Best free forum software

On 1 Dec 2007 22:53:17 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

On 1 Dec 2007 21:40:05 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

Guys, what's the best free forum software around, any opinions?

I've been using phpBB for some time, but I wouldn't call it the best.
I want to give SMF a try, but it's not Open Source.

No idea if this helps:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/forum-software-roundup

You want a SEO friendly solution? (I am writing one atm, NDA sadly :-D)

No, I just joined one run by friends that's like going back to the
stone age so I'm suggesting better ones to them. Thanks.

Ah, ok. In that case I would say phpBB (which has your initials in the
name ;-). It's probably not the best forum software, but it's used a lot.
The CAPTCHA sucks though, I have written an improved version which works
quite good (but which I don't spread around too much, because then it
probably stops being good). Anyway, if your friends decide on phpBB make
sure they install a good CAPTCHA mod. The one that comes (or maybe came)
with phpBB sucks big time.

OKey, thanks.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/
http://www.fat-odin.com/
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 23:04:23 +0000, BH <tower (AT) tower-forte (DOT) demon.co.uk>
wrote:

In message <kej3l3lf4bvf4g8ldon72qbeaob7cvd9kv (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, Big Bill
bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> writes
Guys, what's the best free forum software around, any opinions?

BB

If it is SEF out of the box then

UBB will give your urs like this
foo.org/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/20/110.html

some give you
foo./lofiversion/index.php/t27306.html

But if you are ok with php and do some mods to phpBB

SEs will see your forum as

foo.org/forums/forum-8.html
and topics as
foo.org/forums/topic1320.html

Less PR loss

Barrie,

I should have said this isn't for SEO purposes, just normal. Thanks
Barry.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/
http://www.fat-odin.com/
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/

On Sat, 1 Dec 2007 17:51:31 -0600, Brandon <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) spam> wrote:

On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:11:27 GMT, Big Bill wrote:

Guys, what's the best free forum software around, any opinions?

Don't waste your time with free. vBulletin is excellent forum
software and worth every penny. phpBB is the "best" "free" one, but
it is primitive compared to vBulletin. I used phpBB and got fed up
with the convoluted maintenance and spam attacks. vBulletin is a
gazillion times better in every way.

This is a closed forum on a protected site so it won't be spammed at
all. I've heard of vBulletin, now you mention it, though.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/
http://www.fat-odin.com/
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

This is a closed forum on a protected site so it won't be spammed at
all. I've heard of vBulletin, now you mention it, though.

How's the site protected? If people can register to the forum, that's
exactly what spam bots do: they register as a user, and then post a
message. Some messages look real, and have the spam link in the signature.

Another reason for spamming is that users can often enter a link to their
website. The overview of members can be public, and does include this
link. Hence they spam to get their link on that page.

My experience is that a custom made CAPTCHA keeps all spammers out :-D.
(so far, knocks on wood, etc.).

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/

On 2 Dec 2007 19:03:26 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:


This is a closed forum on a protected site so it won't be spammed at
all. I've heard of vBulletin, now you mention it, though.

How's the site protected? If people can register to the forum, that's
exactly what spam bots do: they register as a user, and then post a
message. Some messages look real, and have the spam link in the signature.

It's in a section of the site that's already passworded.

Another reason for spamming is that users can often enter a link to their
website. The overview of members can be public, and does include this
link. Hence they spam to get their link on that page.

They don't have that option here.

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/
http://www.fat-odin.com/
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

On 2 Dec 2007 19:03:26 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:


This is a closed forum on a protected site so it won't be spammed at
all. I've heard of vBulletin, now you mention it, though.

How's the site protected? If people can register to the forum, that's
exactly what spam bots do: they register as a user, and then post a
message. Some messages look real, and have the spam link in the
signature.

It's in a section of the site that's already passworded.

Ok, so members need 2 passwords? And how do new ones get registered? They
need an invite with a password to get in first?

