Jump to content

Comparison of Internet forum software: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Suggest Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest
Tag: Replaced
m Reverting possible vandalism by 103.41.212.149 to version by Glebm1. Report False Positive? Thanks, ClueBot NG. (3550279) (Bot)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Refimprove|date=June 2011}}
The Number 1 Reason Why You Shouldn't Buy Mass Email Lists For Marketing Purposes!
<!-- IMPORTANT NOTE – READ BEFORE ADDING AN ENTRY


This is a list of NOTABLE internet forum software, as judged by Wikipedia's notability policies, obtained by searching Wikipedia for WP:N. Please don't add external links or wikilinks to nonexistent articles – instead, read our notability policies and write the article first, ensuring to demonstrate notability. Entries without articles, redlinks, external links, and links to articles that aren't about the forum software in question will be pruned periodically. Fill in the background info too, please, to make this article useful.
Suggest Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest '''''[http://www.latestdatabase.com/botswana/ Botswana Email Lists]'''''


-->
Do you purchase email records for your battles?
This article outlines the general features commonly found in various '''[[Internet forum]] software''' packages. It highlights major features that the manager of a forum might want and should expect to be commonly available in different forum software. These comparisons do not include remotely hosted services which use their own [[proprietary software]], rather than offering a package for [[download]] which [[webmaster]]s can host by themselves.


==General information==
Here's the reason you shouldn't purchase email leads on the web!
Basic general information about the forums: creator/company, license/price etc.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%;"
|- style="background: #ececec"
! style="width:12em" |
!Creator
!Latest release date
!Current stable version
![[Programming language]]
!License
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[bbPress]]<ref>{{cite web|title = bbPress.org|url = http://bbpress.org/|website = bbpress.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| WordPress Foundation
| 2017-09-12
| 2.5.14
| [[PHP]]<ref name=":2">{{cite web|title = Requirements · bbPress.org|url = https://bbpress.org/about/requirements/|website = bbpress.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]<ref>{{cite web|title = License · bbPress.org|url = https://bbpress.org/about/license/|website = bbpress.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Beehive Forum]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Project Beehive Forum|url = http://beehiveforum.net/|website = beehiveforum.net|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Project Beehive Forum Developers
| 2016-11-05
| 1.5.2
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discourse (software)|Discourse]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Discourse|url = http://www.discourse.org/|website = www.discourse.org|accessdate = 2016-07-26}}</ref>
| Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc.
| 2018-09-14
| 2.1.1
| [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]], [[JavaScript]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discuz!]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Discuz! X - 产品 - 北京康盛新创科技有限责任公司|url = http://www.comsenz.com/products/discuz|website = www.comsenz.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Comsenz Inc.
| 2018-01-01
| X3.4
| [[PHP]]
| Discuz! EULA ([[proprietary software|proprietary]], [[Gratis versus libre|gratis]] for non-commercial use)
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[FluxBB]]<ref>{{cite web|title = FluxBB 1.5.9 released|url = http://fluxbb.org/|website = FluxBB.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| FluxBB.org Developers
| 2016-06-16
| 1.5.10
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[FUDforum]]<ref>{{cite web|title = FUDforum: Welcome to the forum|url = http://fudforum.org/|website = fudforum.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Advanced Internet Designs Inc.
| 2018-04-09
| 3.0.9
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Ikonboard]]<ref>{{cite web|title = ikonboard|url = http://sourceforge.net/projects/ikonboard/|website = SourceForge|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Matt Mecham (original creator) Joshua Johnson
| 2012-10-19
| 3.1.5A
| [[Perl]]
| [[proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Invision Power Board]]<ref>{{cite web|title = IPS Community Suite 4 - Forums, CMS, eCommerce & more - IPS Community Suite|url = http://www.invisionpower.com/|website = IPS Community Suite|accessdate = 2015-11-24|language = en-US}}</ref>
| [[Invision Power Services|Invision Power Services Inc.]]
| 2018-08-08
| 4.3.5
| [[PHP]]
| [[proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[MyBB]]<ref>{{cite web|title = MyBB - Free and Open Source Forum Software|url = https://www.mybb.com/|website = www.mybb.com|accessdate = 2017-01-23}}</ref>
| MyBB Group
| 2018-08-22
| 1.8.18
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL]], moving to [[BSD License|BSD]] in 2.0<ref>{{cite web|title=Change of license for MyBB 2.0|url=https://blog.mybb.com/2015/05/09/change-of-license-for-mybb-2-0/|accessdate = 2016-03-30}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Phorum]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Phorum {{!}} Open Source PHP Forum Software|url = http://www.phorum.org/|website = www.phorum.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Brian Moon
| 2017-08-23
| 5.2.23
| [[PHP]]
| Phorum License 2 ([[BSD licenses|BSD]] like)
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[phpBB]]<ref>{{cite web|title = phpBB • Free and Open Source Forum Software|url = https://www.phpbb.com/|website = www.phpbb.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| [[phpBB|phpBB Ltd.]]
| 2018-09-13
| 3.2.3
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[PunBB]]<ref>{{cite web|title = PunBB|url = http://punbb.informer.com/|website = punbb.informer.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| PunBB
| 2015-10-14
| 1.4.4
| [[PHP]]
| [[GNU General Public License|GPL]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Simple Machines Forum]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Simple Machines Forum - Free & open source community software|url = http://www.simplemachines.org|website = www.simplemachines.org|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| Simple Machines
| 2017-11-19<ref name="simplemachines.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.simplemachines.org |title=Simple Machines Forum - Free & open source community software |publisher=Simplemachines.org |date= |accessdate=2017-04-22}}</ref>
| 2.0.15<ref name="simplemachines.org"/>
| [[PHP]]
| [[BSD License]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Syndie]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Syndie|url = https://www.syndie.de/|website = www.syndie.de|accessdate = 2015-11-24|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160112042347/http://syndie.de/|archive-date = 2016-01-12|dead-url = yes|df = }}</ref>
| Anonymous (related to [[I2P]])
| 2014-08-14
| 1.107b
| [[Java (programming language)|Java]]
| Open source, multiple licenses
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[UBB.threads]]<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.ubbcentral.com/|title = PHP forum software since 1997 - UBB.Threads|date = |accessdate = |website = ubbcentral.com|publisher = |last = |first = }}</ref>
| UBB Systems, LLC
| 2018-09-18
| 7.6.2
| [[PHP]]
| [[proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Vanilla Forums]]<ref>{{cite web|title = Community Forum Software|url = https://open.vanillaforums.com/|website = Vanilla Forums|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| [[Vanilla Forums]]
| 2018-05-14
| 2.6.0
| [[PHP]]
| [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]/[[GNU General Public License|GPL]]<ref>{{cite web|author=Vanilla Forums |url=https://open.vanillaforums.com |title=Open Source Forum Software |publisher=Vanilla Forums |date= |accessdate=2017-04-22}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[vBulletin]]<ref>{{cite web|title = vBulletin Announcements - vBulletin Community Forum|url = http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/vbulletin-announcements/vbulletin-announcements_aa|website = www.vbulletin.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| vBulletin Solutions Inc.
| 2018-06-4
| 5.4.3
| [[PHP]]<ref>{{cite web|title = vBulletin Manual|url = http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html|website = www.vbulletin.com|accessdate = 2017-12-29}}</ref>
| [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]<ref>{{cite web|title = vBulletin FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions|url = http://www.vbulletin.com/en/faq/|website = www.vbulletin.com|accessdate = 2017-12-29}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Thredded]]<ref name="thredded">{{cite web|title = Thredded|url = https://thredded.org/|website = thredded.org|accessdate = 2018-10-21}}</ref>
| Joel Oliveira, Gleb Mazovetskiy, et al.
| 2018-10-21
| 0.16.1
| [[Ruby (programming language)|Ruby]]
| [[MIT License|MIT]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[XenForo]]
| XenForo Limited, Kier Darby, Mike Sullivan.
| 2018-09-11
| 2.0.10
| [[PHP]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/install-upgrade/|title=XenForo Installation and upgrades, XenForo 2 Manual|publisher=xenforo.com|date= |accessdate=2018-02-17}}</ref>
| [[proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|- style="background: #ececec" class="sortbottom"
!
!Creator
!Latest release date
!Current stable version
![[Programming language]]
!License
|}


