Why I choose PHPBB3 Software for the site
Posted: 24 Jan 2012, 09:42
Once it was acknowledged that the old website needed to be upgraded, it was then that I started to search for a suitable replacement software package. I looked seriously at the following software options:
Joomla is a very popular Content Management System (CMS) that is well supported and offers a lot of features, however their Bulletin Board System (BBS) offerings within that community were limited and didn't offer the features that I was wanting. One good thing about Joomla is that at some stage in the future I can wrap the Joomla CMS around this PHPBB forum, giving us further features which may prove useful.
Drupal again, a very popular CMS with lots of features, but again the actual forum software didn't have everything that I wanted.
PHPBB3 I then looked at other dedicated BBS offerings including Simple Machine Forums (SMF) vBulletin, MyBB, IPBoard and eventually setted on this PHPBB3 software which offered a lot of the features that I was looking for. Great Support, Large user base, great capacity (some other sites have over 1,000,000+ topics) plenty of add-ons, mature development path and compatibility issues with browsers and mobiles. Straight out of the box the software installs as a fairly standard looking bulletin board, with a look & feel that wasn't a million miles away from our old software, it was then a case of upgrading the standard offering with off the shelf plug-ins that offer both the user and site admin more additional features which is where the site is standing today. I am happy with what we have got and the future development path for the site is looking great.
If you wish to find out more about this software here is a link to a recent review http://www.forum-software.org/phpbb3/review
Joomla is a very popular Content Management System (CMS) that is well supported and offers a lot of features, however their Bulletin Board System (BBS) offerings within that community were limited and didn't offer the features that I was wanting. One good thing about Joomla is that at some stage in the future I can wrap the Joomla CMS around this PHPBB forum, giving us further features which may prove useful.
Drupal again, a very popular CMS with lots of features, but again the actual forum software didn't have everything that I wanted.
PHPBB3 I then looked at other dedicated BBS offerings including Simple Machine Forums (SMF) vBulletin, MyBB, IPBoard and eventually setted on this PHPBB3 software which offered a lot of the features that I was looking for. Great Support, Large user base, great capacity (some other sites have over 1,000,000+ topics) plenty of add-ons, mature development path and compatibility issues with browsers and mobiles. Straight out of the box the software installs as a fairly standard looking bulletin board, with a look & feel that wasn't a million miles away from our old software, it was then a case of upgrading the standard offering with off the shelf plug-ins that offer both the user and site admin more additional features which is where the site is standing today. I am happy with what we have got and the future development path for the site is looking great.
If you wish to find out more about this software here is a link to a recent review http://www.forum-software.org/phpbb3/review