A review of any forum system should start with a definition of the purpose of a forum. Simply put, Internet forums are used to as a one-to-many interactive communication tool. One person posts a topic and many people read and reply to the post. Blog, by the way, are actually similar to forums with the primary difference being that a blog is focused on one poster, which is the blog owner while a forum is much more community oriented. We should also note that even older forum systems meet the basic requirement of a forum in the same way that an old car meets the requirement of getting a person from point A to point B. The difference with the old and new is largely a refinement in the journey, which we will see as we review phpBB 3.

phpBB 3 is a significant rewrite of phpBB 2. The developers focused not only on additional features, but also security, speed, and code extensibility. Therefore some of the changes may not be too apparent to the forum admin. The biggest additions of version 3 over version 2 are attachments, an improved permission system, post approval, additional post options such as saving drafts, improved private messaging system, attachments, sub-forums, a revised Administrator Control Panel (ACP), and a revised template system. Many of these features were available in phpBB 2 through modifications but it’s much better that they are integrated into the core system. In addition, some things such as increased speed through caching and better security through cleaner input handling will remain an advantage of phpBB 3.

From the administrator and moderator’s perspective, the additional moderation tools are a worthwhile upgrade. With version 3, administrators can choose to review posts before they are visible, reducing the amount of post spam and potentially heading off problematic posts. Additional moderation tools include user suspension, topic merging, and a warning system, and post flagging. One major overhaul of phpBB 3 over 2 is a more granular permission system, allowing administrators to set permissions over various usage parameters based on groups. The system is powerful enough to set permissions down to individual users. Overall, phpBB 3 has addressed many of the moderation shortcomings of phpBB 2.

phpBB 3 also has several additional anti-spam measures, including an improved CAPTCHA, display of forum rules, as well as all the previously mentioned moderation tools. Most likely, the new CAPTCHA will be vulnerable to spam bots, so at best this is a temporary solution. We should note that none of the competing forum systems have really solved CAPTCHA either.

Of course, for many forum owners, the most important aspect of the forum software is what it can provide to users. For anyone who has used phpBB 2, version 3 will not feel very different.  The look of the forum is changed, but functionally, it remains very similar. Some of the most visible changes include sub-forums, right hand user information panel, topic searches, more topic and post sorting options, and a modular control panel layout for the user’s settings page. While every forum system is different, phpBB 3’s user interface does lack a few “standard” features. First, it does not have topic titles on the index as most forum scripts have incorporated. It also does not have quick reply and phpBB 3 is not as dynamic (read AJAX) as many of the modern competitive packages such as vBulletin and Invision Power Board.

Functionally, phpBB 3 now has new features such as attachments, friends and foes, member birthdays, cust0m profile fields, and more options for private messaging. Most of these features are set to enhance the community aspects of the forum, yet phpBB 3 remains strictly a forum application and is not suitable for social networking. Other competitors such as vBulletin and Invision have moved to add greater social networking features, such as profile comments, blogs, and photo albums into their products.

Of course, one of the biggest draws of phpBB is the mod community. Due to the popularity of phpBB 2, many modders have started or continued work on the shiny new version 3. phpBB 3 has a rudimentary plug-in system, but many mods will still need to be done by hand. With such a large mod community, forum administrators can find a mod to add almost all of the missing features listed above.

So the question is, who should use phpBB 3? That’s of course a personal matter, but we can give some advice. For people on phpBB 2, version 3 offers enough compelling features to warrant an upgrade. People who have heavily modded phpBB 2 boards will want to look at the features offered in 3 and decide accordingly. Remember that phpBB 3 is more secure than 2 in some aspects so that is also worth a consideration. People who are using a commercial system such as vBulletin or IPB would probably be better off sticking with the current system. For people who are starting a new forum, phpBB 3 is a good candidate for a forum package. The commercial products all have a converter from phpBB 3 to their system, so transfer to another system is possible for people who decide they need features not found in phpBB 3 in the future. Overall, despite some shortcomings, phpBB 3 is a worthy successor for the phpBB line and is a new starting point for what will hopefully be a continually improving forum package.