==Features==
I was as of late associating in my most loved discussion on the web and unearthed a post of somebody who professed to approach a rundown of well more than 1 million from individuals who were fundamentally keen eager for advancement cash/web showcasing specialty.


{| class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="1" style="font-size:85%; border:gray solid 1px; text-align:center; table-layout:fixed;"
They expressed that somebody they knew possessed the rundown and that they would complete a mailing for them.
|- style="background: #ececec"
!style="width:12em"|
![[Comparison of Internet forum software#Flat vs. threaded|Flat]]
![[Comparison of Internet forum software#Flat vs. threaded|Threaded]]
![[Comparison of Internet forum software#User-selectable themes|User selectable themes]]
![[Comparison of Internet forum software#Unread message tracking|Unread message tracking]]
![[WYSIWYG|WYSIWYG Editor]]
![[#Export, portability|Export, portability]]
![[Email]] / [[NNTP]] interface
![[#Languages|Languages]]
![[Single sign-on|SSO]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[bbPress]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix>{{cite web|url=http://www.forummatrix.org/compare/phpBB+SMF+vBulletin+bbPress+Beehive-Forum+FluxBB+FUDforum+Invision-Power-Board+MyBB+Phorum+punBB+UBB.threads+Vanilla+XenForo|title=ForumMatrix on phpBB, SMF, vBulletin, bbPress, Beehive Forum, FluxBB, FUDforum, Invision Power Board, MyBB, Phorum, punBB, UBB.threads, Vanilla, XenForo|date=2007–2016|accessdate=2016-10-15|publisher=CosmoCode}}</ref>
|
|
|
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/pippinsplugins/bbPress-Export-and-Import|title=pippinsplugins/bbPress-Export-and-Import|website=GitHub}}</ref>
| {{partial|Plugin}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/rmccue/Falcon|title=rmccue/Falcon|website=GitHub|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/post-by-email-social-media-integration/#post-141352|title=Topic: Post by Email & Social Media Integration · bbPress.org|website=bbpress.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://codex.bbpress.org/getting-started/bbpress-in-your-language/|title=bbPress in Your Language · bbPress Codex|website=codex.bbpress.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Beehive Forum]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/> (using [[TinyMCE]])
| {{partial}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/BeehiveForum/BeehiveForum/blob/master/forum/pm_export.php|title=BeehiveForum/BeehiveForum|website=GitHub|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discourse (software)|Discourse]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-threaded-replies-echoed-in-the-main-topic-stream/31329 |title=Archived copy |access-date=2018-01-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116081329/https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-threaded-replies-echoed-in-the-main-topic-stream/31329 |archive-date=2018-01-16 |dead-url=yes |df= }}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.discourse.org/t/allow-users-to-select-dark-light-theme/60857?source_topic_id=12624|title=Allow users to select dark / light theme|website=Discourse Meta|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes|Full}}
| {{partial|Real-time side-by-side preview}}
| {{yes|Full}}<ref>{{cite web|title=Move your Discourse to a different server|url=https://meta.discourse.org/t/move-your-discourse-instance-to-a-different-server/15721|accessdate=6 March 2017}}</ref>
| {{partial}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Discourse&oldid=15337466#What_we.27d_lose_.28user_experience.29|title=Discourse - Meta|website=meta.wikimedia.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.discourse.org/2014/05/translating-discourse-with-transifex/|title=Translating Discourse with Transifex|website=Discourse Blog|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.transifex.com/discourse/discourse-org/|title=Discourse Translations|date=2016-04-15}}</ref>
| {{yes|[[OAuth2]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://learndiscourse.org/configuring-google-oauth2-login-for-discourse/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161019003423/http://learndiscourse.org/configuring-google-oauth2-login-for-discourse/ |archive-date=2016-10-19 |dead-url=yes |df= }}</ref>, Custom<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.discourse.org/t/official-single-sign-on-for-discourse-sso/13045|title=Official Single-Sign-On for Discourse (sso)|website=Discourse Meta|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discuz!]]
|
|
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://discuz.ml/|title=Discuz.ML|website=discuz.ml}}</ref>
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="background: #ececec;" | [[FluxBB]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial|Session}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/><!-- source says "patch" -->
|
|
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://fluxbb.org/resources/translations/|title=Language packs - FluxBB|website=fluxbb.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[FUDforum]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/><!-- 2014 source says plugin -->
| {{partial}}<ref>For admins: http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=120851</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>Native NNTP gateway: http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=120406&goto=167140&#msg_167140</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forummatrix.org/show/fudforum#item_47|title=ForumMatrix / FUDforum Features - Compare Them All|website=www.forummatrix.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Invision Power Board]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
| {{no}}<ref>Only 3 languages updated in one year. https://invisionpower.com/files/category/107-language-packs/?sortby=file_name&filter=file_free&sortby=file_updated&sortdirection=desc&page=1 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424022210/https://invisionpower.com/files/category/107-language-packs/?sortby=file_name&filter=file_free&sortby=file_updated&sortdirection=desc&page=1 |date=2016-04-24 }}</ref>
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://invisionpower.com/news/8747-40-login-handlers/|title=4.0 - Login Handlers|website=Invision Community|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[MyBB]]<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title = Features - MyBB|url = http://www.mybb.com/features/|website = www.mybb.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/><!-- 2011 source says "plugin" -->
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mods.mybb.com/view/export-thread-v1.0.0|title=MyBB - Mods - Export Thread v1.0.0|first=MyBB|last=Group|website=mods.mybb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mods.mybb.com/view/post-via-email|title=MyBB - Mods - Post Via Email|first=MyBB|last=Group|website=mods.mybb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://community.mybb.com/thread-135066-post-977336.html#pid977336|title=Allow users to post via email or web service|website=community.mybb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=browse&category=19&by=lastup|title=Extend MyBB - Translations - MyBB 1.8 Language Packs|first=MyBB|last=Group|website=community.mybb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Phorum]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/><!-- 2008 source says "plugin" -->
