[kamimado]

Hi. I run a community for several groups of people learning foreign languages and I NEED SOME ADVICE on which bb platform to use. The bb/forums are the most active part of our website, so this is a very important decision. I would greatly appreciate any advice or comments you can offer.

1) I’m attracted to the fact that bbPress seems “lightweight” and that features are added as plug-ins. But is it EASY to add plug-ins? Can they be added automatically, through a wizard, or does it require knowledge of PHP and manual cutting & pasting of code?

2) Is it popular enough that there is plenty of support available online?

3) Is it secure? I used to run our forums on phpBB2 and they were eventually overrun with spam. No matter what anti-spam mods I installed, it never seemed to fix the problem.

4) When I ran the forums on phpBB2 it was terribly difficult to install Mods, keep track of changes, and perform maintenance on the site unless I kept very careful records of what parts of code I was changing. Does bbPress make this easier and more user-friendly? Have any of you had issues with it, or been disappointed by it being overly complicated?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your time. I look forward to your replies.

Regards,

R.S.

(considering bbPress, SMF, and phpBB3)

[Willabee]

1. Some plugins need some editing, but its usually minimal and with details on how to. Most plugins however do not need editing or knowledge of php.

2. Right now Automattic is working on a bbPress plugin for WordPress their main blogging platform. I’m guessing most support will go too that. But some support remains on the official bbpress.

3. All populair forum software has spam problems.

4. Core changes arent neccesairy, just hook it in. Although this will require some php knowledge.

[Willabee]

1. Some plugins need some editing, but its usually minimal and with details on how to. Most plugins however do not need editing or knowledge of php.

2. Right now Automattic is working on a bbPress plugin for WordPress their main blogging platform. I’m guessing most support will go too that. But some support remains on the official bbpress.

3. All populair forum software has spam problems.

4. Core changes arent neccesairy, just hook it in. Although this will require some php knowledge.

[Space]

If you use WordPress, then bbPress is going to be a really good long-term option as it will soon mean the best integration with your website.

My main experience is with both phpBB and SMF and they feel like archaic pieces of software that are a pain to integrate and design for. Both also have big spam problems unless you customise the registration form. I think bbPress is protected by Akismet which is a different league to what the others have.

Another option similar to bbPress is Vanilla http://vanillaforums.org

My current preference is bbPress, but only if you don’t need to install too many plugins as it increases the chance of things going wrong when updating.

[Space]

If you use WordPress, then bbPress is going to be a really good long-term option as it will soon mean the best integration with your website.

My main experience is with both phpBB and SMF and they feel like archaic pieces of software that are a pain to integrate and design for. Both also have big spam problems unless you customise the registration form. I think bbPress is protected by Akismet which is a different league to what the others have.

Another option similar to bbPress is Vanilla http://vanillaforums.org

My current preference is bbPress, but only if you don’t need to install too many plugins as it increases the chance of things going wrong when updating.

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

bbPress #ftw

all your mentioned needs can be satisfied easily by bbPress

[Ashish Kumar (Ashfame)]

bbPress #ftw

all your mentioned needs can be satisfied easily by bbPress