Here is a quick introduction of the 3 forum boards we will be discussing.

phpBB- This is a GPL license based board that has been around for many years. The current version is 3.0, which was released on December 2007. phpBB.com

SMF- Simple Machines Forum is a free forum software package that uses it’s own license. It is the new kid on the block comparatively, having been started  much later than phpBB and vBulletin. Because of a rich feature set and a growing modifications community, it has gained popularity quite quickly. simplemachines.org

vBulletin- This is one of the big 2 commercial forum packages, the other being Invision Power Board. vB has a huge feature set, a very large and active mod community, and is used by many of the largest boards on the Internet.vBulletin.com

In this comparison, we will look at the packages and examine what it has that is unique and what it lacks compared to the other boards.

phpBB 2- This is the most basic of the 3 forums as it hasn’t added many new features since it’s initial release several years ago. It can do what any basic forum can do and if one hasn’t seen vBulletin or SMF, one could probably be satisfied with it’s capabilities. The one standout with phpBB is that there is an active mod community that has created mods that do not exists for the other forums. Previous versions of phpBB had security flaws that were exploited, but the latest versions do not have any known security holes so long as HTML is turned off.

Version 3 adds many more features from version 2, including sub-forums, better permissions system, attachments, custom profile fields, post moderation, better moderating tools, and a host of many features that bring it closer to the top forum packages available.

Benefits: phpBB is free and has a GPL license so any mod for must also be GPL, thus making it likely to be free. phpBB also has a large number of templates and mods created for it. phpBB was made for speed and it is quite fast. It is also easy to mod if one is interested in creating their own functionality. It has the largest number of community based mods: Album mod, Blog mod (In Beta), Friends/Myspace-like mod (Beta), and others. Many of these mods add functionality to phpBB that do not currently exist in SMF or vBulletin either by default or in a mod. It is used in many large forums, validating that it can scale well.

Drawbacks: Fewer features compared to the others. Support on phpBB.com is strictly volunteer and is hit or miss depending on the question asked and who happens to see it. It does not have sub-forums and attachments by default. Installing mods is time consuming compared to the other 2. It’s a popular target for hackers.

Update:that version 3 addresses many of the concerns of phpBB 2, including sub-forums and attachments.

Conclusion: In reality, most forums will suffice with phpBB. It has a large number of templates, is easy to modify, and has plenty of mods to make it as powerful as the other packages. In particular, the sub-forums mod called Categories Heirarchy turns phpBB into a very powerful solution.

SMF- This forum package is a successor to the php version of YABB and is feature rich. It stands somewhere between phpBB 2 and vBulletin in the number of features it contains. They have a good reputation for updating security releases.

Benefits: It uses AJAX for some elements to make page loading faster. It has attachments and sub-forums. It features a package manager to install mods easily. SMF includes a file that contains functions which allows outside programs to interface with the SMF forum libraries, making it easier to integrate the forum with a website. The staff is helpful at simplemachines.org. It plugs into Joomla well with some modifications. (Update: as of the moment, the Joomla bridge is not available due to legal issues).

Drawbacks: It is missing some key features even compared to phpBB, such as e-mail through the forum and group moderators. Not as many mods as the other forum packages. It has the fewest community based mods (i.e. profile enhancements) and the fewest overall mods compared to phpBB and vBulletin.

Conclusion: SMF is probably the most full-featured of any free forum package. The latest version had a shortage of good templates for a while, but that is quickly changing. The SMF package manager is one of it’s best features as it allows users to easily install most mods with just a few clicks in most cases. Note that for non-default templates, you may be required to manually add some code since most mods are written only for the default template. The big drawback of SMF is that it has fewer mods than phpBB or vBulletin.

Update: Version 2 of SMF plans to add features such as post moderation, a WYSIWIG editor, custom profile fields, an improved PM system, a warning system and other features.

vBulletin- vBulletin is considered the industry standard for forum software. It is feature packed and has an excellent reputation for security.

