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Best Free PHP Forum Software?

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Using phpBB 3 - don't really think too much of it - especially how you go about having to upgrade to stay current with latest security patches - any other suggestions?

Comments

  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    Having tried other software I went with phpbb2 about 3 years ago and latterly phpbb3., Unbeatable for me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    After having learnt to use Wordpress I've really come to like all the plugin you can get for it and how easy they are to install and remove if they don't work.

    with phpBB everything is a hack and not very automated.

    One feature I'd like to have is say a person cannot post a new thread within 24 hours of joining - just something to put off spammers.

    I also see about 100 automated bots are joining the forum site everyday - although not getting as far as the confirming of their email addresses - would like to stop those if possible.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wordpress isn't meant for forums though.

    Try MyBB.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You can do Wordpress and add SimplePress forums..

    I've heard lots of good stuff about Simple Machines Forums.. I think they are free too..

    Oh and Phbb is terrible for leeting spammers through, the simplepress forums makes you complete a calulation before you can post.

    Also for Wordpress theres a plugin called "Bad Behaviour" it stops spam bots, and does a good job of it.

    I think it's also available to install on your server/site that isn't Wordpress based.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There is Vanilla aswell, I like it, but it's probably not what you are after if you used phpBB.

    phpBB is good, but phpBB3 is a pain to setup. Once it is setup it's okay. Regardless of the forum software, you will need to change its signup process.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'll let you know how I get on with SMF..

    It's quite popular so I shouldn't go too far wrong, although it's a hole big pile of hassle as I have to put it inside a paid membership site..

    So might be a while before you see the results.
  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    PHPBB have updated to 3.05 which aims to cure the spam user problems, working well for me so far.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've heard SMF is v.good like everyone else has said.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JavaKrypt wrote: »
    Wordpress isn't meant for forums though.

    Try MyBB.

    yeah I know that BUT I like the way it works.

    Adding new features ad doing upgrades is so easy with Wordpress.

    Ideally I want a Forum software Script that works in a similar manner
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JsT wrote: »
    PHPBB have updated to 3.05 which aims to cure the spam user problems, working well for me so far.

    I've just seen this update and would like to apply it but afraid of screwing up the existing board

    http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1625005&sid=9d3153366a631af15c84804bbbf4082b

    The board I have is currently version 3.0.1 and the upgrade to 3.0.5 doesn't seem very straight forward.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    BTW I was looking to see if there is any modded versions of pbpBB3 other there - before using this we were using phpnuke and that had some nice features I miss like being able to send out newsletters easily which had board statics attached to them, etc.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    BTW I was looking to see if there is any modded versions of pbpBB3 other there - before using this we were using phpnuke and that had some nice features I miss like being able to send out newsletters easily which had board statics attached to them, etc.

    I'm sure there are lots out there.. Not sure where to find them though.

    I added Simple Machines and I'm happy with it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    phpBB is good, but I found it very hard to modify.
    I ended up getting a *cough*copy*cough* of vBulletin to play with. For modification purposes, it's second to none.
    Check out www.hybrid-gamers.com and go to the bottom (theme chooser) and pick out the Matrix Online (MxO) theme I made. Rather pleased with that one :D

    But it is officially a pay-for software, and you can't get plugins for it unless you're registered (we eventually purchased a license)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I found this little phpBB admin tool which is kind of cool

    http://starfoxtj.phpbbhelp.org//phpBB/toolkit/


    good for exporting the email addresses of the people in your database.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I've spent most of today updating the forum from 3.0.1 to 3.0.5 - was far from straight forward and very disappointed with the lack of additional features.

    Virtually nothing added to help get rid of spammers or simple tools to email certain groups of people on the forum.

    Although there seems to be some improvement to stop spammers registering now in the first place.
  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    I updated mine from 3.03 to 3.05 last week without a hitch.

    Spam account registrations have gone from around 10 per day to 0 in the 9 or so days since the upgrade. A mod in phpb2 meant in phpbb2 we got no spam either so I'm glad its swiftly gone. Spam accounts are easy to get rid off as mod/admin, simply find the account or a post by the user, go into profile, administrate user then delete account, block IP and remove all posts, done in two or three clicks. Piece of cake.

    Its also easy to email groups, as an admin go to System > Mass email and just pick a group. If emailing three groups it will take 3 individual attempts but otherwise its stress free.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Out of interest what forums do you own?
  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    Personally I'd rather not gave names away but mine is a 18 month old forum approcaching 50000 posts from around 400 members. Around 90 posts per day.

    Before I relaunched it on a new server it was established on a free forum site (forumup) and was seriously limited in what could be done.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I get loads of Russian spammer joining and creating a profile with a link to their porn website in their personal information field..

    I'd like a simple way to email or select all the people that have a URL in their personal info field and who have never logged in once or posted to say come back, log in and post something or I'll delete you.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    I get loads of Russian spammer joining and creating a profile with a link to their porn website in their personal information field..

    I'd like a simple way to email or select all the people that have a URL in their personal info field and who have never logged in once or posted to say come back, log in and post something or I'll delete you.

    Have you any captcha for signup?

    Because I know exactly why this happens.

    There is software out there that automatically crawls for certain forums, signs up and posts a barrage of whatever the user wants it to.

    If it's generic web based automated spam you could probably single out the Ip's.

    Also something called "Bad Behaviour" is a very good option for keeping bad bots off your site.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    yes I have the thing that makes you enter a graphic in to sign up - trouble is if you make it too complex it stops real people signing up.

    However I've just followed the advice in this page and added 3 different additional fields with 3 different questions to answer when registering

    http://www.everything31.com/2009/05/using-profile-fields-in-phpbb3-to-stop.html

    Hopefull tthat should be enough to stop the spambots.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    yes I have the thing that makes you enter a graphic in to sign up - trouble is if you make it too complex it stops real people signing up.

    However I've just followed the advice in this page and added 3 different additional fields with 3 different questions to answer when registering

    http://www.everything31.com/2009/05/using-profile-fields-in-phpbb3-to-stop.html

    Hopefull tthat should be enough to stop the spambots.

    I was hoping adding some more questions above would stop the spam bots but they still keep on coming - I have noticed in 90% of cases they're using GMAIL as their email address
  • JsTJsT Posts: 18,268 Skive's The Limit
    Have you activated the 'wave' capatcha in 3.0.5?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    DG wrote: »
    I was hoping adding some more questions above would stop the spam bots but they still keep on coming - I have noticed in 90% of cases they're using GMAIL as their email address

    It's most likely semi-automated posting software.

    It's going to be difficult to stop those.

    I haven't had any on my forum mind you but I would search for auto forum post creator or something like that, you'll find it there somewhere, it's pretty darn good as it's only semi-auto.

    You'll see which forums it works on and if there is one it wont work on.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Worth remembering that not all spammers are spambots - you'll find a surprising number are people being paid to sign up for boards - then the accounts can end up being used months later.

    Really interested in looking for a hack that would close accounts that haven't been authorised within a couple of days - just haven't the time at the moment.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    JsT wrote: »
    Have you activated the 'wave' capatcha in 3.0.5?


    I activated as many things that came as standard as I could without making the sign up process so unreadable that humans would have problems signing up ..


    ... Anyway I found a MOD for the forum software which actually changes the entire background and since applying that not a single new registration - so - so far - so good.
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