Cool Forum!

[ozzy]

Hello all,
I would like to create an online forum. I have a web hosting service with ‘fantastico’. I can either install Phpbb or SMF. Both look like hell!.

Any suggestion about any cool forum (free/commercial) that I can install and use?.

Many thanks in advance,

Princess of darkness

[Paulie_D]

Simple Machines is quite popular

[ozzy]

@Paulie_D thats SMF and I don’t like it!.

Both phpBB and SMF look like the Web in the 90s!. Any alternative?

[ozzy]

@amyth91 Any running example you know, I can look at?. Thanks.

[chrisburton]

@ozzy This site uses Vanilla. Not sure if this fits your requirements.

[Paulie_D]

Or vBulletin might fit.

It might help if you told us what ‘look’ you are after rather than a generic “Those look crappy”.

In my experience, forums (fora?) pull traffic through engaging content and community interaction. Users aren’t overly worried about styling.

[theacefes]

http://shsforums.net and http://forums.gibberlings3.net are some examples of forums where a lot of work has gone into the styling. These are Invision Power Boards though and cost upwards of 150 dollars for a license. The features though are great. The SHS one is quite a bit busier but it’s still easy to find your way around I think. The Gibberlings3 one was something I did (and host/maintain) and is more minimalistic as it’s geared more towards programmers who don’t like a lot of glaring graphics.

I’ve seen some awesome skins for SMF forums but honestly if you’re going to do an active board that is used a lot, might be worth it to check into some of the non-free options.

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