phpNuke/phpbb2 versus Simple Machines Forums

New Member Joined: Jul 31, 2006 Posts: 2

Possibly going to convert a site from PostNuke 1.2g/phpBB 2.0.10 to SMF, or Raven's latest. The site admin is leaning towards SMF, but I know so little about SMF I don't know how to compare and contrast it. He loves how the SMF themes look, and I can't argue with him on that.

Is it decent software? The vulns that are reported seem to be fixed rather quickly. I worry that there's not enough modifications out there to customize, but mostly it's a totally unfamiliar software package that I'm trying to advise on.

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

Not sure you'll get a look of feedback on SMF here...most of us don't or haven't used it. There are quite a few themes for phpBB that have been integrated into themes for PHP-Nuke, and there are hundreds of phpBB mods, many of which have been integrated into PHP-Nuke.

It sounds like you are considering the right factors: functionality, availability of addons / themes, support, security. I'd take a closer look at the functionality. Themes can be developed, support is pretty good with phpBB and security issues are usually addressed quickly (considering the relative number of users, it's difficult to say whether SMF is more or less secure - it could be less secure and no one knows it...yet).

registered · Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:23 am

I've used it... it isn't bad. Different but it seems to be quite a professional group.
While the forum I use here is a little too messy for my standards (bigger images than necssary), I don't really run this forum myself... http://pff.swrebellion.com

One good thing it did have was an auto updating feature. I have yet to try it, but it could be really useful if it patched itself.

Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 9:48 am

Re: the auto updating feature, I think I saw something like that when I was checking out phpBB recently... I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail, but hopefully it's on the right track towards simplifying updates.

Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 10:28 am

Thanks guys. Smile

They went with it, as much as I still wanted RavenNuke. :-/ But it seems to be working well so far. If you're interested in dark fantasy, specifically the Midnight setting and the Midnight film coming out this fall, againsttheshadow.org. Wink