phpBB or Invision ???

[Carnival Forces]

hey all, i'm new at web design and construction, and will be creating a website (that will be politically oriented) soon (within one day from now). I'd like to know, should I choose phpBB or Invision for the forum software, and why? I've reviewed teh features lists of both of them, and I still can't make up my mind...so I figured I'd ask the people with the most and best expereince

My main concerns are:
1. I want to be able to warn/banperma-ban users by username and IP
2. I want to be able to log posts/posters by IP
3. I want to be able to differentiate in ranks by post count (like 0 posts = nub, 100 posts = cheeze, etc. etc.)
4. I want to have all the moderation controls necessary to ensure no one could spam the board or just abuse it.
5. I want to be able to have other people be mods and admins, and limit their powers.

from what I've seen, it seems as though both phpBB and Invision can do what I want, so I guess the question is "Which is better for my needs?"


Thanks in advance!

 

[Xenarchy]

You havn't told us what your needs are or even what you can support. There are some GREAT asp.net boards out there however unless you have SQL and .net you wont be able to run them.

Also, pretty much any forum can do what you listed in your bullet points. It's more of a which do you feel more comfortable with. Some are more customizable, others have little quirks that are annoying or could make a site come to it's knees under stress.

Define to us what your needs are and what technologies you are supporting.

 

[Carnival Forces]

You havn't told us what your needs are or even what you can support. There are some GREAT asp.net boards out there however unless you have SQL and .net you wont be able to run them.

Also, pretty much any forum can do what you listed in your bullet points. It's more of a which do you feel more comfortable with. Some are more customizable, others have little quirks that are annoying or could make a site come to it's knees under stress.

Define to us what your needs are and what technologies you are supporting.

err, i will be getting the Silver Hosting plan from http://totalchoicehosting.com/web-hosting-plans.html (it seemed to receive favorable reviews in the Hosting Feedback thread)

however, keep in mind that my coding knowledge is essentially limited to html and through chapter 2 of Learning Perl

i am a quick learner, though, and i'm smart, so hopefully i can make this work.

i'm not sure if this is clear enough?
-thanks for responding-

EDIT: ah yes, i guess the main thing i'm worried about is user-friendliness so whichever one is easier to set up / use / maintain etc. would be the one i would like...

 

[M11]

First off, stay away from ASP/MsSQL. Not only are there no good boards for it, but you do NOT want to use a Microsoft product for a server.

With that said, vbulletin > *

It beats the others in every way, except that you have to pay for it. In terms of extra features, community support, and available hacks, it is far superior. The $85 you spend on a leased license will more than be made up for in features and headaches averted. Feel free to ask me any questions, I've authored a number of vb2/vb3 FAQs/modification guides.


If you don't want vbulletin, invision would be my choice. It can run sites with tens of thousands of users easily, and has administrative features to avert headaches.

I would not use phpBB under any circumstances.

 

[Great_Melinko]

if you want something quick, invision(i cant belive i just said that). depending on your hosting phpBB is a good place to start. vb isnt worth it unless you are running a fairly large site ([h], [m]) I use phpBB and once you read up on it its pretty easy to install and configure.

 

[Xenarchy]

First off, stay away from ASP/MsSQL. Not only are there no good boards for it, but you do NOT want to use a Microsoft product for a server.

I thought this kind of talk was only found in the O/S forums. /sigh

 

[Great_Melinko]

First off, stay away from ASP/MsSQL. Not only are there no good boards for it, but you do NOT want to use a Microsoft product for a server.

With that said, vbulletin > *

It beats the others in every way, except that you have to pay for it. In terms of extra features, community support, and available hacks, it is far superior. The $85 you spend on a leased license will more than be made up for in features and headaches averted. Feel free to ask me any questions, I've authored a number of vb2/vb3 FAQs/modification guides.


If you don't want vbulletin, invision would be my choice. It can run sites with tens of thousands of users easily, and has administrative features to avert headaches.

I would not use phpBB under any circumstances.

you ARE dumb arent you...

 

[Carnival Forces]

First off, stay away from ASP/MsSQL. Not only are there no good boards for it, but you do NOT want to use a Microsoft product for a server.

With that said, vbulletin > *

It beats the others in every way, except that you have to pay for it. In terms of extra features, community support, and available hacks, it is far superior. The $85 you spend on a leased license will more than be made up for in features and headaches averted. Feel free to ask me any questions, I've authored a number of vb2/vb3 FAQs/modification guides.


