PHP forum software: phpBB, BBpress or Vanilla?
I was searching for bulletinboard/forum software for a a Second life forum that was:
- easy to set up
- easy to maintain, in the sense that I didn’t want to develop basic functionality myself
- had a sufficiently large community
BBpress
- themes system not yet in place..
- integration with Wordpress would be interesting for the longer term, but not just now
Vanilla
- webstandards based
- smallish community
- contributions:
- Themes: templates that involve php code
- styles: pure layout, ie css and image
- Add-ons: adds new functionality
phpBB
- huge community
- lots of extensions, but mod system
- no webstandards-based
- no good seo, no friendly urls
Drupal
- huge community
- more a development platform than an application
Are there any other options? Full list on Wikipedia.
Outcome:
I went for Vanilla:
- it just did what was needed
- I found this nice Vanilla green style by Maurice Krijtenberg
- note: use the default theme, most styles are based upon it - so in the end you have greater choice
- Have a look at the Vanilla extensions I used
[tags]vanilla, bbpress, drupal, phpbb, extensions, forum, bulletin board, comparison[/tags]