by monster » Sat Nov 04, 2006 9:57 pm
I agree that phpBB/wordpress(or other opensource) operated on your own domain is a better combo than blogspot/ezboard.<br><br>However phpBB isn't very good software, and it tends to get hacked and get a lot of spam bots. The search function is also primitive. <br><br>I know the selling point is that it's free. But I think if you asked for donations specifically for getting good forum software, I think people would step up. (Especially because it's the forum we'll be using... if I can help significantly upgrade one of my favorite forums for only $10 because the cost is spread out, you bet I'll do it.)<br><br>And it's not that much. For lifetime licenses:<br><br>vBulletin: $160<br>Invision: $180<br><br>That's only about 20 folks contributing $10 each.<br><br>Invision (maybe vBulletin too, not sure) has an optional module available to integrate a blog into your forum, so you control everything from one interface, instead of a separate one each for phpBB and Wordpress (or whatever). <br><br>(Invision also has a photo gallery module so you could show off all your blog artwork in one place... or countless other possibilities.) <br><br>I'm just throwing it out there. In fact since it's so easy to upgrade from phpBB to these other systems, it's something you could just keep in mind for the future, or just wait until the earmarked donations are enough to cover the cost.<br><br>I used phpBB for a long time, and I just upgraded to Invision and I had no idea what I was missing. If the control panel of phpBB is like a car dashboard, the control panel of Invision is like the cockpit of a B-52. It's pretty sweet, I'd never go back. <p></p><i></i>