Edit WIKI Page - Forums

=Description= A [http://www.iterating.com/productclasses/Forums Internet Forum application] (also named web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion groups, discussion forums, bulletin boards) is a software that holds discussions and posts user generated content. Common Internet Forum software will allow the webmaster to define several forums (also known as boards) which act as containers for topics (also known as threads) started by users. Other users can post replies to topics and start new topics as they wish. Certain users will become moderatorss - acquiring special privileges to move topics to other forums, delete posts and topics or edit posts in order to keep the peace and uphold the rules set out by the webmaster. =Types of forums= '''By the level of registration required''': * requiring registration: users choose a Pseudonym, password and provide their e-mail address in advance * allows anyone to post anonymously '''By the structure:''' * flat: each reply within a certain topic is listed in chronological order * threaded: each post descends from a parent post * combined '''By license:''' * free and open-source (GPL / BSD / Apache License / LGPL) * commercial '''By the technologies used:''' * Java / Java Script + XML + MySQL / Oracle / SQL Server / PostgreSQL / Flat-file database * PHP + MySQL / PostgreSQL / Oracle / Flat-file database * Perl + MySQL / Perl DBI / Flat-file database * ASP.NET + ASP.NET Microsoft SQL Server * Pyton + MySQL / PostgreSQL / Oracle database =Features= ==General features== * License (if it's open-source or not, if it's free or not) * Programming language * Databases supported (MySQL / Postgres / Oracle / SQLite / Textfiles or other) * Free Hosting available * Type (threaded, flat or both supported) * UTF-8 support (the board supports utf-8-encoding) ==Posts features== * BBCode Supported (BBcode is a short but concise markup language commonly used on forum softwares) * HTML code accepted * emoticons available (emoticons are displayed as images) * formatting toolbar or WYSIWYG editor available (a WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get - editor allows the user to write content easily without being necessary to know any kind of coding) * quoting supported * syntax highlighting * attachments accepted ==Forums features== * unlimited categories supported * sub-forums supported * last post displayed * redirect forums (act as internal or external links to other pages on the same website as a forum or to other webpages on the internet) * trashcan forum (serve several purposes: they store deleted threads/topics before they are ‘hard’ deleted, allow multiple people to view threads/topics that are ready to be deleted, allow moderators to change their minds about threads/topics and undelete them) ==Antispam and security features== * CAPTCHA supported (a image created by the program that contains random text that can contain either numbers, letters or both that the user has to retype in order to prove he's not a robot) * Groups (groups ease the maintenance of access restrictions, because restrictions can be applied to a group of people at once and do not need to be assigned to each user seperately) * Flood control (it makes sure a user can not post many times in a certain time frame) * ACLs (Access Control List allows the admin to block certain parts of the program from certain groups or users with a certain amount of posts) * Blacklist * Warnings * Suspension * Bans * IP-Block (deny access to a member/internet user to the forums based on their IP address) * Audit Logging * User Reports ==Notification Features== * RSS/ATOM feed created * E-mail notifications supported * Instant Messaging notifications * Bookmarks ==Community Features== * Avatars * User ranks * Rating / Karma System (users rate other users based on their posts) * Signatures * Users Online List * Private Messaging * Custom profile fields ==Moderation features== * Moderators (global moderators or per forum) * Move / split / close threads * Shadow topics * Sticky / important threads ==Search features== * Full-text search * Author search * Advanced search * Unread topics for every user or per session ==Customization features== * Languages supported * Templates available (and the type of template: table based, CSS based) * Custom BBCodes * Skin-editor * Smiley Packs * Plugins ==Special features== * Statistics * Polls * Calendar * Friendly URLs ==Data management features== * Pruning * Archiving * Exports =Top software= ==Open source forum software== {|class='wikitable' align=left |- |[[Image: Luciana/gold_cup_d.bmp]] | '''[http://www.iterating.com/products/phpBB#datasheet phpBB]''' - phpBB is one popular forum application that is realest under GNU GPL license. It is developed in PHP and it supports a MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS-SQL or even Access/ODBC database. phpBB aims to be designed with security as a priority, being flexible (supporting multiple language interface and highly customizable) and extensible. |} {|class='wikitable' align=left |- |[[Image: Luciana/silver_cup_d.bmp]] | '''[http://www.iterating.com/products/Yabbse#datasheet Simple Machines Forum (SMF)]''' is a free-to-use forum application that allows to set up a online community or forum in a only a few minutes. SMF offers easy-to-modify theme support and has highly optimized database structure and queries are suitable for small and large forums. |} ==Commercial forum software== {|class='wikitable' align=left |- |[[Image: Luciana/gold_cup_d.bmp]] | '''[http://www.iterating.com/products/vBulletin#datasheet vBulletin]''' is a forum software written in PHP that uses a MySQL database. It has a template interface that includes multiple styles which can be applied to different forums and users. Also, a search engine, user profiles, extensive admin control panel, forums and posts that have many sorting options and support pictures, polls or ratings features are available. It is suitable for medium and large forum communities. Being paid software, vBulletin ensures much better security of its code and database. |} {|class='wikitable' align=left |- |[[Image: Luciana/silver_cup_d.bmp]] | '''[http://www.iterating.com/products/Jive-Forums#datasheet Jive Forums]''' - JiveForum is a award-winning forum software that aims to be practical, innovative and quality. It offers full access to source code, free development licenses and many features and it's designed for companies looking for the gold standard in online forums. The pricing starts at $24,950 per license and can increase for more CPUs. |} =How to choose= On the forum softwares market there are many applications offering all the main features of a forum, but it depends on your needs to get the application you need. If you represent a big company, you probably can't risk anything and you can afford to spend more a considerable amount on the application just to don't have surprises. Usually forums are developed by enthusiastic persons from communities and most of the solutions are free and open-source but there are a few commercial and really reliable solutions as well: * [http://www.iterating.com/products/vBulletin#datasheet vBulletin]: if you need the main features of a forum but nothing too flashy and special, and of course you want the reliability of a commercial application * [http://www.iterating.com/products/Jive-Forums#datasheet Jive Forums]: if you want a award-winning application with all the features you can imagine. For small companies or individual users that want to create small or medium community forums with a low budget, almost every time the open source solutions are the best choice. The best solutions from this point of view are: [http://www.iterating.com/products/phpBB#datasheet phpBB] and [http://www.iterating.com/products/Yabbse#datasheet Simple Machines Forum (SMF)]. =Communities= * [http://www.forummatrix.org/forum/index.php ForumMatrix.org Forum] * [http://www.phpbb.com/community PHPBB Official Community Forum] * [http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/ vBulletin Official Community Forum] =See also= # [http://www.iterating.com/productclasses/Forums/comparisonmatrix Comparison matrix of Forum softwares on Iterating.com] # [http://www.sitepoint.com/article/forum-software-roundup Forum Software Roundup on sitepoint.com] # [http://www.forum-software.org/ Forum-Software.org - allows to test forum softwares] # [http://www.big-boards.com/ The largest Message Boards and Forums on the web] # [http://java-source.net/open-source/forum-software Open Source Forum Software in Java] # [http://netforbeginners.about.com/gi/boards/proxicom/proxicom.htm Forum How To's on About.com] # [http://www.forummatrix.org/ Comparison matrix of forum software] # [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum Internet Forum Article on Wikipedia]

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