Best Forum package?

steve_

Hey guys, does anyone have any suggestions for a good forum package? I would like to set put a particular forum for a video game but i havent ever used something like this before.

Is it generally hard to monitor and manage?

Do i need any coding background in order to operate a forum?

It doesnt have to be free id pay money for a decent set up. Nothing crazy but something reasonable.

Cheers

Prenderb

It's quite easy to operate a forum, I used phpBB before myself. Was using a hosting package, so the install and everything was through that control panel. It's fairly straightforward and self-explanatory, and there's plenty of help about the place.

Where you might find it busy is in moderation, so think about the rules you want for the site before you open it.

mneylon

I like Vbulletin, but if it's your first forum, then maybe you should try phpbb or one of the other open source forum scripts.

Moderation can be quite time consuming, as there are a lot of spammers targetting forums these days

cormee

Blacknight wrote: »

I like Vbulletin, but if it's your first forum, then maybe you should try phpbb or one of the other open source forum scripts.

Moderation can be quite time consuming, as there are a lot of spammers targetting forums these days

Apparently bots have learned to crack CAPTCHA images recently, there's a great plugin I installed about two weeks ago called vBStopForumSpam. It's prevented just under 7,000 bot registrations since then, it's all done in the background against a central database of known spammers. There's no extra challenge/response needed from registrants.

OP, I'd agree with the recommendations to use phpBB at first and if your forum looks like it's going to take off get vBulletin then.

mneylon

cormee wrote: »

Apparently bots have learned to crack CAPTCHA images recently, there's a great plugin I installed about two weeks ago called vBStopForumSpam. It's prevented just under 7,000 bot registrations since then, it's all done in the background against a central database of known spammers. There's no extra challenge/response needed from registrants.

It's a great plugin, but be careful - it can easily block legitimate users as well
I've been using it on IWF for the last few months and have had to change the settings several times to avoid it blocking legitimate users

steve_

Blacknight wrote: »

It's a great plugin, but be careful - it can easily block legitimate users as well
I've been using it on IWF for the last few months and have had to change the settings several times to avoid it blocking legitimate users

Just curious if i was to use this plug in, like i said iv no coding background so would it be hard for me to adjusts the settings to allow legitimate users to register. Also how do you detect how many bots try to register accounts?

mneylon

steve_ wrote: »

Just curious if i was to use this plug in, like i said iv no coding background so would it be hard for me to adjusts the settings to allow legitimate users to register. Also how do you detect how many bots try to register accounts?

There's a control panel where you can change the options
It logs everything so you can see easily what it's been doing

PaulPinnacle

Blacknight wrote: »

I like Vbulletin...

I've heard a few good things about xenforo recently, on the surface it looks a (potentially) great product, but not tried it out first hand to give meaningful feedback.

A very relevant point from the wiki article...

One of the developers of XenForo, Kier Darby originally served as a lead developer for the community platform vBulletin. The original owner of the software, Jelsoft, was acquired by the American new media company Internet Brands in 2007. Disagreements between the lead developers and the new management over matters involving 4.0 (including a rejection of their desire to make 4.0 a complete rewrite of the platform as opposed to Internet Brands preferring the use of agile development) led most of the original vBulletin developers to step down from employment at Internet Brands in 2009.[1][2]

mneylon

PaulPinnacle wrote: »

I've heard a few good things about xenforo recently, on the surface it looks a (potentially) great product, but not tried it out first hand to give meaningful feedback.

A very relevant point from the wiki article...

I was looking at it a few weeks back.
While I'd love to give it a go I don't really feel like forking out for the license only to discover I hate it

PaulPinnacle

Blacknight wrote: »

I was looking at it a few weeks back.
While I'd love to give it a go I don't really feel like forking out for the license only to discover I hate it

Haha, very valid point.

Given the involvement of some of the former vB team, I'd imagine the UI would be (or will be as they progress through the beta's) relatively good. I only glanced at it in terms of the front end, which was good but nothing amazing. The out of the box SEO looks promising, but it would be lacking in add ons relative to vB, so another potential issue for some webmasters.

Also relatively early days for it, so I'd imagine quite a number of teething problems for them still to work through.

steve_

If i was using phpbb and got a blacknight hosting package would this work fine together? Looking at setting this up pretty soon.

mneylon

steve_ wrote: »

If i was using phpbb and got a blacknight hosting package would this work fine together? Looking at setting this up pretty soon.

Should be fine.

steve_

ok thanks. What package would you recommend? I was going to get the minimus package to begin with. Im sure i could upgrade if the forum took off?

mneylon

steve_ wrote: »

ok thanks. What package would you recommend? I was going to get the minimus package to begin with. Im sure i could upgrade if the forum took off?

If you have any specific queries about our services please contact us directly or post on our board here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=375

steve_

wow that was easy. I bought the package and then just clicked install phpbb in the user cp. Forum is up already.

Edit: scratch that. although it was easy to install i cant seem to figure out how to update it to the latest version. I think ill try a manual install at least ill know where everything is stored

steve_

now that i have phpbb installed i get a message stating:

Your config file (config.php) is currently world-writable. We strongly encourage you to change the permissions to 640 or at least to 644 (for example: chmod 640 config.php).

I cant change these setting. I used filezilla to try change permissions and it didnt work. I also logged into blacknight user cp and i can only view the config.php permissions but not change them

adrianshanahan

steve_ wrote: »

now that i have phpbb installed i get a message stating:

Your config file (config.php) is currently world-writable. We strongly encourage you to change the permissions to 640 or at least to 644 (for example: chmod 640 config.php).

I cant change these setting. I used filezilla to try change permissions and it didnt work. I also logged into blacknight user cp and i can only view the config.php permissions but not change them

Firstly I would say just raise a support ticket with Blacknight or catch them on the live support chat.

That sounds strange, are you using Windows or Linux hosting? Im going to guess its windows.

Are you sure your trying to change the permissions correctly> go into yout cp / file manager. You should see this and change awaw.


f you have no joy just drop support a line.


Adrian

steve_

Turns out i was using windows. I had my account reset to linux. I changed the permission fine now. Still left with one problem though. Seeing as linux hides the directories that the apps are installed to i cant upload the update package for phpbb to update to the latest version. I cant do it in the user cp nor a FTP client.

Edit: nevermind i just had to upload a zip and unpack it. Doh!!

trickobrien

Yeah dont install a forum with fantastico,just get the files uploaded to your server.If you cant do it yourself just pay someone a few quid to get it done.