Benefits: Massive amount of features. AJAX, attachments, sub-forums, post control, WYSIWIG editor, plug-in manager, and many more. Future versions will include an enhanced user profile page, bringing social networking features to vBulletin run forums. Their forum at vBulletin.com is helpful and vBulletin.orgis their repository for most of the freely available mods. Using vBulletin in some ways legitimizes the seriousness of a website as it is used by many large professional websites. vB appears to be the most SEO friendly.

Drawbacks: Because of the number of features it has, some consider it bloated. The Admin Control Panel has many features, but can be confusing due to the many navigation options. It’s more expensive than the other 2. Not as well integrated with Content Management Packages such as Joomla as the other 2. It has many mods, but many are paid extras whereas almost all phpBB and SMF mods are free.

Conclusion: Easily the most feature rich of the three. vBulletin is used by many professional websites and for good reason. A default installation will probably satisfy most user’s needs, but it also has an extensive amount of mods and has perhaps the largest number of available templates of any forum package.

Overall Conclusion: When picking a software package, look at all of its features and determine if it can do what your forum needs to do. Although vBulletin has the most features and is the industry standard when it comes to forums, phpBB or SMF may be sufficient if it has the features you need. But if you need something that only vBulletin has, get vBulletin. Many people will look at the vBulletin price and decide to go with the other two, but this may be a mistake if one really is serious about making a good website. It’s best to compare the software based on how it can meet your needs, not based on the price. If you pick a package because it is less expensive and it proves unable to do the things you need it to do, you will end up either paying someone to add the extra features, upgrading to the paid forum anyways, or you will end up crippling your sites’ experience to your users.

1. Use a Hosted Forum

Using a free forum from a hosted site is the first step in creating a bad forum. Today, buying a domain name and finding and using a shared host should not cost more than $10 a month for a small forum. But if one is determined to create a bad forum, just pick out a random hosted forum such as ezBoard and sign up. Not only will the domain name look terrible, such as myforum.someforumhost.com, but the forum owner will likely not be able to gain access to the users’ and posts without paying the host should the forum owner decide to move to another host. Plus, most hosted forums will not allow modifications to the forum to be installed. Using a hosted forum cripples the board in many ways and is a great start to a bad forum.

2. Start the Forum Without a Purpose

Many people are excited by the opportunity to start a forum when first hearing about it. “You mean there’s free or cheap software out there to start a forum and the hosting costs are low? And you could make lots of money when people posts? Sign me up.” But the reality is, a forum that exists just to exist or to make money for the one who started it will likely die before it can take off. Working on a forum takes hours of dedication and if the forum owner doesn’t have a purpose, users will be confused by what the forum is about and won’t sign up. So starting a forum without a purpose is a great way to make a bad forum.

3. Use Bad Forum Software and Keep the Default Style

There are many forum packages out in the Internet, including a number of free ones. Some are very primitive, not having added features for years. If the forum owner wants to create a bad forum, he or she can just randomly pick a software package. Not only could the package be outdated, but the developers may have jumped ship, which is a double bonus for starting a bad forum. In addition, the forum owner can keep the default style and even the default logo of the forum package so that users will be confused as to what forum he or she is viewing. But not to worry. The outdated software package will likely attract hackers and the forum will be taken down.

4. Make a ton of Categories Without any Posts

Many new forum owners are really excited by all the different things that can be discussed on the Internet and will start to make tons of categories so that users need to scroll down, down, down to see the bottom of the page. Maybe it’s a way of hiding the copyright info of the forum. In any case, category classification is an actually an area that the new forum owner probably thought much about and telling the forum owner to delete the categories may seem like an insult because it means that all of the hard work of the forum owner come up with the different categories must be undone. But if the board keeps a ton of empty categories, it’s a sure way to start off making a bad forum. If the forum owner wants to avoid making a bad forum and still keep the categories, he or she will need to fill it with topics since users are not likely to be the first to post to a new category. But we’re talking about making a bad forum, so don’t do that.

