Forum Software Choices
by ws_jessica
So, you decided to create a forum for your new site. Now comes the hard part: which forum software to use and where to find it!
Hopefully you followed Words of Wisdom 2, which had information on how to decide what kind of forum you are going to need. Below we have listed the popular forum choices and other information you will need about each one.
Note: Your hosting provider may have given you the ability to install forums in your cpanel (my host has it under "Fantastico" in the cpanel) so make sure to check that out before actually trying to install any forum software; installing forum software can be difficult for beginners.
vBulletin is what Modthesims2, Sims2Community, and Insimenator all use. It is professional forum software with lots of features and can be customized. You can read more about the features here.
Cost: $85 for one year or $160 for unlimited use (the license you purchase is good for ONE site only) plus you have to pay $30 a year to receive updates to keep your forum software up-to-date
SMF is my personal favorite. MoreAwesomeThanYou, EyeCandy, DourSim, BetterSimsBureau, and Wicked Sims all use SMF for their forums.
SMF has easy-to-install converters for people who may have been using other software and want to switch to SMF. They frequently update their software, they have a great support forum, and now have a webinstall feature that makes it so that beginners/newbies can easily install SMF.
SMF features: attachments, subcategories, easy-to-install modifications (no need to know how to code)
Cost: FREE
phpBB seems to be the most common choice for sims site owners. It lacks alot of things that SMF and vBulletin include, such as attachments and subcategories, but if you know how (or can learn easily) you can modify phpBB to do what you want it to do.
Cost: FREE
Hasn't been updated for over a year but seems to have everything phpBB has. It also seems to have the ability to add attachments. You will need to read more about it on its official page since I have no experience with this one.
Proboards , Invisionfree , GoBoardz
Will not allow you to download/install onto your own server, you must use theirs. So your forum would be located at something like myforum.proboards.com or myforum.goboardz.com. They also may not allow you to export your forum database if you decide later on to move (meaning you will lose everything).
Well now that you have picked which forum software you want to use, you need to go install it and get your forum set up. This may feel scary or overwhelming if you've never done anything like that before. Don't worry! If you have any questions or need help, we have a support forum for you. Just click "mysimsite forum" in the menu.