I'm researching how to add a forum to a Webpage. The Webmaster is a volunteer and I don't expect him to know how to write the code necessary to create a forum. I'm guessing that the easiest way is to buy forum-creating software. Does anyone have suggestions as to the best and most economical software, or information about free forum-creating methods?

Thank you.

Tracy

I use Simple Machines (SMF). It's free, easy to use and tweak, and well supported. Get it for free here: Home of SMF: Free PHP and MySQL forum software

SMF is the newer project, it kindof replaced the old Yabb SE forums.

Another decent project is phpBB • Creating Communities Worldwide

A decent portal, which includes a forum and has many modules available, is PHP-Nuke

I've read somewhere that SMF creates better code from an SEO perspective than phpBB, so it may take less tweaking to get an SMF BB noticed by search engines (that's why I chose SMF over phpBB). Don't know about the code generated by PHP-Nuke. However, I'm no SEO expert and haven't looked at the code generated so take this for what it is: a second-hand opinion. BTW, there are web sites out there that provide tips on tweaking all three platforms for SEO.

Vasily

Also, it's been my experience that phpBB is a bigger target for hackers than SMF.

Thank you, Rick. I just looked at it. It looks good.

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Originally Posted by RickJ

I use Simple Machines (SMF). It's free, easy to use and tweak, and well supported. Get it for free here: Home of SMF: Free PHP and MySQL forum software

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