| {{partial|Plugin}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phorum.org/phorum5/read.php?16,14081|title=Phorummail for Phorum 5|website=www.phorum.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phorum.org/phorum5/list.php?65|title=Phorum Support Forums :: 5.2 Language Files|website=www.phorum.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[phpBB]]<ref name=phpbbfeatures>{{cite web|title=Features|url=https://www.phpbb.com/about/features/|website=phpbb.com|accessdate=24 November 2015|ref=phpbbfeatures}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nejc.skoberne.net/2011/02/phpbb-export-all-posts-for-a-user-into-a-file/|title=phpBB: Export all posts for a user into a file - Nejko's randomness|date=29 March 2016|publisher=|accessdate=27 February 2018|deadurl=bot: unknown|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329044858/http://nejc.skoberne.net/2011/02/phpbb-export-all-posts-for-a-user-into-a-file/|archivedate=29 March 2016|df=}}</ref>
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.phpbb2refugees.com/viewtopic.php?p=7505#7505|title=I'm struggling with phpBB2 and mail2forum|website=www.phpbb2refugees.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=434&t=603719|title=phpBB • [ABD] Mail2forum for phpBB 3|website=www.phpbb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phpbb.com/languages/|title=phpBB • Language Packs|website=www.phpbb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
| {{yes}} (LDAP, OAuth)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phpbb.com/support/docs/en/3.1/ug/adminguide/general_client|title=phpBB • 3.1 User Guide|website=www.phpbb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[PunBB]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = comparison_to_other_discussion_boards - PunBB Wiki|url = http://punbb.informer.com/wiki/comparison_to_other_discussion_boards|website = punbb.informer.com|accessdate = 2015-11-24}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial|Session}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
|
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://punbb.informer.com/forums/forum/83/language-packs/|title=Language packs (Page 1) — PunBB Forums|website=punbb.informer.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/punbb/langs|title=punbb/langs|website=GitHub|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Simple Machines Forum]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial}} <ref>PM: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=export</ref>
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=168|title=Post from Email|website=custom.simplemachines.org}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://download.simplemachines.org/?smflanguages|title=Downloads|website=download.simplemachines.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Thredded]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{no}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{no}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{no}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{partial|Read-only}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=thredded/>
| {{yes|Custom}}<ref name=thredded/>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[UBB.threads]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{no}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forummatrix.org/show/ubb.threads|title=ForumMatrix / UBB.threads Features - Compare Them All|website=www.forummatrix.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Vanilla Forums]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial|Plugin}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial|Plugin}} <ref>Attachments: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/myattachments-plugin</ref><ref>Admin-only: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/porter-core</ref>
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.transifex.com/vanilla/vanilla/|title=Vanilla languages|date=2016-04-15}} 2 languages 100 % translated.</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.vanillaforums.com/features/sso/|title=Vanilla forums|website=docs.vanillaforums.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[vBulletin]]<ref name=vbfeatures>{{cite web|title=vBulletin Forum Features|url=http://www.vbulletin.com/en/features/|website=vbulletin.com|accessdate=24 November 2015|ref=vbfeatures}}</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{partial|Plugin}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=151222|title=Major Additions - Email Integration (New threads/replies by email) - vBulletin.org Forum|website=www.vbulletin.org|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>vB 4: https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=2489379&postcount=1069</ref>
|
| {{no}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/customizing-vbulletin/vbulletin-languages-phrases?87-vBulletin-Languages-Phrases=|title=vBulletin Languages &amp; Phrases - vBulletin Community Forum|website=vBulletin Community Forum|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>
|
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[XenForo]]
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
|
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes|Full}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref name=forummatrix/>
| {{yes}}<ref>https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/importing/</ref>
|
| {{yes}}<ref>https://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/xenforo-translations.14/ Available translations for latest version.</ref>
| {{yes}}<ref>https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/connected-accounts/ OAuth SSO provided by Connected accounts feature.</ref>
|}


===Flat vs. threaded===
Nothing strange there right?
* A '''flat''' forum is one where each message is added onto the end of the discussion, with no set relation to any prior messages (other than being on the same discussion topic &mdash; except in case of [[Off-topic|Off-Topic]] posting). But, there is normally a feature to 'quote' another user's post, to allow referencing back to other posts.
* A '''[[Threaded discussion|threaded]]''' forum is one where users can specify their message is a reply to an existing message. Threaded forums can display relationships between message topics and associated replies, such as by [[Indentation (typesetting)|indenting]] replies and placing them below the post they reference. Threaded forums are most commonly used for discussions where individual messages tend to be short, such as on [[social news]] sites (e.g. [[Slashdot]] or [[reddit]]), or in commenting systems like [[Disqus]].


