aoeui

# September 30, 2012 at 1:51 pm

Hi,

I cant make my mind on this.

I am building new web for physical workout group, a bunch guys that spent most of their day just excersing in gym or outside = not much in IT skilled :)

example: http://youtu.be/09m9jpfuNqc

what would be the best forum engine for simple Q&A topics like ?

https://phpbb.com/

http://vanillaforums.org/

http://bbpress.org/

I have ton of experience with **phpbb**, I like **vanilla** on which runs this css-tricks forum but I will be using WP so **bbpress** comes into mind as well

**phpbb**

has plenty of features

UX and use is for a bit more advnced users

**vanilla**

simple and straightforward

UX easy to use for almost anyone

**bbpress**

I have ZERO experience here

**QUESTION:**
“What would you use in this case and why ?”

theacefes

# September 30, 2012 at 4:12 pm

If you have to use one of those three, I would go with vanilla – it’s pretty easy to use both from a moderating and user pov.

For my online community I use Invision Power Board but that costs money. :)

SgtLegend

# October 1, 2012 at 6:53 am

I have found bbPress to be the easiest to work with since it integrates nicely with the WordPress user sessions, you can also get a very extensive plugin to manage permissions which has native support for bbPress.

Chris Coyier

# October 3, 2012 at 4:02 pm

You’re posting here, so you’re experiencing Vanilla. It’s not awful but I’m not a huge fan either. I mega wish I was on bbPress which does a bit less but would allow this site to be 100% WordPress powered.

chrisburton

# October 3, 2012 at 4:14 pm

The bbpress demo reminds me of the [Typophile forums](http://typophile.com) which I really like. @chriscoyier, why didn’t you make the change during the redesign?

aoeui

# October 4, 2012 at 2:58 am

@chriscoyier you are right about the bbPress

after all I will build the site in WP anyway so it only makes sense to use bbPress as those 2 get quite good along together I guess

will give it a shot

Chris Coyier

# October 4, 2012 at 9:10 am

Changing forum software is no trivial task. Especially for someone like me who isn’t a very good developer (w stuff like databases). And also there is no Vanilla -> bbPress converter yet. I’ve talked to bbPress devs though and it seems likely someday.

chrisburton

# October 25, 2012 at 11:08 pm

http://gconverter.com/vanilla-to-bbpress/