PHPBB will be the cheapest (umm free except for hosting) It has heaps of addons, as you can see by www.oz300zx.com, and as an interesting option, it does have an addon for threaded view. There are fully customisable style sheets (you can make it look any way you like). I just say, don't rule it out. All hosting companies support PHP and MYSQL, and the base code is minimal. The entire running cost for oz300zx.com is $90 USD per year. I am certain that I could find cheaper hosting than that too, but the hosting company is good to deal with, and their service and uptime is great. If you want more details Ben, send me a PM.
Re: PHPBB will be the cheapest (umm free except for hosting) yeah, ausmini.com uses phpbb aswell it looks almost identical to this check it and again, hosting pics is done off site already, why change it
I like VBulletin.. I see nothing wrong with flat view.. If you quote someone and then type your message, it's obvious what you're replying to anyway.. I always thought threaded was a pain in the arse.. Nice to see work is being done!
than mini forum is very neat and tidy :thumbsup: I find vbulletin and Invision Power to be quite handy to use, however having to read a string of shorter posts with over the top signitures is painfull (note that the mini forum seems to have limits on such things :thumbsup and is my only small problem with flat view. Its great to see development of the site for the better :thumbsup::zlove:.
I admin some big PHP BB forums at work for Chik magazine and australia's surfing life magazine. We are getting fairly sizey databases and haven't seen a degredation in performance. I have it set up on a 3.0GHz P4 running RedHat Enterprise with over 10 sites, ftps etc runs like a charm. So in my oppinion you don't need anything too exotic to run it well. :thumbsup: So for what its worth in my experience PHPBB is very easy to set up and administer - i really dont see a reason to pay money for forum software when it is a free community. Also how many of us actually use threaded view??
My preference would be Invision or vBulletin I've been a member of both SAU (running off Invision) and OCAU (running off vBulletin v3.0.13 currently) for a fair while and both work well imo. My favourite is definately vBulletin and I would encourage you all to browse http://forums.overclockers.com.au/ to get a feel for that type of forum. As mentioned, OCAU is the largest forum in Australia and there are in excess of 74 000 members proving its worth. Like our Aus300 forum, OCAU was struggling a few months back (not surprising considering the sheer volume of traffic) until they upgraded and it now runs flawlessly. Great features: PMs, thread subscriptions, quotes, search functions, sigs, etc etc. Either way I see a great future for Aus300! :thumbsup:
i cant stand threaded view.. which is why my posts sometimes appear like they dont make any sense to those using threaded view..
Same, althought I try to remember to respond to the correct posts so that I don't confuse people who I'm talking to. I also try to leave the title in, so flat view people know who I'm talking to.
yeah.. i leave the title in, i didnt realise i was screwing up threaded view till tom pointed it out to me one day when i was over his place :LOL:
you know what works best.. a threaded view with a seperate frame or equivalent to view the message without opening a new window (or tab).. I'll see if I can find one.
I use another forum a lot that has vBulletin Version 3.0.6 I am pretty happy with it. But I do like the function here where you can put the pointer over topics and preview them. I only use flat veiw but when i reply I try to leave the previous title in so people know who I am replying to.
Do you know of an example of PHPBB site with the threaded ad-on? I'd like to see how it looks/works in comparison to this. I have grown SO accustomed to the threaded view, that I just can't stand using flat view anymore. I NEED THREAD BABY!!! :LOL:
The biggest thumbs up for PHPBB other than the free pricetag, is that there are literally thousands of modules already created which are also free. You see as it is a community driven operation like Linux, people with programming knowledge make the modules, and submit to the community. Any one can download the modules and integrate them to their existing forum. A good example is the spellcheck feature on the oz forum. That took me about 20 minutes to integrate to the forum. Dead easy infact.
my first vote is for Vbulletin my second is for PHPBB... both are good, but i prefer using V bulletin
I'm a threaded view user by choice. Have just switched to flat view to see how I'd cope. First impressions are that I've lost the plot. Can't help much in all the technical discussion going on here, but would like to ask if its worth setting up a voting panel early on some of the main preferences of members? Personally I hope the new home will have threaded view and a good PM system.
People dont need to be concerned specifically whether threaded or flat forum views are used. You can take it for granted that any software package that is chosen WILL have the ability for each user to select whether they would like to see the posts in threaded or flat views thats a given in my opinion.