===User-selectable themes===
Anyway the individual wasn't permitted to incorporate their name in the message by any means!
Most forums provide an option for the forum owner to customize the look and feel. Some forums also allow the administrator to create multiple styles or themes, and allow the user to choose which one they wish to view. Themes may simply be a different set of colors and graphics, or they may involve a different layout to the forum, such as one optimized for [[Mobile browser|small-screen device]]s.


The comparison table shows whether a forum software allows forum administrators to customise the "template" of the forum (or specific sections thereof) without altering the released code. Support is considered partial where it's only possible to add CSS rules in this way.<ref name=forummatrix/>
This sent alerts ringing straight away thus I answered on the string inquiring as to whether this was a private rundown and whether it had a place with simply his companion and regardless of whether the rundown had been worked without any preparation legitimately.


===Unread message tracking===
He didn't appear to beyond any doubt of anything!
Unread message tracking refers to the way that is used by forum software to track and display messages that have not yet been read by the current user. This can be one of the following:
* '''Session''' — when a user's session starts, this method relies on the user's "last visit time" to display all messages created since that date as unread. Everything that was posted before "last visit time" is considered "read" regardless of whether the user has actually seen it or not. Until the user's session expires, this method properly tracks read/unread messages, starting with messages that were selected as "unread" when the user's session started. This method is broadly used, due to the simplicity and speed benefits of only storing and checking against a single database value.
* '''Full''' — forum software which records in the persistent database what messages have been read or unread by each user, regardless of user session expiration. Some forum software also allows the user to 'mark as unread', so that they can come back to a message later.


=== Export, portability ===
He didn't know how the rundown had been gathered or how the general population on the rundown were bought in to the rundown!


This column judges the ability to allow users to export data from the forum installation and then import it in new installations of the same software (cf. [[right to fork]]) or feed it to data conversion tools.
In the event that this person had of felt free to sent to these individuals, he could be intensely blamed for spamming, chance record suspension with his automated assistant organization and still not profit for his endeavors!


[[Software portability]] is a key assessment criterion for the choice and procurement of software.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://fsfe.org/activities/policy/eu/digital-single-market-comments.en.html|title=FSFE's Comments on the EU Digital Single Market Strategy|work=FSFE - Free Software Foundation Europe|access-date=2018-02-27|language=en}}</ref>
Indeed purchasing mass email leads will cost cash and conveys excessively superfluous hazard.


=== [[Email]]/[[NNTP]] interface===
This isn't a moral type of email promoting and wont satisfy long haul.


Whether the software can be used with standard [[Email]] or [[NNTP]] clients. Adoption of standard protocols is key for [[interoperability]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/78891/Review-of-the-Evidence_CIPPM.pdf|title=Open Standards in Government IT: A Review of the Evidence|author=Centre for Intellectual Property & Policy Management at Bournemouth University|date=25 October 2012}}</ref>
Your endeavors would be greatly improved spent concentrating on building a rundown of real supporters and building up your very own activity routine for producing new prospects and leads.


=== Languages ===
Purchasing Email leads for your advertising effort/s can be a practical alternative, explicitly in the profit/web showcasing specialty.


Whether the [[internationalization and localization]] of the software are sufficient to both allow and actually provide grammatically correct support for the native language of the target users.<ref name="SFW">{{cite book|title=Software Without Frontiers: A multi-platform, multi-cultural, multi-nation approach|isbn=9780471969747|editors=Patrick A.V. Hall, Martyn A. Ould|others=With contributions and leadership by Ray Hudson, Costas Spyropoulos, Timo Honkela et al.|publisher=Wiley|year=1996}}</ref>
Purchasing what are known as "solo advertisements" are an incredible method to construct your rundown bit by bit.


For the purposes of this table, we consider languages used by an amount of installations/users equal to at least 1% of the top million web properties using that software,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://trends.builtwith.com/cms/forum-software|title=Forum Software technologies Web Usage Statistics|website=trends.builtwith.com|language=en|access-date=2018-02-27}}</ref> without major reported bugs in support.
Purchasing solo promotions is fundamentally where you would pay another advertiser in indistinguishable specialty from you to mail their rundown with your offer.


=== Single sign-on ===
This again conveys some hazard as you don't have a clue about the sources that the sponsor has produced his/her leads from. Anyway this is a lot more secure than purchasing mass email leads and will convey considerably more focused on prospects and a superior reaction rate.


[[Single sign-on]] is often required to enhance web accessibility of the application.<ref>{{cite book|first1=S.|last1=Za|first2=E.|last2=D’Atri|first3=A.|last3=Resca|title=Single Sign-On in Cloud Computing Scenarios: A Research Proposal|url=http://eprints.luiss.it/1141/1/CloudComputing_post_print.pdf|publisher=Physica-Verlag HD|journal=Information Technology and Innovation Trends in Organizations|date=1 January 2011|isbn=9783790826319|pages=45–52|doi=10.1007/978-3-7908-2632-6_6|accessdate=15 April 2016}}</ref> This can be accomplished with standards like [[OAuth]] and [[OpenID]].
There are sites online that are planned explicitly for solo promotions and advertisement swaps that will convey better leads and enable you to check the publicists profile and history, appraisals e.t.c


== Other features ==
This is additionally an incredible method to connect with different advertisers in your specialty and manufacture long haul jv associations. Find reality about Internet showcasing from a certified advertiser who will slice through the promotion and uncover the TRUTH [http://www.latestdatabase.com/brunei/ Brunei Email Lists]



Remain forward and get the most recent advertising tips and procedures Discover How To Build Your Own List Of Responsive Subscribers In Just Seven Days!

