What are the Top Forum Software Features

Things to consider when selecting Forum Software

[Whitey]

We have a Perl based content management system, which ultimately will have to be superceded for something much more sophisticated.

Right now we are considering introducing a Q & A forum and are looking out for an interim "off the shelf" software solution. The idea is to get a community going and then migrate the content, ultimately to something more sophisticated to dovetail with our CMS.

I'm also kinda frustrated because i see forums like Yahoo Answers with great features, like RSS , best answers , points scoring etc etc , but can't find anything to equal this "off the shelf".

In the meantime, we're happy to have a small amount of programming done, to start us off.

What are the top features to consider amongst the packages that are out there?

How do these match up to the marketing priorities of community building and SEO support?

[rogerd]

vBulletin and InvisionBB are top commercial programs, and have extensive feature sets; phpBB is the leading open source package, and, counting available hacks, can do a lot.

Most forums don't seem to be great for SEO out of the box. Fortunately, the major packages have either paid or free mods available.