as far as looks go. I will try my best to point out and explain some of my favorite features.

HTML Template Editing : Once I got to poking around, I figured this thing out and I've become addicted to using it when customizing a skin. I can do things like pick certain factors in the board and completely get rid of it and/or move it to a different place on the forum. I can move the logo wherever I want. Hell I could simply put if in the footer of the board if i felt like it. I can cut out the Member Bar and put it in a sidebar, as well as the navigation. I can also add stuff. For those who hate forums getting squished by overbearing sidebars, can make it so that the side bar won't be viewed globally but, only on the index board view. You can do whatever you want in reality and make it look however you want.

Limitless amount of skins: want 100? you can have 100 and have them open for members to choose from too! Or if you don't want to give members the choice of choosing their own skin out of the many possible ones you can have, you can fix it to where they HAVE to use one. Can even disable the theme chooser for members while admins can still view it while it may be in testing mode. You can also apply certain skin themes to certain forums on the board.

Collapsible Categories: Can collapse any and as many categories as you want if you don't want to be bothered with a lot of scrolling or if you just don't want to look at them.

Forum Rules: No this isn't the guidelines for the entire board. Each and every forum (sub forums included) can have rules attached to them. These rules can either be supplied through a link right above the forum posts or as full text. With me I use this on my advertising board. So instead of posting a sticky of my advertising rules, I have the rules right on that page above where all the posts are(the area between the navstrip and the "new topic" button).

Many free premade skins: Just like invisionfree and ipbfree, there are many skins available to be used if you don't know a thing about skinning or just don't feel like making one. However, some of the best skins available cost anywhere from fifteen to forty five bucks.

Easy Importing: You don't have to fool with any ftp connections and such just to import a skin. You can also export a skin as well.

Limitless subforums: Meaning you can have subforums within subforums within subforums within subforums..... and so on.

Easy CSS editing: Not good at coding... not good at all? Well they make it easy for you and lay it out in a form sort of like a CSS generator.

Skin Search and Replace: If you want to skip past searching through possibly endless code to find one thing to edit, you can search it with this handy tool.

Cache and Backup: This is such a great security feature to make sure that if something ever happens, your files and everything are completely recoverable.

Rename Admin CP: Another security feature that allows the admin to rename and relocate the admin CP so to lessen chances of hackers being able to find and get into it.

User Profiles:
-shows you who has visited your profile and when. as well as a link and personal image that leads them to the other person's profile.
-comment and rate each other right on the profiles.
-limitless custom fields
-can have their own personal statement or quote
-friends! you can visit someone's profile and add them to your friends list.
- all of the fields, categories, and everything, can be moved/readjusted/or removed as you see fit.

Posting/posts:
-three different post display modes (standard, outline, linear+)
-can search the topic right there, this may help if the topic is seven pages long...
-jump list so instead of going back to the index view, you can click the dropdown menu and select which forum you want to go to next in one easy step.
-of course fast reply is available and can be set to default if you want.
-rich text editor! OMFG i love this thing! You don't have to fool with BBcode at all anymore. Its like typing in a word document. and you can even type an entire paragraph and later decide you want to bold a word in it... just highlight the word and click the "b" button and its bolded.
-can attach files
-even post videos if the admin will allow it.
-there is an up arrow button and a down arrow button that allow you to elongate or shorten the typing textarea/field.


((I'll keep adding as I remember more))




Any questions about IPB I'd be happy to help or try my best to do so.

I also use a version of IPB that has been paid for. I've used a version of 2.x and I currently run two versions of IPB 1.3.x. I find 1.3.x to be better to my liking, although I know many who preferred 2.x.x. I've found that the second version has a rather bothersome Admin CP (It was far more difficult to navigate), but 2.x.x had a lot of nice features. You didn't need to use doHTML, which was a silly plus, but I liked it.

The coding was a little different between 1 and 2, so codes I used on 2 show up differently on 1.

One of the reasons I like IPB 1.3.x is because so many things that are addons for other boards are default on it.

Like Mousie said, the ability to override a usergroup with permissions is something I use all the time. This way, you do not need to create an admin or mod usergroup- you make IC usergroups with OOC permissions. It keeps it a lot cleaner.

The one mod I could never live without is the HTML titles mod. You don't need to use those bothersome 'pips' or little icons, which in many cases, seem to be larger than the icon a member has.

Where Cal has a mod to change a member's name, you can edit this through the usergroups very easily. It's a feature used a lot. :]

I love how much of the forum you can edit. There's one forum that has been in development since May, and it has been heavily edited through and through. Although IPB has a lot of nice features, there are some bothersome ones that I ike to do away with.

