On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 2:34 AM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
having setup and maintained a couple phpBB message boards, I will say, with absolutely no hesitation, AVOID THIS PILE OF BUGRIDDEN #$@$@#$ AT ALL COSTS. I've heard SMF is pretty good.
I would agree to avoid phpBB. I've run a couple of phpBB boards unfortunately. When I was using it some common features needed mods to be applied which in turn led to more painful upgrade processes when the mods often needed re-applied. On top of this the boards were often a target for attack - it seems at the time phpBB had a rather poor track record in regards to security issues.
I've switched to Simple Machine Forums [1] these days. The things that I needed mods for in phpBB were built into SMF, so the upgrade process became easier. So when a security update does come along (and they do) the required is much easier.
You mentioned open source, not sure if you were picky about license or not. But SMF releases under their own license [2]. From their site:
"You can modify the source code, distribute instructions to modify it, you can view the code and suggest improvements to it."
But you cannot:
"1. Modify the copyright notice displayed (the same can be said for GPL software.) 2. You are not allowed to redistribute the forum/software itself, without written permission."
This may or may not make a difference in what you choose to use.
Good luck!
~Jeffrey
[1] http://www.simplemachines.org [2] http://www.simplemachines.org/about/opensource.php