Hi, I am really confused as to which forum software to use.
I have seen mybb and smf both and I will list down what I have found in each of them suitable or not suitable . I would like to have honest opinion from people around here.


SMF

1. Very good forum software.
2. very vibrant community that is always open to help.
3. one of the oldest forum softwares around so I would assume that major chunk of issues would be in the community itself solved and better features suggested by the community members ( which I just read sometimes and get happy about )
4. has a portal system and it is just awesome.
5. I have not found on any forum software website detailed posts like this board's sticky topics http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=86.0 and since I am not so proficient with smf, the folks here at the community are doing awesome job.
6. If anytime my forum goes down, i think it would be back again in lesser time if I host it with smf owing to fantastic community support here.


I have looked around mybb too. they also have a helpful community but the community answers database of mybb is defenitely much smaller as compared to smf. it is just that mybb is so much preconfigured and it is lots like vbulettin that I got inclination towards using it.
preconfigured in the sense that smf has mods to do lots of customization of profiles but in mybb it is preconfigured.


i am like stuck in a dilemma whether to go for ore customization or go with a forum software with awesome community support (smf)which I believe would never let me down.
really need some opinion from experts around here.
I even went to this website and it is mybb that they have listed as the best forum software
http://www.forum-software.org/
help me out

You are asking on the SMF community should you use our software or a competitor.

On here you would expect us to say use SMF and on myBB  you would expect them to say use MyBB.

What I will say is try both, and use the one you like best, end of day you are the person who is using your site most, you will know what you feel more comfortable using.  So if that means you use SMF then great we are happy with that.   If you prefer the myBB experience then great we are glad you are happy with that but we do hope you will look at SMF if it doesnt work out.

Quote from: Runic on May 20, 2012, 11:28:54 AM
You are asking on the SMF community should you use our software or a competitor.

On here you would expect us to say use SMF and on myBB  you would expect them to say use MyBB.

What I will say is try both, and use the one you like best, end of day you are the person who is using your site most, you will know what you feel more comfortable using.  So if that means you use SMF then great we are happy with that.   If you prefer the myBB experience then great we are glad you are happy with that but we do hope you will look at SMF if it doesnt work out.

I definitely want to go with smf forum software. It is a great piece of software and I am really impressed by the community here. Believe me,  on phpb3 and mybb community  forums, I have never seen a query being answered so fast and that too professionally.

In my opinion, the community that powers the forum is more valuble than the forum software itself becasue people like me ( no coding experts) always rely on the community to meet our problems faced n using that software.
I have had some bad experiences with other forum software's community but never with smf.

the problem is that mybb resembles lots to vbulletin and that was the reason I wanted to go with it because most of the target audience is well versed with vbulletin software, and I am afraid I might looses some audience if I go with smf.
Hence was asking what to do.

there are many mods that you can install that will help emulate the vbulletin feel, unsure if they are updated for 2,0 though :/

In my experience with forums, a lot of your members get turned off when you try to use a free software and make it seem like a paid software. I think your better off using a free software for what it is You start adding too many modification, you will then run into errors, modifications conflicting with one and other and a horrible day when its time to update the software

Mybb is very powerful, as is smf.

The problem with Mybb is the fact many of the useful plugins are now forced to subscribe too, which means you'd be paying multiple pounds for a group of plugins which you are unlikely to use. I must of joined around 7, the skinning side is a plus because there's many talented cheap designers and I'm not familiar with smf in that terms but I would suggest that you go down the route which would fit your community. In my opinion those who use one board, then move to another cause disruption that some members don't like. (try to stick to the one you select)

That's like asking if you should eat chocolate or cooked spinach~   Just saying.

Quote from: RoCKeT-88 on May 20, 2012, 08:01:41 PM
That's like asking if you should eat chocolate or cooked spinach~   Just saying.

Well, yes, exactly.

Some people like chocolate, some people like spinach, nothing wrong with that.

I usually sign up to a forum because of its content and not so much because of the forum software they use. <--  that is probably the last of my concerns when I sign up on a forum.

The best thing you can do, like Runic already said, is to try them both and chose the one who fits your needs, every forum software offers unique features or offer different approach for the same feature, it's all relative and you and only you have the power to make a decision

Quote from: Suki on May 20, 2012, 08:22:03 PM
..... some people like spinach, nothing wrong with that.

yuck

Oh, I like spinach but  then again I eat or make tea out of almost anything that comes from the ground, veggies that is

I tried mybb out a couple of years ago on forum that i had, just to see what it was about .... I personally didn't like the features that it had and smf was alot easier, IMHO. From what I wanted to do with my forum, it would have taken me a while to learn mybb the way that I was used to smf. The mods that I was wanting from mybb ( since I'm not Code expert ) was going to cost me quite a bit of $$. Besides from voluntary $$ that I have personally sent to members that I wanted to say "Thank You to", I still saved alot of money. I'm mighty proud of my small SMF site and I wont change forum types.

but the moral of my rambling post is .... If you are used to mybb, then that is what you are going to be with. Each is their own, both have good people. Try them both.

btw .... I'll take chocolate covered Spinach , lol

Quote from: Shawn Gossman on May 20, 2012, 01:20:17 PM
In my experience with forums, a lot of your members get turned off when you try to use a free software and make it seem like a paid software. I think your better off using a free software for what it is You start adding too many modification, you will then run into errors, modifications conflicting with one and other and a horrible day when its time to update the software

it is not that I want to use a free software and look it like a paid software. The powered by mybb or smf is always in the footer.

QuoteThe powered by mybb or smf is always in the footer.

Is this the reason behind the question?

Quote from: Old Fossil on May 20, 2012, 09:11:09 PM

QuoteThe powered by mybb or smf is always in the footer.

Is this the reason behind the question?

Not at all.
it is open source software and this is definitely not the reason behind the question.
I wonder what makes you think so?

Quote from: bearstreet on May 20, 2012, 09:15:32 AM
it is just that mybb is so much preconfigured and it is lots like vbulettin that I got inclination towards using it.

I have never used neither vB nor MyBB, may I ask you what are the things you miss from vB?
Is it the theme?
Is it some kind of feature?
Is it...?

Thanks!

Quote from: emanuele on May 21, 2012, 08:45:33 AM

Quote from: bearstreet on May 20, 2012, 09:15:32 AM
it is just that mybb is so much preconfigured and it is lots like vbulettin that I got inclination towards using it.

I have never used neither vB nor MyBB, may I ask you what are the things you miss from vB?
Is it the theme?
Is it some kind of feature?
Is it...?

Thanks!

I have never used Vb as an admin too.
But i have used mybb and its just that it is greatly pre configured meaning many features that it contains , smf uses plugins to do that.
mybb dosen't has a robust portal system as smf has, and as I said earlier, if using an open source software, we should always go by the quality of the community behind that software.
smf has an awesome community,one of the biggest reasons that I want to use smf apart from the fact that smf powered forums open on low speed connections too but I have not seen other forums not responding too fast to such slow connections.
the features of VB that you asked for, includes this USer Control Panel feature that resembles Vbulletin v much. I am attaching the screenshot for you to see, just in case.

There are also disadvantages to having too much in the core, too.

Personally I find MyBB has always been trying to copy vBulletin without doing so much of its own thing, though more recently it's abandoned that mentality.

One thing I have noticed amongst MyBB users is arrogance. SMF users tend to respect the choices others make, MyBB users tend to sneer down at non-MyBB users - that's my observation on other forum discussion sites, anyway. (And XenForo users seem to sneer down at everyone, but again that's just my observation.)