===Duplicate thread prevention===

Automatic recommendation systems based on content and users can help forum users find existing discussions similar to those they're browsing or on the topic they're searching,<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Jun|last1=Zhao|first2=Jiajun|last2=Bu|first3=Chun|last3=Chen|first4=Ziyu|last4=Guan|title=Learning a User-thread Alignment Manifold for Thread Recommendation in Online Forum|url=http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1871437.1871511|publisher=ACM|journal=Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management|date=2010-01-01|location=New York, NY, USA|isbn=9781450300995|pages=559–568|series=CIKM '10|doi=10.1145/1871437.1871511|first5=Can|last5=Wang|first6=Cheng|last6=Zhang}}</ref> or else reach the correct users with their posts, avoiding to "spam" the forum with duplicate or off-topic posts.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Yung-Ming|last1=Li|first2=Tzu-Fong|last2=Liao|first3=Cheng-Yang|last3=Lai|title=A social recommender mechanism for improving knowledge sharing in online forums|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306457312000234|journal=Information Processing & Management|date=2012-09-01|pages=978–994|volume=48|series=Large-Scale and Distributed Systems for Information Retrieval|issue=5|doi=10.1016/j.ipm.2011.10.004}}</ref>

Many users do not bother to search a forum and directly create new threads to seek an answer to a question. On some forums, when the user types a new thread subject, the forum software brings up similar threads automatically on the side. This helps keep the number of redundant threads (or the overall forum pollution) to a lower level as users who neglect to search for a topic and are posting a thread may find the answer to their question as they are creating the new thread.

===[[Forum spam]] defenses===
Most forums are at risk of continuous attack by forum spammers, largely promoting websites with no relevance to the forum's niche. Systems vary in how they are geared to defense, and checking the offering is an important consideration before selection. A forum cannot succeed unless there is an effective system of defense, and an efficient set of tools for spam removal.

[[CAPTCHA]]s are a common feature used among most internet forum software and are often used to prevent automated registrations.

Banning or deleting membership should come as standard, with the ability to blacklist the username, email address or [[IP address]] for variable time spans.

Reference to an anti-forum spam database can be built into the forum software, or offered as add-ons for specific databases.

===User-friendly URLs===
{{main article|Semantic URL}}
Human-friendly forum URLs do not have a [[query string]] and instead contain only the path of the topic. A user-unfriendly URL may contain cryptic parameters, numeric IDs, or file type extensions (e.g. <tt>.php</tt>) that do not matter to the user and could change if the forum is reimplemented using a different programming language. User-friendly URLs are easy to remember and to type, and may enhance [[search engine optimization]] (SEO).
* user-unfriendly URL example: <tt><nowiki>http://example.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&th=120029</nowiki></tt>
* user-friendly URL example: <tt><nowiki>http://example.com/usability-issues/user-friendly-urls</nowiki></tt>

In general this is accomplished via [[URL mapping]], however, historically in many forum software packages, human-friendly URLs are an afterthought implemented via [[URL rewriting]], and URLs often contain a numeric ID which represents the thread, while the remainder of the URL can in reality be any string: <tt><nowiki>http://example.com/forum/12345/lets-use-friendly-urls</nowiki></tt> and <tt><nowiki>http://example.com/forum/12345/bogus-path-actually</nowiki></tt> point to the same thread, <tt><nowiki>http://example.com/forum/12345/</nowiki></tt>.

The only non-controversial counter-argument to using user-friendly URLs is that they would be leaked in the [[HTTP referer]] header field when a user clicks on an external link from a post, which is undesirable for private (sub)forums, since a URL derived from the topic title could convey sensitive information.<ref>{{cite web|last=Frèrejean|first=Erik|title=SEO URLs|url=http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=218091#p218091|work=phpBB "Arsia" 3.2 Development|publisher=Area51 phpBB|accessdate=2011-06-25}}</ref> This issue can be resolved by rewriting external links to point to a redirection page that performs [[HTTP referer#Referer hiding|referer hiding]].

==Data storage==
Information about what data storage system can be used.
{| class="wikitable sortable" cellpadding="1" style="font-size: 85%; border: gray solid 1px; text-align:center; width:100%; table-layout:fixed;"
|- style="background: #ececec"
!style="width:12em"|
![[MySQL]]
![[PostgreSQL]]
![[Microsoft SQL Server|MSSQL]]
![[Oracle database|Oracle]]
![[SQLite]]
![[Firebird (database server)|Firebird]]
![[Flat file database|Flat file]]
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[bbPress]]<ref name=":2" />
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Beehive Forum]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discourse (software)|Discourse]]
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Discuz!]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
! style="background: #ececec;" | [[FluxBB]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{partial|SQLite 2<ref>{{cite web|url=https://github.com/punbb/punbb#requirements|title=punbb/punbb|website=GitHub|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[FUDforum]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Iko (software)|Iko]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Ikonboard]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Invision Power Board]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{partial|Discontinued <ref>{{cite web|url=http://community.invisionpower.com/topic/348490-mssql-still-supported/|title=MSSQL still supported?|website=Invision Community|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[kusaba]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[MyBB]]<ref name=":1" />
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Phorum]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[phpBB]]<ref name="phpbbfeatures" />
| {{yes}}
| {{yes | v8.2 or newer<ref>{{cite web|url=http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=37137|title=3.1 "Ascraeus" to drop support for PostgreSQL < 8.3 - Development Discussion Board|website=area51.phpbb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.phpbb.com/PhpBB3.1|title=PhpBB3.1 - phpBB Development Wiki|website=wiki.phpbb.com|accessdate=27 February 2018}}</ref>}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{partial | Discontinued}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[PunBB]]<ref name=":0" />
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Simple Machines Forum]]
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Syndie]]
| {{yes}} ([[HSQLDB]])
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Thredded]]<ref name=thredded/>
| {{yes}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[UBB.threads]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[Vanilla Forums]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[vBulletin]]<ref name="vbfeatures" />
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|-
!style="background: #ececec;"| [[XenForo]]
| {{yes}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
| {{no}}
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comparison Of Internet Forum Software}}
[[Category:Software comparisons|Internet forum software]]
[[Category:Internet forum software| ]]
[[Category:Social software|Forum software]]

Revision as of 07:03, 29 November 2018

This article outlines the general features commonly found in various Internet forum software packages. It highlights major features that the manager of a forum might want and should expect to be commonly available in different forum software. These comparisons do not include remotely hosted services which use their own proprietary software, rather than offering a package for download which webmasters can host by themselves.

