I'm wondering how the various forum software packages stack up against one another. There are a bunch of them out there and it is difficult to compare them, they don't install/test easily. Are there any written reviews available?
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Forum Software
- Thread starter mbohn
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Well, did you search for reviews, or are you just hoping someone who just did that will read this?
There are some really backwards ones out there. (Go over to the "new" Cnet Mac Forum, for one!) The basic functions are so similar on most that the only things separating them are small features. IMO FWIW
There are some really backwards ones out there. (Go over to the "new" Cnet Mac Forum, for one!) The basic functions are so similar on most that the only things separating them are small features. IMO FWIW
I was hoping that someone who had actually administered forums would have some feedback on why they chose what they did. This is very different from online reviews that give superficial feedback based on a half hour of exposure. And it is very different from someone who has merely subscribed to a forum and made a few casual observations about how it feels from a subscriber's perspective compared to others.
vansmith
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What kind of features are you looking for? What kind of customizability are you looking to have? How many people (figuratively) are you looking to support? Sorry for answering with questions but it will help to have a better sense of what you'll be doing.
My plan is to use the forum to help support a web app. Users could post questions about how to use the app, how to interpret results, suggest improvements, etc. It won't be a large community, especially at first and I don't expect nor want a lot of complexity - it will need to be fairly easy to maintain. Of the forums I use I think most all of them have features I need with no glaring omissions, so ease of administration will be a key point.
I'm presently learning PHP so one of the PHP-based forums may be a choice.
Other than that, not having administered a forum before, I can't add much.
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