5. Don’t Post or Do Anything to Make Content

So with everything in place for a bad forum, using a hosted forum, using bad software and keeping the default style, and creating a lot of empty categories, the best thing a forum owner can to do ensure that the message board is terrible is to rely on others to post and start topics. Surely people will see the forum with the logo of the software and a bunch of confusing categories and be compelled to post something deep and meaningful, right? And the forum owner can just sit back and wait for all the posts to come in while doing nothing. Unless the forum owner is a celebrity, that probably won’t happen.

6. Don’t Advertise

Perhaps the forum owner thinks that by just getting the forum on the Internet, people will somehow find it. Google will somehow put it at the top of the list of keywords relevant to the forum. That’s likely not to happen and if the forum owner doesn’t advertise the forum in different places such as social bookmarks, directories, and other places that allow linking, the only people visiting the forum will the forum owner and the spam bots. Maybe the spam bots will even stay away since no one else is visiting.

There are many more ways to make a bad forum and many ways to turn even a good forum into a bad forum, such as alienating users or not having any rules so that there is mass confusion, or just giving up and abandoning the board, but if forum owners follow the above advise, the forum is almost guaranteed to not get many visitors or members. On the other hand, even if the forum owner does the opposite of the advice above, it’s also not a guarantee that the forum will receive many visitors and members. Because of the ease of starting a forum today, there are many message boards on just about any topic of interest to people. Forums are competitive so a new forum needs to offer things that aren’t currently available to be successful. That’s easier said than done, but creating a bad forum is almost easier done than said, so maybe that’s the route to take.

1. The admin have left. If the admins have not logged in for a long time, the shark has definitely been jumped. If the admins gave up, who is running the forum? The inmates have taken over the asylum. With some forum packages such as vBulletin, you can check the log in dates of the admin on their profile if the forum is set up to allow the profile to be viewed by the public. If the last log-in date is not viewable, just see when the last post of the admins and moderators was posted. If it’s been a while, the shark has been jumped.

2. It’s a spamfest. Check out the forum’s memberlist. Does it have 8,000 users and most of them have a link to a site selling pharmaceuticals or other spam websites? If that’s the case, the forum has been largely taken over by spam bots. Check out the posts. Are they mostly links to some spam site in Russia? This forum has not only jumped the shark but it’s being circled to be their next meal.

3. Only the admins post. It’s been months since the forum got started and the vast majority of the posts are from the admins and moderators. This simply means people aren’t participating. The forum has turned into a blog. Might as well convert to Wordpress or get a Blogspot account, because the forum has either jumped the shark or it’s preparing for a nice big jump.

4. The forum software is outdated. If the software is several versions behind the latest release, it may have jumped the shark. Sometimes forums are behind because there are many modifications on it that make it difficult to upgrade. But sometimes it’s because of an inattentive or non-caring admin. Not all forum packages display the version, but if it does and it’s way behind, the forum might have jumped the shark. More importantly, it’s probably very prone to being hacked, and losing all the content, including your posts. If the forum has already been hacked, not only has it been jumped, but it might actually look more interesting. Hacker’s messages are nothing if not funny.

5. Interesting topics are getting 10 views in 20 days. Someone, likely the admin, posted something interesting, but it got all of 10 views. That means no on is looking at the forum. And 8 of those ten views are probably from search bots. That’s a sign that the forum is either preparing a jump or is jumping. It may not be dead yet, but it’s on life support.

6. It’s a hosted forum. If the url of the forum is myforum.hostedsite.com, it may have jumped the shark right immediately. Getting a domain name is relatively cheap and getting hosting can be inexpensive for a smaller forum. If the admin isn’t willing to pay a few dollars to get these, the forum may have jumped before it started.

So if the forum has jumped the shark, what type of things can be done to revitalize it? If it’s your forum, you can do something about it. If it’s a forum you visit, let the admin know about the things that can be done. First, clean the forum up. If it’s got spammers, delete those posts and remove the spam members. Then update the forum to the latest version. The admin has to show he or she actually cares about the forum. With the house in order, it’s time to find some posters. First, get people you know to post. Friends, family members, people who owe you a favor. Then find other small forums and ask to do a post exchange. This is where the forum admins post to each others’ forums to get activity going. Third, advertise. Go to other forums and put your website on your signature. Submit the forum to social bookmarking sites. All of this takes time and effort, but if the forum is in danger of being shark-bait, it will take some work to rescue it.