General information

Basic general information about the forums: creator/company, license/price etc.

Creator Latest release date Current stable version Programming language License
bbPress[1] WordPress Foundation 2017-09-12 2.5.14 PHP[2] GPL[3]
Beehive Forum[4] Project Beehive Forum Developers 2016-11-05 1.5.2 PHP GPL
Discourse[5] Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc. 2018-09-14 2.1.1 Ruby, JavaScript GPL
Discuz![6] Comsenz Inc. 2018-01-01 X3.4 PHP Discuz! EULA (proprietary, gratis for non-commercial use)
FluxBB[7] FluxBB.org Developers 2016-06-16 1.5.10 PHP GPL
FUDforum[8] Advanced Internet Designs Inc. 2018-04-09 3.0.9 PHP GPL
Ikonboard[9] Matt Mecham (original creator) Joshua Johnson 2012-10-19 3.1.5A Perl Proprietary
Invision Power Board[10] Invision Power Services Inc. 2018-08-08 4.3.5 PHP Proprietary
MyBB[11] MyBB Group 2018-08-22 1.8.18 PHP LGPL, moving to BSD in 2.0[12]
Phorum[13] Brian Moon 2017-08-23 5.2.23 PHP Phorum License 2 (BSD like)
phpBB[14] phpBB Ltd. 2018-09-13 3.2.3 PHP GPL
PunBB[15] PunBB 2015-10-14 1.4.4 PHP GPL
Simple Machines Forum[16] Simple Machines 2017-11-19[17] 2.0.15[17] PHP BSD License
Syndie[18] Anonymous (related to I2P) 2014-08-14 1.107b Java Open source, multiple licenses
UBB.threads[19] UBB Systems, LLC 2018-09-18 7.6.2 PHP Proprietary
Vanilla Forums[20] Vanilla Forums 2018-05-14 2.6.0 PHP Proprietary/GPL[21]
vBulletin[22] vBulletin Solutions Inc. 2018-06-4 5.4.3 PHP[23] Proprietary[24]
Thredded[25] Joel Oliveira, Gleb Mazovetskiy, et al. 2018-10-21 0.16.1 Ruby MIT
XenForo XenForo Limited, Kier Darby, Mike Sullivan. 2018-09-11 2.0.10 PHP[26] Proprietary
Creator Latest release date Current stable version Programming language License

Features

Flat Threaded User selectable themes Unread message tracking WYSIWYG Editor Export, portability Email / NNTP interface Languages SSO
bbPress Yes[27] No[28] Plugin[29][30] Yes[31]
Beehive Forum Yes[27] Yes[27] Partial[27] Full[27] Yes[27] (using TinyMCE) Partial[32]
Discourse Yes No[33] Yes[34] Full Real-time side-by-side preview Full[35] Partial[36] Yes[37][38] OAuth2[39], Custom[40]
Discuz! Yes[41]
FluxBB Yes[27] No[27] Partial[27] Session[27] No[27] Yes[42]
FUDforum Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] Partial[43] Yes[44] Yes[45]
Invision Power Board Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] No[46] No[47]
MyBB[48] Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] No[49] No[50][51] Yes[52]
Phorum Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] Plugin[53] No[54]
phpBB[55] Yes[27] No[27] Yes[27] Full[27] No[27] No[56] No[57][58] Yes[59] Yes (LDAP, OAuth)[60]
PunBB[61] Yes[27] Yes[27] Session[27] No[62][63]
Simple Machines Forum Yes[27] No[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] Partial [64] No[65] Yes[66]
Thredded Yes[25] No[25] Yes[25] Full[25] No[25] No[25] Read-only[25] Yes[25] Custom[25]
UBB.threads Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] No[27] No[67]
Vanilla Forums Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Plugin[27] Plugin [68][69] No[70] Yes[71]
vBulletin[72] Yes[27] Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] Plugin[73][74] No[75]
XenForo Yes[27] Yes[27] Full[27] Yes[27] Yes[76] Yes[77] Yes[78]

Flat vs. threaded

  • A flat forum is one where each message is added onto the end of the discussion, with no set relation to any prior messages (other than being on the same discussion topic — except in case of Off-Topic posting). But, there is normally a feature to 'quote' another user's post, to allow referencing back to other posts.
  • A threaded forum is one where users can specify their message is a reply to an existing message. Threaded forums can display relationships between message topics and associated replies, such as by indenting replies and placing them below the post they reference. Threaded forums are most commonly used for discussions where individual messages tend to be short, such as on social news sites (e.g. Slashdot or reddit), or in commenting systems like Disqus.

User-selectable themes

Most forums provide an option for the forum owner to customize the look and feel. Some forums also allow the administrator to create multiple styles or themes, and allow the user to choose which one they wish to view. Themes may simply be a different set of colors and graphics, or they may involve a different layout to the forum, such as one optimized for small-screen devices.

The comparison table shows whether a forum software allows forum administrators to customise the "template" of the forum (or specific sections thereof) without altering the released code. Support is considered partial where it's only possible to add CSS rules in this way.[27]

Unread message tracking

Unread message tracking refers to the way that is used by forum software to track and display messages that have not yet been read by the current user. This can be one of the following:

  • Session — when a user's session starts, this method relies on the user's "last visit time" to display all messages created since that date as unread. Everything that was posted before "last visit time" is considered "read" regardless of whether the user has actually seen it or not. Until the user's session expires, this method properly tracks read/unread messages, starting with messages that were selected as "unread" when the user's session started. This method is broadly used, due to the simplicity and speed benefits of only storing and checking against a single database value.
  • Full — forum software which records in the persistent database what messages have been read or unread by each user, regardless of user session expiration. Some forum software also allows the user to 'mark as unread', so that they can come back to a message later.

Export, portability

This column judges the ability to allow users to export data from the forum installation and then import it in new installations of the same software (cf. right to fork) or feed it to data conversion tools.

Software portability is a key assessment criterion for the choice and procurement of software.[79]

Email/NNTP interface

Whether the software can be used with standard Email or NNTP clients. Adoption of standard protocols is key for interoperability.[80]

Languages

Whether the internationalization and localization of the software are sufficient to both allow and actually provide grammatically correct support for the native language of the target users.[81]

For the purposes of this table, we consider languages used by an amount of installations/users equal to at least 1% of the top million web properties using that software,[82] without major reported bugs in support.

