Forum software for consultations

[melat0nin]

Hi all

I'm looking into creating a kind of online consultation system using forum software. The idea is that the institution doing the consultation will create the topics which they would like people to give their views on/discuss, but they don't want users to be able to create topics themselves.

So, there'll be a few subforums (one each for a project) and within them a few threads, say up to 10, each being a question or topic within the project that views are sought on.

Here's an example of the kind of thing I'd like to create: http://talklaw.co.nz/topic/are-you-being-watched
(alas the software used for that site costs £14,000 and we'd like to do is F/OSS if possible!)

Can anyone suggest forum software capable of doing this kind of thing? I've looked at ForumMatrix.org but it doesn't say whether forums allow admins to restrict users to just replying.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[noneforit]

I use PHPbb and its works great. Completely customisable in regards to what members can and cant do. Check it out as its free