Simple Machines Forum - Anyone use it?

I've been using phpBB for a while for a couple of forum sites I run but I've had enough of it as it's a spam magnet.

I came across Simple Machine Forum today and was wondering if the DP community had any experience of it? How does it stack up against phpBB? Is it less spammy?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and I would use vBulletin but these forums don't make me any money so I can't afford it

 

I have used SMF and still do on a a couple of small hobby forums. It's definitely a step up from phpBB.

If you can't justify or don't have the money for vBulletin, it would be my second choice.

 

SMF is a nice free forum. Easy to add mods, templates etc. We are using it in our new hosting forum

 

vBulletin would certainly be my choice but, as I said, the forums in question are more hobby forums than anything else.

So how does SMF compare in terms of spam?

 

The more popular your forum gets, the more spam you'll get. That's software independent.

On the other hand, phpBB has a reputation (deserved or not) of being insecure, so it tends to be a favorite target for hackers and worms.

SMF has the advantage of being less well known and having fewer installations (so far) which may make it less frequently targetted by both spammers and hackers, since in both cases the object is to hit the maximum number of people/sites.

 

Neither...I'd use community server forums. IMO its the best and can be used for free. The DP community is not heavy into MS based products namely ASP.NEt and SQL server but they are far superior technologies over PHP and MySql.

 

Maybe (or maybe not). But either way, the absence of a decent sized user base means fewer available mods/plugins and fewer available styles/themes.

 

Community Server is HUGE! It's all over the web. MSNBC uses it, Microsoft uses it on several sites, Dell uses it, as well as thousands of individuals like myself. Check out http://communityserver.org/ and find a vibrant CS community ready to help with any issues.

Styles and themes are so very easy to create in .NET and with CS. Not an issue.

 

If you say so. If it's all that huge, it's curious that I've never heard of it before...

 

Anyway... getting back to the question

I use SMF but I have to tell you, I don't really like it for one simple fact: the mods / plugin system seems like a really cool idea, but it just doesn't 'scale' for me. Each plugin changes the actual code: it's just a heap of 'look in this file for this piece of code and add this after it'. This means that if you install plugins A, B, C and D and then decide you don't want B anymore, you have to uninstall D then C then B.

Plus, the code of the plugins is an absolute nightmare. If I had known about this before implementing it, I would have gone for another alternative.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

I use SMF for my Vanguard MMORPG Forum - I just started it so I can't give it much feedback though.

It was very simple to install and super easy to set up & customize. I was pleasantly surprized with the number of plug-ins, add-ons & templates that were available seeing as how it's not nearly as widely used as some of the old standbys (phpbb for instance)

 

I am using SMF on Web Market Zone

They have some pretty good mods now. Im using the ad managemnt mod, the trader mod and the link directory mod

Im pretty happy with it for a free forum!

 

guys, one important question -

Right now I don't have any money so I am looking to go with SMF but than will surely go with vB, now will I be able to smoothly transfer my SMF forum into vB ?

 

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1282070#post1282070

 

go with smf rather than with phpbb

 

That's a very interesting point. phpBB works in pretty much the same way and is another one of the reasons I'd like to move away from it. I use WordPress for a lot of projects and love the fact that plugins/mods fit outside of the core code making installation and removal dead simple. Sadly the WP forum piece is just a little bit too basic for my liking.

 

Have you ever tried PunBB http://www.punbb.org/

Small, easy to modify forum

 

I would say that's a bit extreme. And it's no different from the EasyInstall process (or whatever it's called) for phpBB, or indeed most code updating procedures. If you can afford vBulletin, you avoid most of that. Otherwise, it's one of the "problems" with free forum software. The work-around is to install only one modification at a time and test it out before installing any others. That way, if you decide you hate it, it's a simple "uninstall" click to return to your former state.

Yes. I've now done it twice. There are one or two minor "issues" and you must be sure to follow the vBulletin ImpEx instructions CAREFULLY and to the letter but it's a pretty easy migration really.

 

I don't quite know why it's 'extreme'. I had no idea that phpBB did it as well. I've spent most of my time with CMS type setups where that kind of process is definitely not 'the norm'.

It's not so much 'hate it' but more 'don't want / need it anymore'. Either way, I believe that some kind of hooks and events system should be used for that kind of thing. At least that way if I decide that I want to change some of the actual core code, it's still going to let me use whatever plugins I like.

All I know is that next chance I get I'm going to be changing my forums and I'll be definitely looking at the code update system (like I said, I thought it was such a mess I'm surprised that there are other systems out there that do the same) and I'll be happy to either put up with less 'core' functionality or pay for the 'privilege'.

 

Then what you want is vBulletin - no question.