Hello, World!
I'd like to start off the blog with a good one-- and this one is so good that it amazes me that it's actually free.
What is it?
phpBB is easily my favorite web forum software-- it's free, it's GPL open source, it's well-adopted, feature-rich, easily customizable, and pretty straightforward to install. phpBB is the most widely used open source bulletin board system on Earth, and for good reason.
Hosting and Install
Unlike some other forum systems, phpBB does not offer a SaaS model, but will point you in the direction of several web hosting platforms that cater to those that want simple installation and maintenance for their phpBB forum.
If you choose to go the route of downloading and installing phpBB, any LAMP host will do, as will a Windows/MS SQL or Oracle setup. I run a phpBB forum on GoDaddy, and it probably took me a grand total of 15 minutes to go from zero to live forum. phpBB uses a web-based interface for initial setup-- and the process is even smoother than it was a few revisions ago. Just upload the /phpBB folder to your web site, visit /phpBB/install -- and you're off and running. For me, the only difficult part was configuring the outgoing mail settings (for member notifications and such)-- but that was mostly due to the fact that GoDaddy tends not to publish this information so readily as I'd recommend. (See footnotes.)
Control Panel
The control panel interface is well-organized and bears just about every feature you'd need when managing a forum-- though the option to monetize your forum through sponsor ads or Google AdSense (or otherwise add static content) is curiously absent. (A trip to the /phpBB/cache folder reveals a series of template files where you could add this type of information, if desired.) There are a ton of templates hosted within phpBB's Styles section to choose from-- or of course you have the option to roll your own to fit your existing site's style.
Alternatives, anyone?
One major alternative to phpBB is vBulliten, which is a bit more feature-rich and commercialization-friendly. A forum license for vBulliten will run you $195, a year of support $80. The main benefits of vBulliten over phpBB include actual paid support and the option for a built-in Content Management System and Blog-- the latter two available only with the $285 Publishing Package.
As for me, zero dollars for a fully-featured web forum is the clear winner. Give phpBB v3.0.8 a shot, and let me know what you think.
Footnote:
For those using GoDaddy that want to take notes on the outgoing e-mail settings:
Use SMTP server for e-mail : Yes
SMTP server address : relay-hosting.secureserver.net
SMTP server port : 25
Authentication : Plain
SMTP username : yourusername@yourdomain.com
SMTP password : [blank]
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