Why SMF is the Best BBS...

[ryanbsoftware]

I am a member on several board with a variety of diffrent forums software running them from phpbb to vBulletin, I have also seen and use the admin areas of many diffrent forums software too.  I can say without a doubt that the best forums software, of the ones i've used (phpBB, SMF, IPB, vBulletin) that SMF is the best and here is why:

Why SMF is beter than phpBB:

1. phpBB has had and probably has many more security holes, SMF, not near as many and the few that exist are quickly noticed and patched.

2. phpBB dosen't look as professinal as SMF

3. SMF's skinning system is the best of any i've ever seen

4. phpBB's mods have to be manually installed, but SMF has a package manager to do that

5. phpBB lacks having a large number of both mods and skins

Why SMF is beter than IPB:

1. Unlike IPS, Lewis Media isn't hippocratic (starting out a free software with a slogan "If PHP is free and MySQL is free shouldn't your Bulletin Board Be Free?" or something to that effect, not they don't allow long term use of their free (now trial) version.)

2. The skinning system for IPB is strictly CSS while SMF adds more to make the foum ever more customisable

3. SMF is FREE, and even if you don't compare price its still beter than IPB.

4. [Unknown] (the lead SMF developer) is probaby on these forums more than the entie development team for IPB is on the IPS forums, and i dobut they spend that time to code, casuse if so they aren't good at it anyway.

5. IPB is bloatware, not as much a vBulleting is but that still can start to strain the server....but SMF just is a simple BBS with sever mods, easily installable to fit your exact needs

Why SMF is beter than vBulletin:

1. vBulletin is the biggest example of bloatware thier is, which does cause extra strain on the server wheras SMF you only install the features you want with a few mouse clicks.

2. vBulletin has a verry heafty price tag, but also if it were free SMF would still be beter (and SMF is already FREE)

3. Surprisinly enough i found a defualt SMF feature thats not a vBulletin feature, perhaps maybe though its a mod or just was disabled but i doubt it, the Insert Quote link when posting a reply to insert another quote from another message in that thread

4. Any good feature of vBulletin i found that I CANNOT live without is a feature or easily installable mod.

5. vBulletins premade skins are NOT free, i never founs any at least, SMF has tons of free skins, and the skinning system of vBulletin though closer to SMF's power, still is worse.

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That being said I think SMF being the best BBS is a fai assumption, afterall i found five big points as to why SMF is beter than the 3 leading BBS's, and theirs more but your probably getting tired of reading this by now, lol.

[[Unknown]]

I don't know about "more than the entire IPB team combined"...

-[Unknown]

[ryanbsoftware]

I don't know about "more than the entire IPB team combined"...

-[Unknown]

well you are on alot help out the users, yet you still manage to get a new versions done quickly, efficently with miimal bugs.

[nibb]

Well I did not know that SMF existed, I can say with out a doubt its the best Forum system i ever saw. When I used Yabb I only needed a main feature. To let users posts images and files, i installed the mod for that after hours and hours, and it worked, not so good but it worked, it had errors, like when you posteda  wide image it destroyed the forum layout. Then I wanted another main feature, to let users publish their avatars, it was a mess from start, until now nobody that uses Yabb can use these 2 mods together,  every forum should have these features. The forum on YABB had millions of users that wanted the same thing, well it was enough for me after months that nothing with attachments worked, then I saw SMF and I almost cried, it has those 2 features already build in, and many more.
The design was the first thing i notice over other forums, its easy and very professional. The Admin center has tons of features and i did not found any bug so far. I had phpBB too and i can only say these about that popular forum, Server Overload, if you get 100 simultaneous users you get a Mysql overload, and thats not just me, i now a few people that need a least a P4 dedicated server only for their forums on PphpBB, not to mention i was hacked twice on my server with phpBB. SMF forums are also great, you always get a fast response. Its the future of Internet Forums, SMF is always a step ahead in features. Thats why they listen to users.
I love it.

[stargazer_1017]

Thank you so much with your review! I have a site right now that's on EZBoard *shudder* and I'm reading to go with other boards.

I had considered IPB and VBulletin, and even phpBB. IPB and VBulletin are way beyond my price range, and I demoed phpBB and had a hard time customizing it to how I wanted.

I still have yet to try SMF, but I'm leaning towards it when I get my domain up and running. This forum totally helped me make my decision!

-Shayna

[Burpee]

I agree with everything, except...

hippocratic....

hypocrite!!!!

[Midgard]

not best of all BBS... (as for me.)

[nokonium]

We looked at different board software before choosing SMF. At first I was taken aback by the amount of activity in the support forums but I was told this was usual.

Bottom line is we found SMF the most intuitive. It was the easiest to set up and administer. Since then we have found that we have a lively and stable board. Problems occur, as they always will, but usually because of 'mods'. The core installation is superbly stable and the learning  curve was short because it was easy to understand.

[Thantos]

While I believe SMF is the best (at least the best I've ever used) you (RyanB) have failed to do the most important thing in an argument:  provide proof.  You make claims without anything to back them up.