lorax - 2:32 am on May 19, 2004 (gmt 0)

All in all, I'd say that one desirable objective in choosing forum software is to minimize the code hacking needed. Not only is changing the code time-consuming, it can introduce problems and affect security. The worst part, though, is that it greatly increases the hassles of version upgrading.

You called me a hacker! ;)

Truth be told, I don't care about the upgrades. After a while of working with the same application, tweaking it, rewriting some of it's peripheral functions - and perhaps some of the core functions, sooner or later you'll realize you've got a completely new BBS. Sure you can't upgrade it easily but then why would you want to? You've spent hours modifying the board to suit your needs because the original creators hadn't. Yes, you have to be careful when making edits, especially to ensure security, but it can be done and done professionally.

At this point the upgrades to original board no longer matter. Take WebmasterWorld for example. This isn't the original board Brett started with. It has evolved into what we use today after several years of evaluation, testing, and reworking the code.

I've loaded and played with a couple of the commercial products but wasn't overly impressed. I tried PHPBB and ditched it because I felt it was cumbersome and slow. I looked into a few others but I decided to go with my basic rule of thumb - keep it simple. Primarily because I didn't want to have to start off with an overly complex application knowing full well that I intended to modify it to suit my needs. So I chose a rather simple board based on PHPBB and have be modifying as I need to.

The catch is that I'm comfortable with PHP. For someone who is not, then choosing a OTS board can be a bit tricky and yes, the points rogerd makes with regards to upgrades etc become more important.

So from my point of view, choosing among the major BBS players wasn't an option. I wanted something simple but reliable. A board I could modify easily as I learned what I wanted and wasn't too complex such that I'd have to take hours to wrap my head around another programmers code.