Tuesday 17 March 2015

Here are three random open source threaded forums to help you to decide which threaded forum is best for you.

At the time of writing this blog, I tried to be as accurate as possible at providing the pros and cons for each forum. Some text about the pros/cons found here may be a bit unimportant or maybe not even relevant for you but these are my observation in navigating the forums.

I did not include such things as member ranks, member stars or member reputation as the following is only a brief writing. Also consider that the time you are reading the following that these forums may have changed in display or feature considerately. Here are the threaded forums in no particular order.
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zzbulletin is an elegant and powerful forum that is build using php, sql, pdo and font awesome. 

pros.
Threaded display or flat display.
Can reorder categories.
400 built in avatars with option to upload an avatar.
Uses php pdo with mysql.
Powerful search. Can search by topic or forum.
Tinymce wysiwyg html editor.

cons.
Cannot ban/delete members.
Categories are displayed as flat.
One display theme.
No bb-code.
Unable to disable the displaying of avatars.
Currently only supports php mail and sending mail can be disabled.

This forum needs more member options for the admin but looks nice.

Go to zzbulletin.

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Saito is a threaded internet forum written in PHP and is open source.

pros.
Uses bb-code.
Profile link displays the profile and not the edit of a profile.
Nice collapsible side panel.
Nice back-end control panel (settings).
Great drop-down menu with options (edit, delete, pin, lock) for current post.
Lots of plugins.

cons.
Very confusing forum display.
No icons hint/comments.
Basic two color display for entire forum.
Few search options.
Installation of this forum is confusing.
Very difficult to navigate.

This forum has a horrible two color display and is very confusing to navigate.

Go to saito.

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my little forum is a internet forum that displays messages in classical threaded view. It is Open Source licensed under the GNU General Public License and is made using PHP and MySQL.

pros.
Option for bb-code. Not forced. Disable bb-code for basic textarea.
Can uninstall forum from control panel.
Admin can edit or delete users.
Nice preview icon for each thread listing.
Can delete marked posts.
Different display for threads, such as thread view or fold threads.

cons.
A bit confusing to leave the admin control panel.
Does not create database from install.
Clicking on username brings you to the edit profile and not the profile display.
Search by post is very basic.
Uses mysql and not pdo.
Two admin names at the top-right of screen.

This forum seems to be complete in regards to navigation and features but lacks PDO and searching options.

go to My tiny forum.