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Which user forum fills my specific needs?
July 16, 2009 7:02 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

What forum software should I use to accompany my new site? I have some specific features in mind.

This forum will live on a subdomain. The primary domain will be a sort of magazine (customized wordpress installation). Comments on the main site will be enabled, but I also want a general forum to open up to users to start their own threads, and to discuss topics that don't come under the heading of any specific post on the main site.

Some important features:

a) Customizable CSS so that it will match the look and feel, more or less, of the main site.

b) Free or cheap.

c) Hosted by me (via Mediatemple).

d) Posts have unique URLs, so that, like on Metafilter, if you want to send someone to a recent conversation, you can just paste them a link.

e) Certain threads can be made private, i.e. only certain designated members can read or participate in them.

nice but not vital:

f) sign-in through pre-existing identity with some kind of semi-universal login, e.g. facebook, wordpress, etc.

g) voting

h) Ability for users to subscribe to email notifications of new threads, replies, etc.

i) User profiles that allow them to learn more about each other, have links back to their own blogs, etc.

I don't mind having to install and configure it myself.

Thanks for your thoughts...
posted by bingo to computers & internet (10 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
I rather like Phorum. I'm just a user, not an administrator, so weight accordingly. I know from experience that it has everything you're looking for implemented to a reasonable degree.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 7:16 PM on July 16


You can do all this with Wordpress and a few plugins fairly easily... If you're already comfortable with Wordpress, stick with that.
posted by glider at 7:23 PM on July 16


glider: Um, I'm very familiar with Wordpress, and I can't think of any WP site that comes anywhere close. Plus, the way Wordpress lays out threads and comments is totally contrary to the way forums work... I'm sure it could be done with a completely customized WP installation, but that's not in the cards for now.
posted by bingo at 7:25 PM on July 16


simplemachines, phpbb, pick a winner.

I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure that there are "bridges" for most of the common forum softwares so they'll connect to your wordpress install (if you've got logging-in visitors), check the wp plugins directory for that.

Phpbb isn't insanely configurable, but it's got a lot of nice options and a jillion plugins. I highly recommend adding a non-CAPTCHA verification method. Like "what's four plus 4?"

I've used both, currently launching a big fishing website via phpbb.
posted by TomMelee at 7:43 PM on July 16


I've not used this software, but when looking for forum applications a while back I came across bbPress, which is written by the people who created Wordpress. Again, no real experience with it, but if you're familiar with Wordpress already it might be work checking out.
posted by ralan at 7:59 PM on July 16


You can do all of these things and more with Drupal. It won't be as easy as with phpbb, but it does offer almost limitless customisation and configuration—and you could run the magazine-style main site and the forum more or less together.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 9:43 PM on July 16


I'm a fan of ProBoards. It's free and it feels like vBulletin.
posted by litterateur at 10:25 PM on July 16


I've not tried it yet but I've read that (standards-compliant) Vanilla ties in well with Wordpress.
posted by ceri richard at 1:01 AM on July 17


I would go with Simple Machine. After administrating forums on both, phpbb and simple Machine, I find the later to be much more user friendly.

Keep in mind that you may not get all the desired functionality right out of the box and that's where plugins come in.

Looking over your requested feature list, " f) sign-in through pre-existing identity with some kind of semi-universal login, e.g. facebook, wordpress, etc. " is the only one I am not certain of. The rest of the them should be possible with a few plugins.
posted by Danniman at 1:32 AM on July 17


Simple:Press Forum is a plug-in for Wordpress that you can install in seconds. It is well supported and integrates completely and seamlessly with Wordpress. It will adopt your Wordpress template's header, sidebar and footer; and share the same login.

When I create a post I can choose to have the usual comments or create a topic in the forum for it.
posted by 14580 at 6:13 AM on July 17 [1 favorite]


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