Another reason for spamming is that users can often enter a link to
their website. The overview of members can be public, and does include
this link. Hence they spam to get their link on that page.

They don't have that option here.

It doesn't matter to spammers. I don't even have phpBB on johnbokma.com
and yet people try to spam it like it has :-)

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/

Brandon <nospam (AT) nospam (DOT) spam> wrote:

When I had phpBB running, I had an additional anti-spam mod on top of
CAPTCHA. It helped. (CAPTCHA is only marginally effective. Not only
can most of them be defeated automatically now,

The badly designed and/or used a lot ones, yes. My tweaked version of the
default phpBB one so far not. Recaptcha seems also a bit harder to me.

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/

On 2 Dec 2007 22:01:59 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

On 2 Dec 2007 19:03:26 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:


This is a closed forum on a protected site so it won't be spammed at
all. I've heard of vBulletin, now you mention it, though.

How's the site protected? If people can register to the forum, that's
exactly what spam bots do: they register as a user, and then post a
message. Some messages look real, and have the spam link in the
signature.

It's in a section of the site that's already passworded.

Ok, so members need 2 passwords? And how do new ones get registered? They
need an invite with a password to get in first?

They need a recognised membership number sent to them by normal mail.
Then they need a password of their own devising to enter the members
part of the site.

Another reason for spamming is that users can often enter a link to
their website. The overview of members can be public, and does include
this link. Hence they spam to get their link on that page.

They don't have that option here.

It doesn't matter to spammers. I don't even have phpBB on johnbokma.com
and yet people try to spam it like it has :-)

That's because you're so popular John!

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/
http://www.fat-odin.com/
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/

Big Bill <bill (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

On 2 Dec 2007 22:01:59 GMT, John Bokma <john (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

[..]

It doesn't matter to spammers. I don't even have phpBB on
johnbokma.com and yet people try to spam it like it has :-)

That's because you're so popular John!

I suffer everyday because of it :-)

Anyway, check the error_log of your site, I am sure you see stuff like:

[Sat Dec 1 03:36:24 2007] [error] [client 209.163.169.9] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/phpbb/index.php
[Sat Dec 1 05:12:45 2007] [error] [client 193.238.213.66] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/board/index.php

Talking about spam, those are nice too:

[Sun Dec 2 09:29:47 2007] [error] [client 60.190.79.18] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/perl/phpbb-remote-backup/cgi-bin/comment.cgi
[Mon Dec 3 00:54:25 2007] [error] [client 216.240.129.180] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/messenger/new-emoticon/cgi-bin/comment.cgi

Bots so badly written that they can't handle relative URLs. Based on what
I see, a lot of people use that garbage.

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/

My 2 cents to phpBB. Nice installation, administration, and prepared
for SEO.

Luisa
http://www.vrlist.info

On 3 dic, 17:37, John Bokma <j... (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

Big Bill <b... (AT) kruse (DOT) co.uk> wrote:
On 2 Dec 2007 22:01:59 GMT, John Bokma <j... (AT) castleamber (DOT) com> wrote:

[..]

It doesn't matter to spammers. I don't even have phpBB on
johnbokma.com and yet people try to spam it like it has :-)

That's because you're so popular John!

I suffer everyday because of it :-)

Anyway, check the error_log of your site, I am sure you see stuff like:

[Sat Dec 1 03:36:24 2007] [error] [client 209.163.169.9] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/phpbb/index.php
[Sat Dec 1 05:12:45 2007] [error] [client 193.238.213.66] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/board/index.php

Talking about spam, those are nice too:

[Sun Dec 2 09:29:47 2007] [error] [client 60.190.79.18] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/perl/phpbb-remote-backup/cgi-bin/comment.cgi
[Mon Dec 3 00:54:25 2007] [error] [client 216.240.129.180] File does not
exist: /home/jbokma/web/messenger/new-emoticon/cgi-bin/comment.cgi

Bots so badly written that they can't handle relative URLs. Based on what
I see, a lot of people use that garbage.

--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/