Barry and all,

Thanks for quick reply! Could you tell me whether they support video upload/downloads in need besides text messages? If not sure, I'll just go and check one by one. Thanks.

--Guolin

--- Barry Brimer lists@brimer.org wrote:

Quoting Robinson Tiemuqinke hahaha_30k@yahoo.com:

...

Hi,

I plan to setup an forum for my friend and his friends shortly. But before I setup, I would like

to

...

know what are the popular open source forum software/packages to look at..

Please advise. Thanks.

--Robinson

www.phpbb.com www.simplemachines.org www.phorum.org _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

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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

Michael A. Peters napsal(a):

Whatever you choose, be very careful of third party plugins and watch the security notices.

Bulletin Boards are notorious for poor code that allows various types of hacks from simple defacing to full blown compromise - especially the third party plugins to the various bulletin board software.

Well, Michael's right. Forums are very buggy. Good starting point to compare forums is http://www.forummatrix.org/ David