If you don't want vbulletin, invision would be my choice. It can run sites with tens of thousands of users easily, and has administrative features to avert headaches.

I would not use phpBB under any circumstances.

why wouldn't you use phpBB?

 

[Carnival Forces]

and remember, when making your choice, ease of first and speedy setup/maintenance is my primary concern! thanks, you guys.

 

[M11]

I thought this kind of talk was only found in the O/S forums. /sigh

MsSQL is slower, costs more, and bugridden.

you ARE dumb arent you...

Thank you for your helpful input. I will PM you for your absolute knowledge of fact before making any more replies.

why wouldn't you use phpBB?

Lacks many features, access masks are shaky, and there are not as many good add-ons.

 

[Carnival Forces]

Lacks many features, access masks are shaky, and there are not as many good add-ons.

err, i'm new, so bear with me. what features does it lack that matter? and what exactly are "access masks"? and what do you mean by add-ons

sorry for the nubbiness...

 

[Xenarchy]

MsSQL is slower, costs more, and bugridden.

Slower? Examples please.
Cost? He is paying for webhosting. So instead of 8 dollars he pays 10/month ?
Bugridden? Every program has flaws, but again he doesn't have to worry about the administration of the server it's self.

 

[M11]

err, i'm new, so bear with me. what features does it lack that matter? and what exactly are "access masks"? and what do you mean by add-ons

sorry for the nubbiness...

As for features....phpbb lacks an effective replacement variable system. It lacks a good template editor. It lacks the ability to easily insert PHP into the templates. It does not break the templates down into individual categories. It has no effective phrase system. It has no calendar. Lacks a customizable mass prune system. Lacks built-in global ignore. Has a shitty search engine, which is hard to tweak for relevance. There are plenty of other features it lacks.

PhpBB lacks many of the addons found for other boards,

And now for access masks......
Access masks are a cool feature using inheritable allow/deny entries on a variety of actions. They can be applied at the global level, to any subforum and its subforums (they inherit), and to the individual user. Users may belong to multiple usergroups, each with a global permissionset and an optionally different one at the level of each subforum. It is to a forum/subforum what NTFS is to a drive/folders/files

 

[Great_Melinko]

err, i'm new, so bear with me. what features does it lack that matter? and what exactly are "access masks"? and what do you mean by add-ons

sorry for the nubbiness...

he is talking out of his ass. there are many addons for what the price is, FREE. you can get MySQL free and php free. if you ask me its a helluva deal

 

[M11]

Slower? Examples please.

I work with the shit on a daily basis. I hate it, and would not do it unless I was paid to. It works for some people, but speed is an issue. It tends to be slow and memory intensive, and has less free applications being developed for it on the internet.

Cost? He is paying for webhosting. So instead of 8 dollars he pays 10/month ?

Thats still increased cost.

Bugridden? Every program has flaws, but again he doesn't have to worry about the administration of the server it's self.

slammer, et al. Bugs affect end users, it is the admin's responsibility to fix them before they cause loss of service. That doesn't always happen though.

 

[M11]

he is talking out of his ass. there are many addons for what the price is, FREE. you can get MySQL free and php free. if you ask me its a helluva deal

Lets agree to disagree, please keep the personal comments out of this.

$85 is not a lot of money if the threadstarter is serious about a site. phpBB does provide a free alternative, for the situations that don't warrant paying. Since the OP didn't specify exactly what the site would entail, I'm merely offering one more option, in addition to the phpbb bandwagoning that seems to be going on here. Consider that XP Pro is better in every way than XP home, but not everyone buys pro. Why? Cost. Additional features are not always worth money spent.

 

[Great_Melinko]

Lets agree to disagree, please keep the personal comments out of this.

$85 is not a lot of money if the threadstarter is serious about a site. phpBB does provide a free alternative, for the situations that don't require paying. Since the OP didn't specify exactly what the site would entail, I'm merely offering one option. XP Pro is better in every way than XP home, but not everyone buys pro. Why? Cost. Additional features are not always worth money spent.

agreed, btw whats vb cost nowadays?

 

[M11]

agreed, btw whats vb cost nowadays?

$85-Leased License-The leased license will allow you to run the software on your server for one year, and then you will need to purchase another license.
$160-Owned License-he owned license will allow you to run the software on your server for an unlimited amount of time.

In addition, for $120, you may remove all Jelsoft Copyright notices and branding from the board.


