Newbie question - types of forum

[scary]

Ok, forgive my ridiculous newbie question... What's the different between forums like SMF, phpBB and those free idiot-friendly forums offered by forumotion.com/freeforums.org [nofollow]?

Thank you!

[Arantor]

SMF, phpBB, and similar all do the same general job of being a forum. Each has slightly different features to the other, and some people prefer different packages.

The two sites you mention basically manage the job of installation and possibly some administration of phpBB/SMF/PunBB etc etc for you, they host it for you and run some of it, but usually you have limitations as to what you can do - it's still using basically the same software though.

I have seen full comparisons before but nothing particularly recent or accurate though

[scary]

SMF, phpBB, and similar all do the same general job of being a forum. Each has slightly different features to the other, and some people prefer different packages.

The two sites you mention basically manage the job of installation and possibly some administration of phpBB/SMF/PunBB etc etc for you, they host it for you and run some of it, but usually you have limitations as to what you can do - it's still using basically the same software though.

I have seen full comparisons before but nothing particularly recent or accurate though

Thanks a lot Arantor! I'm starting to think maybe one of these idiot-friendly one may serve my needs.

[Arantor]

There's others, too, such as smfforfree.com

[scary]

Thanks again, I will give another try setting up SMF before I seek for alternative solutions. I'm sure SMF is more professional than those easy one out there.

[scary]

There's others, too, such as smfforfree.com [nofollow]

Hi Arantor, if I'm going for a setup-ready free forums, will you suggest smfforfree over forumotion.com [nofollow] and freeforums.org [nofollow]? I want to use one that I can easily transfer to a full feature forum like SMF in the future. You know a lot more than I do, please advise. Thanks in advance!

[Arantor]

I've never used any of those services, to be honest. SMF For Free is just one I've come into contact via here - personally I've always just set it up from the base distribution as that way I have a lot more control over what goes on with it.

That said, try out SMF For Free, see if it works for you because I'm sure you can migrate to your own setup later.

[青山 素子]

Be warned that most of those hosted forum sites do not offer any kind of data backup for migration, so any posts on those services are locked to them.

[scary]

Be warned that most of those hosted forum sites do not offer any kind of data backup for migration, so any posts on those services are locked to them.

do you mean I may not be able to transfer everything to a real forum on my hosting in the future? that's one of the important factor I have to consider. thank you!

[青山 素子]

do you mean I may not be able to transfer everything to a real forum on my hosting in the future? that's one of the important factor I have to consider. thank you!

Correct. If that is important to you, always check with the service first, or start out with everything under your control.

[scary]

Thank you!