Top 8 Internet Forum Software
An internet forum application is an online discussion site where
individuals hold discussions in the form of posted messages. This
type of software is a very powerful tool to run online communities, to
disseminate information, share experiences and ideas, receive online
support, interact with others learning new intercultural skills, and
much more.
A forum can contain a number of subforums, each of which can
have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion
started is called a thread.
There are two types of structure used in a discussion forum.
The most commonly used is the flat message structure where it is only
possible to add a message to the end of a thread. A threaded view
structure is less commonly used, in part because it is regarded as
somewhat dated.
Messages are typically stored in a relational database such as
MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle.
There is a good range of forum software that is released
under an open source license. To provide an insight into the best
software that is available, we have compiled a list of 8 top open
source internet forum software. Hopefully, there will be software here
for anyone that wants to host online discussions.
Now, let's explore the 8 internet forum software at hand.
For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full
description with an in-depth analysis of its features, a screenshot, together with
links to relevant resources and reviews.
| Internet Forum Software |
| phpBB |
World's leading open source discussion forum software |
| MyBB |
MyBB's
roots lie in the discussion boards XMB and DevBB |
| Simple
Machines |
Good feature set with minimal impact on resources |
| Vanilla |
Help
small communities grow larger |
| miniBB |
Build your own core with an auto-compiling tool |
| FluxBB |
Designed
as a lighter, faster alternative |
| bbPress |
Setup discussion forums inside your WordPress.org
powered site |
| Phorum |
Flat-threaded
message board system written in PHP |
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Last Updated Saturday, January 12 2013 @ 04:12 PM EST
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