A CMS is essentially a website engine. It is often written in a server side language and is the building blocks of a full-featured website. Most CMS’s are divided into two parts. The back end php code is the engine that manages the various parts of the website. It is the thing that allows website creators to add a menu item and have it appear on every page, or type up a news item and have it stored on the webserver database for display on the site. The second part of the CMS is the template, which basically reads all the information from the back end and displays it in an appealing fashion to web visitors. To use a car analogy, the back-end is the car engine and systems while the front end is the driver/passenger interface and car body. For instance, one could analogize a template control such as an input box or button to a steering wheel. The user turns the steering wheel and the engine interprets the user’s action and responds accordingly. Likewise, the user clicks the button and the php code does something interesting as a response.

Why would you want a CMS for a local website? The short answer is, it gives you keys to many features. With a good CMS and a good template for the CMS, you can create content in a matter of hours or days for what would otherwise take weeks to do it from scratch. In addition, most CMS systems contain extensions to add features that would again take a great deal of time to build oneself. Would you like to add a directory to your site? Most CMS’s have an extension to add a directory system. Would you like to add a blog? Again, most CMS’s have blog extensions to integrate blogging features into the site.

While a CMS contain many advantages, website creators must also know the risks in using a CMS. First, most of these systems are built using a server side language, and by it’s nature, it can be infiltrated by a foreign script. You can potentially lose some or all of your data or can expose private information. When choosing a CMS system, chose one that has a good reputation for security. One of the most popular CMS systems, Joomla, unfortunately does not have a good reputation for security, but they are addressing this as quickly as possible and they have gotten better. Second, understand that a CMS system is often very generic and may not completely do what you want it to do. Every complex engine has limitations and some limitation may cripple a required feature for your site. For instance, if you require that all pages be search engine friendly or SEF (i.e. use simple urls), then a CMS system that doesn’t support this in the engine may never fully be able to accommodate SEF. Once you choose a CMS, it is difficult to switch to another one, especially as you site becomes more complex so do your research carefully before choosing one. Third, a CMS is often only as good as the extensions it has. If a feature extension such as an events calendar system is not written for your CMS and you need one, don’t use the CMS. Someone may write one in the future, but betting on promises may lead to disappointment and lost visitors. Fourth, CMS systems, because they are general engines, will be slower than a custom made website engine. It often will need to manage things you may not use or care about, so test out any CMS you want to use and get advice from other users as to the speed degradation and scalability. Finally, every CMS system will have a learning curve. Some are easier than others, but new users will undoubtedly be confused when starting with a new system. Find out how good the support is for your CMS from both the developers and other users. Visit the forum and search for a beginner’s document and search also for questions you may have. If you cannot find a discussion about it, ask the question yourself and analyze both the timeliness of the response and the quality of the answer. Give the discussion forum a few chances, but if you consistently get few and unhelpful response, you may be better off with another system.

There is a great deal to learn about CMS’s and this article really only touches the tip oft he iceberg. CMS’s can be divided into several categories. Free open source CMS are publicly available and modifiable at no charge. These are often used by single or small group developers but also used by larger developers. Commercial CMS’s are purchased systems produced for the masses. These are often used by single developers to small or medium companies and even a few larger companies. Enterprise level CMS’s are those that are used for complex data management (more than a website) and are often used by larger companies. Here are a few CMS systems for you to explore.

Free Open Source CMS

Joomla http://www.joomla.com

Mambo http://www.mambo.com

Drupal http://www.drupal.org

e107 http://www.e107.org

Commercial CMS

subdreamer http://www.subdreamer.com

Lisk CMS http://www.lisk-cms.com/

Enterprise CMS

Documentum http://www.emc.com/

Interwoven http://www.interwoven.com

Vignette http://www.vignette.com/