Single sign-on

Single sign-on is often required to enhance web accessibility of the application.[83] This can be accomplished with standards like OAuth and OpenID.

Other features

Duplicate thread prevention

Automatic recommendation systems based on content and users can help forum users find existing discussions similar to those they're browsing or on the topic they're searching,[84] or else reach the correct users with their posts, avoiding to "spam" the forum with duplicate or off-topic posts.[85]

Many users do not bother to search a forum and directly create new threads to seek an answer to a question. On some forums, when the user types a new thread subject, the forum software brings up similar threads automatically on the side. This helps keep the number of redundant threads (or the overall forum pollution) to a lower level as users who neglect to search for a topic and are posting a thread may find the answer to their question as they are creating the new thread.

Forum spam defenses

Most forums are at risk of continuous attack by forum spammers, largely promoting websites with no relevance to the forum's niche. Systems vary in how they are geared to defense, and checking the offering is an important consideration before selection. A forum cannot succeed unless there is an effective system of defense, and an efficient set of tools for spam removal.

CAPTCHAs are a common feature used among most internet forum software and are often used to prevent automated registrations.

Banning or deleting membership should come as standard, with the ability to blacklist the username, email address or IP address for variable time spans.

Reference to an anti-forum spam database can be built into the forum software, or offered as add-ons for specific databases.

User-friendly URLs

Main article: Semantic URL

Human-friendly forum URLs do not have a query string and instead contain only the path of the topic. A user-unfriendly URL may contain cryptic parameters, numeric IDs, or file type extensions (e.g. .php) that do not matter to the user and could change if the forum is reimplemented using a different programming language. User-friendly URLs are easy to remember and to type, and may enhance search engine optimization (SEO).

  • user-unfriendly URL example: http://example.com/forum/index.php?t=rview&th=120029
  • user-friendly URL example: http://example.com/usability-issues/user-friendly-urls

In general this is accomplished via URL mapping, however, historically in many forum software packages, human-friendly URLs are an afterthought implemented via URL rewriting, and URLs often contain a numeric ID which represents the thread, while the remainder of the URL can in reality be any string: http://example.com/forum/12345/lets-use-friendly-urls and http://example.com/forum/12345/bogus-path-actually point to the same thread, http://example.com/forum/12345/.

The only non-controversial counter-argument to using user-friendly URLs is that they would be leaked in the HTTP referer header field when a user clicks on an external link from a post, which is undesirable for private (sub)forums, since a URL derived from the topic title could convey sensitive information.[86] This issue can be resolved by rewriting external links to point to a redirection page that performs referer hiding.

Data storage

Information about what data storage system can be used.

MySQL PostgreSQL MSSQL Oracle SQLite Firebird Flat file
bbPress[2] Yes No No No No No No
Beehive Forum Yes No No No No No No
Discourse No Yes No No No No No
Discuz! Yes Yes No No No No No
FluxBB Yes Yes No No SQLite 2[87] No No
FUDforum Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Iko Yes No No No No No No
Ikonboard Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes
Invision Power Board Yes No Discontinued [88] No No No No
kusaba Yes No No No No No No
MyBB[48] Yes Yes No No Yes No No
Phorum Yes No No No No No No
phpBB[55] Yes v8.2 or newer[89][90] Yes Yes Yes Discontinued No
PunBB[61] Yes Yes No No Yes No No
Simple Machines Forum Yes Yes No No Yes No No
Syndie Yes (HSQLDB) No No No No No No
Thredded[25] Yes Yes No No Yes No No
UBB.threads Yes No No No No No No
Vanilla Forums Yes No No No No No No
vBulletin[72] Yes No No No No No No
XenForo Yes No No No No No No

