SMF vs. phpBB - Differences and user friendlyness!

[maxklr]

HI!

I'm currently running a phpBB forum on my server. I must say, as a computer novice, I find it pretty difficult to change features in the board and add modifications, the forum does run very smoothly though and the community offers great support.

The reason I chose phpBB is simply because that's the only free software I was aware of at the timebeeing.

This is why I wonder: What are the main differences between phpBB and SMF?

I would like to hear from both users and developers (if possible), also people who have experience on both solutions!

Also, what does the vBullettin company offer that the free ones don't? Not much, it seems....

My forum is located at www.reggaemusic.no - It is only in norwegian, and it looks buttugly!

Thanks for any replies!

Max

[Douglas]

Look at any of the sites in my signature, and you'll see exactly why I run the sites I do on SMF over any other forum software package.

[codenaught]

While I welcome people to bring new things to the table, I will let you know that there is a vast amount of discussion already on this forum of why people like SMF (why they choose it over phpBB), that you can find by searching these forums.

If you changed from phpBB...
Which is better, SMF or phpBB
My opinion on SMF

[maxklr]

Ok, will do! thanks!

[maxklr]

I think the SMF board looks better. But what about customization and changing up the look of the forum? i.e I would like ads on the side, top and bottom of the forum. Will that be easy to do?

Also, is it possible to transfer the data from phpBB to the SMF forum?

A MOD i really enjoy with phpBB is the youtubemod. It lets me add the following code

Code Select Expand

[youtube]youtube-URL [/youtube] and it integrates the player in the post. It's not life and death, but defenetly a big PRO eventhough it took me friggin forever to get the installation right (tired at work today after sitting up all night playing a programmer...).

I shouldn't be to difficult to convince, SELL ME THE PRODUCT (evnthough its free...)

EDIT: Also, is PHP5 required to run SMF? My server only supports PHP4!

[codenaught]

First off, SMF works with php 4.

It isn't normally that hard to convert to SMF, you can see documentation here - http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?board=4.0;sort=subject. A great thing about converting in my opinion is that it doesn't overwrite your existing forum or anything like that, so if something goes wrong, you won't be stuck with nothing.

There is an ad management mod you may be interested in:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=255

And YouTube - http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=936

[nick09]

in a way SMF is more easy to me.

you can install mods via the package installer.

which you don't have to edit each file, to install it.

all i can say is i am thankful for the creation of smf.

[H]

See also http://www.forummatrix.org

[GiNi3D]

I think the SMF board looks better.

Let's not make a mistake here...

Let me explain something, it's true that out of the box, a forum that is nice, or like you said, "looks better", does have its importance. However, one must take care of looking deeper than the surface. The first time I saw SMF, I did not like it that much compared to some others, what made me choose SMF was the outstanding coding, not the look. The look can be changed at profusion, the coding only to a certain point, more than that my as well code a new forum...

however, like you said yourself, and I quote you beow:

But what about customization and changing up the look of the forum?

For that, you need to install SMF out of the public view, play with it, change stuff and get to know it, then you can make you own conclusion. Coming here asking the SMF community for our opinion can be pretty much biased, don't you think?

[maxklr]

Yes, biased indeed, but I want to be convinced, and I guess this forum is the best place to get convinced, right?

Also, I just encountered a new problem with phpBB: If I want to change up the style of the forum all my MODs (which i spent forever trying to install) will be gone and need reinstallation. Now that truly and really SUCKS!

When I talk about changing the look, it's all pretty basic stuff, and as long as theres someone to help me out in here, I guess I'll go for the conversion. It's just really important that all the posts remain in the forum, so I'll need to know how that works.

Also: If I want to expand my site sometime, is it easy to integrate the forum? (i.e with Joomla!?)

[Ol' Wombat]

smf is far more advanced/complex in the admin panel - needs some time to get used to it. The organisational structuring of the code is cleaner and therefore easier to customised.

PHPbb still needs a very long way to go until it's comparable to smf

[maxklr]

If the user interface is complex, I can handle it, its the goddarn code that's killing me!

[metallica48423]

i find SMF much easier to understand than phpbb.. and i was a phpbb admin for 2 years

[Kindred]

Also: If I want to expand my site sometime, is it easy to integrate the forum? (i.e with Joomla!?)

Not with Joomla. We have discontinued the smf-joomla bridge. (for reasons, see that many posts on the subject)

You can, however, use TinyPortal (an SMF mod), Mambo, XOOPS or E107

[Ol' Wombat]

Frankly I don''t think that phpbb will ever be comparable with smf....

you may be well right here! - PHPbb development/progress is fairly slow, too many Betas and RCs, therefore it appears to be a bit disorganised. I used it for a few weeks, watched their forum discussions and decided it's going nowhere.

[wwe9112]

I liked phpbb because I was a "PRO" at it so to speak, I knew ow to do everything with it, that's why I'm having such a hard time as it is now, I have to re learn everything now that I'm with SMF. I've used VB, it's the same as all the others, the forums are a little better, and I like there themes better, bout it.

[metallica48423]

Not necessarily -- we also take our time in development -- but not without reason.

[Ol' Wombat]

Not necessarily -- we also take our time in development -- but not without reason.

it's not about time, it's mainly about too much/long bug fixing hampering progress. They probably need until version 4 to become comparable to smf version 114.

[maxklr]

OK! I've Converted. this software KICKS ASS! Thanks and may the computer god bless you all!

I've already installed mods and whatnot and everything looks SWEET.

[Ol' Wombat]

OK! I've Converted. this software KICKS ASS! Thanks and may the computer god bless you all!

I've already installed mods and whatnot and everything looks SWEET.

Just a word of caution concerning Mods - they may screw your forum and un-installation is in many cases not perfect. Always have a forum folder backup before installing a mod - that way, if something goes wrong, you can wipe the forum folder, restore from the backup and all is well again.