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2 Comments Written by admin on July 29, 2008 – 1:06 pm

phpBB is a popular open source bulletin board software package written in the PHP programming language. Unlike vBulletin, phpBB is free. However, depending on your needs, phpBB can serve as acceptable entry-level community forum software and provide you with the ability to add user-generated content to your Web site.

PhpBB is a popular open-source, bulletin board software package written in the PHP programming language. Unlike vBulletin, phpBB is free. However, depending on your needs, phpBB can serve as acceptable entry-level community forum software and provide you with the ability to add usergenerated content to your Web site. phpBB offers a large and highly customizable set of key features, including the ability to implement forum modifications and style changes.

Because phpBB is open source, there is a large range of existing modifications that have been written by other phpBB users and programmers, which you may find useful. Existing phpBB modifications such as Attachment modification provide you with the option to attach different types of files to your posts.

The Show Replies and Views in Topic modification displays the number of replies and views of the topic that your visitor reads. An extensive database of validated modifications is located at www.phpbb.com/mods/db. phpBB version 3 uses a powerful templating system that keeps the PHP code separate from the HTML code and gives you complete freedom to customize your forum the way you want. However, if you want to download additional styles and new graphics for your forum, you can do so at www.phpbb.com/styles/db. phpBB has an easy-to-use administration panel and a user-friendly installation process, which allows you to have your basic forum set up in minutes.

However, if you want to customize your forum, you can expect the process to take much longer, and it may require moderate-toadvanced expertise with PHP, CSS, HTML, and MySQL. You can download phpBB at www.phpbb.com/downloads. However, be sure to read and fully understand the license agreement before you download and use the software.

Selecting appropriate forum software is challenging, especially if you have an e-commerce Web site. If you have a minimal budget, your best bet is to go with phpBB because it is free. However, the other leading forum software, vBulletin, is inexpensive and is likely to be a better choice if you have an ecommerce Web site. There are a number of different factors to consider, and there is likely no better way of evaluating your options than finding out what other people in your situation have done.

HotScripts, located at www.hotscripts.com, is a popular Internet directory that compiles and disseminates Web programming–related resources and opinions. You can use HotScripts when you are exploring the pros and cons of different available forum and community software.

Through HotScripts, you can access user reviews from a variety of current and former phpBB and vBulletin users. Moreover, HotScripts allows users to provide a rating on a one-to-five scale of user satisfaction with each forum. Ratings and reviews are broken down by date because often forum software vendors provide regular updates to improve the software based on user comments, so older reviews may not be relevant.