Definitely the old versions of phpBB, and the newer versions aren't that impressive either (idk about phpBB3).
I was just on a old site I use to visit years ago and found out that it's pretty much dead, but the site still works, and I visited the forum which is running a ~2005 version of phpBB and it's ruled by spambots, even the modern versions are plagued by this, but on the older versions it was worse.
This also reminded me when I ran a phpBB forum which I ended up closing due to too many spambots.
IPB Free was also problematic due to the exploits, but that's because it was abandoned by IPB, since they went commercial only. Invision Free still hosts ipb free though, so if you've ever see a forum from there, it was running IPB free, which wasn't too bad since my friend made a forum there and made me an Admin, so I got some experience.
IPB id say. Ive never been a fan of it, its just ugly, and hasnt got half as many features as it should for a piece of software thats that expensive. Id choose SMF over IPB anyday.
Definitely the old versions of phpBB, and the newer versions aren't that impressive either (idk about phpBB3).
I was just on a old site I use to visit years ago and found out that it's pretty much dead, but the site still works, and I visited the forum which is running a ~2005 version of phpBB and it's ruled by spambots, even the modern versions are plagued by this, but on the older versions it was worse.
This also reminded me when I ran a phpBB forum which I ended up closing due to too many spambots.
IPB Free was also problematic due to the exploits, but that's because it was abandoned by IPB, since they went commercial only. Invision Free still hosts ipb free though, so if you've ever see a forum from there, it was running IPB free, which wasn't too bad since my friend made a forum there and made me an Admin, so I got some experience.
i would agree with phpbb. the software itself is good but the amount of spam you receive by just using it is hell!
IPB id say. Ive never been a fan of it, its just ugly, and hasnt got half as many features as it should for a piece of software thats that expensive. Id choose SMF over IPB anyday.
Well the default skin definitely needs some improvements, but the other skins out for it look pretty good. As for the price, yeah it's overpriced in my opinion, the only commercial forum script I've seen that the price seems reasonable is wowBB.
http://www.wowbb.com/order.php
The lease is only $55 a year, which is pretty good for the amount of features it has, and since it's not that known, there's a less chance you'll get hacked.
You can see it in action here: http://www.wowbb.com/forums/
However, if you don't plan on running a huge forum then a free script like SMF or MyBB is good enough.
I think personally I like phpBB2 compared to phpBB3, If I had to use phpBB, I really only use MyBB now.
I think phpBB and vBulletin are the best forum scripts around, many features, easy to use and they look good.
I presonally don't like Simple Machine Script, it works pretty slow, it doesn't have many features and it doesn't look as good as the others. I don't its design.
I use Vbulletin and Phpbb to run couple of forums I have, even though Vbulletin has lot more feature than phpbb, I like phpbb more. Mainly due to the fact it is easier to mod and skin and is lighter on the server resources.
I agree that phpbb 2 out of the box doesn’t have too many features and this is also the main reason why it doesn’t consume as many resources as Vbulletin. But the beauty of phpbb is the ease with which you can apply mods to it.
SMF forums are some thing I can’t really stand, even when the custom skin is good the forum just feels awkward.
Unfortunately i set up PHPBB on my forum and it is just pointless, all i get is robotic spam members so i basically gave up on it, for the first while i deleted the dud names but i have given up
Yeah that's one of the biggest problems with phpBB, a lot of phpBB forums are practically run by spammers, the same can happen with any forum script that's not secured right too as well. For example, I've even seen VB forums conquered by spammers!