References

  1. ^ "bbPress.org". bbpress.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  2. ^ a b "Requirements · bbPress.org". bbpress.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  3. ^ "License · bbPress.org". bbpress.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  4. ^ "Project Beehive Forum". beehiveforum.net. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  5. ^ "Discourse". www.discourse.org. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  6. ^ "Discuz! X - 产品 - 北京康盛新创科技有限责任公司". www.comsenz.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  7. ^ "FluxBB 1.5.9 released". FluxBB.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  8. ^ "FUDforum: Welcome to the forum". fudforum.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  9. ^ "ikonboard". SourceForge. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  10. ^ "IPS Community Suite 4 - Forums, CMS, eCommerce & more - IPS Community Suite". IPS Community Suite. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  11. ^ "MyBB - Free and Open Source Forum Software". www.mybb.com. Retrieved 2017-01-23.
  12. ^ "Change of license for MyBB 2.0". Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  13. ^ "Phorum | Open Source PHP Forum Software". www.phorum.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  14. ^ "phpBB • Free and Open Source Forum Software". www.phpbb.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  15. ^ "PunBB". punbb.informer.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  16. ^ "Simple Machines Forum - Free & open source community software". www.simplemachines.org. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  17. ^ a b "Simple Machines Forum - Free & open source community software". Simplemachines.org. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  18. ^ "Syndie". www.syndie.de. Archived from the original on 2016-01-12. Retrieved 2015-11-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "PHP forum software since 1997 - UBB.Threads". ubbcentral.com.
  20. ^ "Community Forum Software". Vanilla Forums. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  21. ^ Vanilla Forums. "Open Source Forum Software". Vanilla Forums. Retrieved 2017-04-22.
  22. ^ "vBulletin Announcements - vBulletin Community Forum". www.vbulletin.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  23. ^ "vBulletin Manual". www.vbulletin.com. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  24. ^ "vBulletin FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions". www.vbulletin.com. Retrieved 2017-12-29.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Thredded". thredded.org. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  26. ^ "XenForo Installation and upgrades, XenForo 2 Manual". xenforo.com. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj "ForumMatrix on phpBB, SMF, vBulletin, bbPress, Beehive Forum, FluxBB, FUDforum, Invision Power Board, MyBB, Phorum, punBB, UBB.threads, Vanilla, XenForo". CosmoCode. 2007–2016. Retrieved 2016-10-15.
  28. ^ "pippinsplugins/bbPress-Export-and-Import". GitHub.
  29. ^ "rmccue/Falcon". GitHub. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  30. ^ "Topic: Post by Email & Social Media Integration · bbPress.org". bbpress.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  31. ^ "bbPress in Your Language · bbPress Codex". codex.bbpress.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  32. ^ "BeehiveForum/BeehiveForum". GitHub. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  33. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-01-16. Retrieved 2018-01-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  34. ^ "Allow users to select dark / light theme". Discourse Meta. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  35. ^ "Move your Discourse to a different server". Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  36. ^ "Discourse - Meta". meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  37. ^ "Translating Discourse with Transifex". Discourse Blog. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  38. ^ "Discourse Translations". 2016-04-15.
  39. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-10-19. Retrieved 2016-10-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  40. ^ "Official Single-Sign-On for Discourse (sso)". Discourse Meta. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  41. ^ "Discuz.ML". discuz.ml.
  42. ^ "Language packs - FluxBB". fluxbb.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  43. ^ For admins: http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=120851
  44. ^ Native NNTP gateway: http://fudforum.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=120406&goto=167140&#msg_167140
  45. ^ "ForumMatrix / FUDforum Features - Compare Them All". www.forummatrix.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  46. ^ Only 3 languages updated in one year. https://invisionpower.com/files/category/107-language-packs/?sortby=file_name&filter=file_free&sortby=file_updated&sortdirection=desc&page=1 Archived 2016-04-24 at the Wayback Machine
  47. ^ "4.0 - Login Handlers". Invision Community. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  48. ^ a b "Features - MyBB". www.mybb.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  49. ^ Group, MyBB. "MyBB - Mods - Export Thread v1.0.0". mods.mybb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  50. ^ Group, MyBB. "MyBB - Mods - Post Via Email". mods.mybb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  51. ^ "Allow users to post via email or web service". community.mybb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  52. ^ Group, MyBB. "Extend MyBB - Translations - MyBB 1.8 Language Packs". community.mybb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  53. ^ "Phorummail for Phorum 5". www.phorum.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  54. ^ "Phorum Support Forums :: 5.2 Language Files". www.phorum.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  55. ^ a b "Features". phpbb.com. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  56. ^ "phpBB: Export all posts for a user into a file - Nejko's randomness". 29 March 2016. Archived from the original on 29 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2018. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  57. ^ "I'm struggling with phpBB2 and mail2forum". www.phpbb2refugees.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  58. ^ "phpBB • [ABD] Mail2forum for phpBB 3". www.phpbb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  59. ^ "phpBB • Language Packs". www.phpbb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  60. ^ "phpBB • 3.1 User Guide". www.phpbb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  61. ^ a b "comparison_to_other_discussion_boards - PunBB Wiki". punbb.informer.com. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
  62. ^ "Language packs (Page 1) — PunBB Forums". punbb.informer.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  63. ^ "punbb/langs". GitHub. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  64. ^ PM: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=export
  65. ^ "Post from Email". custom.simplemachines.org.
  66. ^ "Downloads". download.simplemachines.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  67. ^ "ForumMatrix / UBB.threads Features - Compare Them All". www.forummatrix.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  68. ^ Attachments: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/myattachments-plugin
  69. ^ Admin-only: http://vanillaforums.org/addon/porter-core
  70. ^ "Vanilla languages". 2016-04-15. 2 languages 100 % translated.
  71. ^ "Vanilla forums". docs.vanillaforums.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  72. ^ a b "vBulletin Forum Features". vbulletin.com. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
  73. ^ "Major Additions - Email Integration (New threads/replies by email) - vBulletin.org Forum". www.vbulletin.org. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  74. ^ vB 4: https://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=2489379&postcount=1069
  75. ^ "vBulletin Languages & Phrases - vBulletin Community Forum". vBulletin Community Forum. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  76. ^ https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/importing/
  77. ^ https://xenforo.com/community/resources/categories/xenforo-translations.14/ Available translations for latest version.
  78. ^ https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/connected-accounts/ OAuth SSO provided by Connected accounts feature.
  79. ^ "FSFE's Comments on the EU Digital Single Market Strategy". FSFE - Free Software Foundation Europe. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  80. ^ Centre for Intellectual Property & Policy Management at Bournemouth University (25 October 2012). Open Standards in Government IT: A Review of the Evidence (PDF). {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  81. ^ Software Without Frontiers: A multi-platform, multi-cultural, multi-nation approach. With contributions and leadership by Ray Hudson, Costas Spyropoulos, Timo Honkela et al. Wiley. 1996. ISBN 9780471969747. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  82. ^ "Forum Software technologies Web Usage Statistics". trends.builtwith.com. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  83. ^ Za, S.; D’Atri, E.; Resca, A. (1 January 2011). Single Sign-On in Cloud Computing Scenarios: A Research Proposal (PDF). Physica-Verlag HD. pp. 45–52. doi:10.1007/978-3-7908-2632-6_6. ISBN 9783790826319. Retrieved 15 April 2016. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  84. ^ Zhao, Jun; Bu, Jiajun; Chen, Chun; Guan, Ziyu; Wang, Can; Zhang, Cheng (2010-01-01). "Learning a User-thread Alignment Manifold for Thread Recommendation in Online Forum". Proceedings of the 19th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management. CIKM '10. New York, NY, USA: ACM: 559–568. doi:10.1145/1871437.1871511. ISBN 9781450300995.
  85. ^ Li, Yung-Ming; Liao, Tzu-Fong; Lai, Cheng-Yang (2012-09-01). "A social recommender mechanism for improving knowledge sharing in online forums". Information Processing & Management. Large-Scale and Distributed Systems for Information Retrieval. 48 (5): 978–994. doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2011.10.004.
  86. ^ Frèrejean, Erik. "SEO URLs". phpBB "Arsia" 3.2 Development. Area51 phpBB. Retrieved 2011-06-25.
  87. ^ "punbb/punbb". GitHub. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  88. ^ "MSSQL still supported?". Invision Community. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  89. ^ "3.1 "Ascraeus" to drop support for PostgreSQL < 8.3 - Development Discussion Board". area51.phpbb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  90. ^ "PhpBB3.1 - phpBB Development Wiki". wiki.phpbb.com. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Comparison_of_Internet_forum_software&oldid=871148501"