Please enlighten me (phpBB to SMF?)

[xty]

Have been more than a couple of years using phpBB for my community (13000+ members) and tired of getting spammed A LOT. Ok, I'm too lazy to upgrade the version, it's still the old version (the one without image verification). And it's not easy to upgrade because I've added several mods.

Installed on my laptop, SMF looks more simpler and promosing. However I still hesitate whether to switch or not (it'll be a complete install from scratch, no migration even the users database), unless someone can enlighten me:

High priority requirements:
- No SPAM, secure, image verification for registration and guest posting.
- Allow guest posting only for specific categories.
- Quick moderation (I'm tired of clicking the checkboxes on phpBB when removing all those SPAM posts, there should be a Select All toggle or something)
- Application of themes without impacts on upgrades.
- Supports SSI on homepage of the site (not main page of the forum) to put "last posts", "most discussed topics", etc.
- Banner managements.
- Sub category (child boards?)

Even though there are many mods available, all of these requirements must be (crossing fingers) available in the basic package. This will ease the upgrades in the future.

Medium-low priority requirements:
- Calendar link with posts in specific category (building some kind of Events category) that can be placed in the main page of the forum or ideally on homepage of the site through SSI.
- In the future, possibility to integrate/share common user account database with other application such as CMS, Classifieds, Business Directory. No specific apps as of now.

In the end I will decide whether to switch to SMF or reinstall phpBB with the latest version.

[animecosmo]

I cannot answer all of your question, but I can say some things.

SMF does have image verification for registration (I think you have to download a modification for it, but there is one--don't know about guest posts), you can use a portal system (like Tiny Portal) to manage SSI on the homepage, there are child board options.

The rest I am not sure about. I'd love to find out how to allow guests to post in specific boards, too.