forums

[KevinG]

Can anyone recommend a good forum software package, i dont mind paying. i found vbulletin and phpbb.

i want to fit a forum with columns down the left and/or right i can use to interchange/promote my other websites.

[theone3]

Well, the two main ones are PHPBB (free) + vBulletin (paid).
vBulletin is better forum software in many ways; so it's probably better if you don't mind paying. But if you're not sure whether your forum will take off, I suggest you use PHPBB, then upgrade to vBulletin if it does. PHPBB is not terribly different in many respects, and it's not a bad forum, it's just not as good as vBulletin.

[Bill Posters]

Two others to consider are Vanilla (http://getvanilla.com) and PunBB (http://www.punbb.org), both of which are free, open source, output valid XHTML 1.0 markup and fast developing a devoted userbase.
Both forums also have a good range of author and user submitted customisation tools, plugins and mods.

I'm actually using a customised version of PunBB as the basis for a forum I'm putting together myself at the moment.
PunBB is currently at version 1.2.12, but an upgrade is due out in the next month or so, which reportedly has further improvements to the markup.




I just noticed that the Vanilla site is down at the moment. I expect it will be back up again soon.

[KevinG]

looks like vbull so far.

[KevinG]

actually while i'm at it, can anyone recommend a good sql dedicated server host? (not co locate)