Self Hosted Message Boards

There is quite a few different forum software out there, so here I am going to explain the different ones that I have used and tested out.  If you want to to learn how to install it, check out my hub on Steps to Installing a Message Board or a Content Management System

Invision Power board is the one that I like the best of them all, but the downside of it all is that you have to buy the license and it is not cheap.  In my mind it is well worth it as it is a good quality product.

Version history:

• 1.3 - was the last free version for ipb. As everyone here should know by now, I am obsessed with star trek simming, but my first taste of ipb was when I first started simming. The site I joined was using 1.3. So obviously this was my first taste of IPB and ever since then I love IPB regardless of it being free or not.
• 2.0 and 2.1 - was the first paid version of the software.
• 2.2 - was the next series to come along. It had some improvements over the previous version. It had some enhancements that made it better. One being that I felt that their skinning system was better than 2.1. I only created on skin in 2.1. Between 2.2 and 2.3, I made about 10 skins.
• 2.3 - is the current version they have out there. It fixes many problems that were plaguing the previous version and was the first version that the skins didn't have to be redone. People were having problems with spam bots posting on their boards. It didn't matter which message board you were using, but spammers were posting and registering like crazy. With this version, it fixed those problems and kept them spammers out with the addition of the capcha.
• 3.0 - Is the one they are currently working on.  Right now they are in beta stages, but are very close to going to release candidate.
  

Simple Machine has been around for a while. One thing that is good that IPB and PHPBB don't have is that the mods install its self. In smf, they call it packages. You do not even have to unzip the files. Just leave them as is just like you would do with the themes.

I noticed one thing that smf has that IPB don't is that there is the ability to have tables in posts. PHPBB don't have the table capabilities either. Like phpbb, the rank sets have to be in certain directory. In fact before there was a rank modification. Every theme you had to download the ranks to the theme rank directory.

I found phpbb rank system a tad easier for ranks, but smf rank system is the way I like it where it actually has groups and it has where you can have a member title.

Phpbb is probably one of the oldest message boards out there and its also very popular. Personally I do not really like it. With the latest version, it has gotten better, but still needs improvement.

Here is the Version History:

• Phpbb 1.0 - December 9, 2000

• Phpbb 2.0 - February 2001

• Phpbb 3.0 - May 2007

Its really up to you as you are the one whom has to use it anyways. Not everyone likes the same things. I like IPB the best, but some people do like the free boards better. These are not even all the boards out there, but there is plenty of different boards out there. The best way I have learned what is good is by testing them out if I could.