At less than a dollar a day for the most expensive option per day (Leased License), the administrative headaches saved can be well worth it.

 

[M11]

Oh, another valuable feature are the inheritable styles. Basically, you can create a second forum style, which inherits its options from the parent style, but with a few exceptions that you specify. These can either be cosmetic or in the template.

An effective template system is lacked by phpbb. To make major layout changes requires hacking the php files themselves, rather than changing a style object. Inheritable styles are missing completely from phpbb.

 

[Carnival Forces]

okay, so which is easier to use, invision or phpBB?

i just want to have a political website where people can debate, in a civilized tone (yeah, i know, utopian ).

 

[Great_Melinko]

invision uses php i think, its just all set up, i would set php up on your own server/hosting or i cando it for next to nothing

 

[Carnival Forces]

i think i'm going to go with invision..i've been reading it's tutorial/documentation stuff..it seems really easy...now all i have to do is get my parents to get me the site

 

[SoRnMaN]

Hmm, all the posting about Invision made me check it out for the site I am working on. However, it still lacks the main feature I need... the ability to use a PostgreSQL database. So I guess that limits me back to phpbb for now. I guess that is Ok, as I currently manage several phpbb boards and know exactly what to mod to do what I want.

As for the Invision/phpbb addon comparison, I am not so sure about Invision having more, I guess it just depends on what you are trying to do. I think quantity-wise, phpbb has more. Of course we all know quantity != quality. Between phpbb.com and phpbbhacks.com, there are several thousand. This is of course taking into consideration that I have not used Invision enough to try to locate addons for it.

On a side note, I decided to try out IPB anyways, as I have mysql installed on my server as well. After going through their site trying to find a place to download it, and then searching the forums, it seems that IPB has recently changed (in the last month or so) it's licensing, and there is no longer a free version to download. You must now purchase it.

 

[draconius]

I will toss in my vote for invision here as well. I originally used phpBB on my forums, but they just were not customizeable like I wanted them to be...and so I found the invision boards and set them up...and hot damn, they are nice, and there are tons of hacks and mods that you can put into them that are awesome too.

 

[Neocorteqz]

Did anyone also check that Invision in now charging for use and support. the latest version is 2.0, granted you can use 1.3 but I'm guessing very soon they will nix all support for that version. the current cost of IPB for a "owned" license is 199.00, which includes a lifetime of upgrades and for now support, but I'm sure that will change with lifetime upgrades, sometime in the future.

phpBB just sucks imo, and aint no one in this world will change my views on that. I would even use it even if i got paid. IPB is a great software, has it's pro's and con's just as any other board does. The style system is not as good as vBull, and you have to manually mess around with the css and whatnot. and the template system leaves ALOT to desire.

I have used IPB version 1.2.x 1.3.x and 2.0, i'd have to say 2.0 is a great step in the right direction, but still leaves alot to be desired.

vBull 2.x and 3.x

I have used vBull for well over two years now, and I couldn't be happier. The template and phrase system is well worth the purchase alone. The style editor is a no nonsense interface. and is simple to use. Granted IPB does have a jump on vBull about the query count, but there is no noticable speed difference between the two, they are both fast at what they do.

both IPB and vBull allow you to install preset styles or custom styles that other users made. but there is nothing like making your own, and I find vBull does that alot better than IPB

Minimum requirements for both IPB and vBulletin is
4.3.x PHP (again will run on a lesser version, but it's still better to use at least 4.3 imo.)
MySQL 4 or better, they are afaik, both compatible with 3.x but performance will take a huge hit.

so I voted for other, and the other will always been vBull. Due to the Numerous hacks available, and one of the best support coummunity i've seen with vBulletin.com /.org

 

[Stinger836]

I'm going to say PHPbb, not only is it very easy to setup and maintain but there are quite a few add-ons. And just to mention it the biggest message board on the internet is run off it.
http://www.big-boards.com/

 

[Vile]

Other: vBulletin

 

[mikereeve]

I think the general consensus is if you want free, go with phpBB. If you are willing to pay, go with vBulletin as it is better than IPB. That also happens to match my own opinion, so chalk up another vote.

 

[Neocorteqz]

I think the general consensus is if you want free, go with phpBB. If you are willing to pay, go with vBulletin as it is better than IPB. That also happens to match my own opinion, so chalk up another vote.

I wouldn't say better, but it's better than phpBB.