I also LOVE how you can completely customize your profile. The IF profile is also the default for IPB, but with IPB, you can edit the HTML templates to reorganize everything, and then add in all the IC sections so that a character's profile is acually ON their profile.

I seriously love being able to fix the HTML templates, since there are a lot of things I like to get rid of and minimize. The default board, I find, is rather cluttered and has a lot of useless things, so I've minimized everything.

IPB is wonderful in the way that you can edit every single aspect of your board.

That's one of the top reasons to purchase the software. Free IPB providers like IPBFree do not seem to allow you to access the HTML templates, which is a real drag.

You also have the ability to make skins! Hurrah! I know that a lot of sites just change the header and colours on things for different skins, but if you know your way around the HTML templates, you can change *everything* Seriously, I've coded three layouts for one board where they are all completely different, but the announcements in the main box are constant. The wrapper is different from each, but since I was able to edit the HTML templates, you can do it. :]

Just about everything I've seen that phpbb has, IPB has as well. :]

• HTML template editing
• Skins (limitless)
• Permission masks
• Forum Rules
• Easy importing of skins. You just copy and paste. As far as I know, none require FTP work.
• Backup
• Quick Reply
• Tons of mods and skins

Personally? I'm a fan of IPB because I've used it for so long. I know how to edit everything, the Admin CP is easy to use, and I can restructure the very core of the board to my heart's content. :]

As for hosting the forum software, there are a lot of people willing to host IPB nowadays. zrkonium.net, elemyst.com and aurial.net offer hosting to boards, I do believe.

*hugs tammi* loved your explanation as well as mentioning some things that I forgot. Particularly the mod thing. Its secondary rank or usergroup i think... love it. Just search the member and select Mod as a secondary usergroup rather than changing it completely. You don't even have to have a mod USERGROUP because that is a default if I remember correctly....

And yeah... with IPB... name any part of the forum (big or small)... I bet you can edit it.

for the skinning codes thing. From going from 1.x to 2.x you could always try to use the skin upgrade in the skin tools. It depends on how it was coded because it can pick out certain coding of the old and replace with the new. As well as running differences between two skins and such.

Hmm - as I read through the features they talk about, I find that there's *very* little that IPB has that phpBB3 doesn't have. The vast majority of the stuff they describe can be done on basic phpBB3 or with simple modifications to the basic. For me, IPB was one of those drool at and think "how nice it would be to have it" type things. I wasn't lucky enough to know someone that owned it that could give me a copy or what have you. And, I really wanted to own my board rather than borrow it from someone - which is why I left IF/pb in the first place.

For me, if money wasn't an issue, I'd probably choose IPB. However, the few advantages to IPB were soooo not worth paying $150 for six months and then $25 regularly after that on top of host fees. If you can get it without paying, I'd say IPB is the way to go. But, if you are having to shell out the money, I'd encourage you to really consider whether familiarity is worth $150. And, I think the IPB license is, technically, for one usage of it and you get support if you continue to pay for the license. Support at phpBB3 is free as long as you keep their copyright on your site. That, to me, is a reasonable cost.

Tulojow's reasoning is the same reason I use SMF. It doesn't drain my wallet, so I can put my money into hosting and then for other uses, like RL necessities. I'd rather blow $150 every six months on videos games, music, movies and activies than I would on a forum software. That or save it up, then buy a really nice item in a few years, like a new computer or some new gaming console.

A lot of the features I've seen people remark on are features that come by default on SMF, or can be easily added with a mod. There were only one or two I saw that were unique to IPB, probably the biggest one is permissions masks. SMF operates based entirely on usergroups, although there is a Member-Specific Permissions mod which can allow admins to restrict a certain user to actions globally or on a certain board, which is pretty useful for those troublesome users.

It's nice to see what people highlight as some of the features that draw them to IPB and phpBB. I don't think any of us are going to change our opinions on which forum software we use, but for those who are stilll on hosts like proboards, IF, and IPBfree, maybe they would benefit from our insights.

Or...perhaps ... the rent. Or groceries. Or dog food.

And, phpBB3 does have the individual permission masks capabilities and it's standard. You can set permissions on an individual on a user, moderator and admin level and you can set them to usergroups. You can put a user in multiple usergroups and still have individual masks override them. And, anything you are missing someone's bound to have a mod for or be working on a mod for. Again, it comes down to money on this one. If you've got the money to blow, go for IPB. If not, then SMF or phpBB3 is the way to go. Between the two, I went for phpBB3 because it had more customizable features than phpBB3 - like permission masks and such.