Web Forums - UBB and IkonBoard

I don't run a very active board. I have an average of 1 visitor per day (most likely my visit), a number I hope to increase a few folds soon. I have previously installed and used wwwboard and dcforum lite out of curiousity. Both are more than 2 years old and are barebone by comparison to the current lineup of bbs scripts. I was recently given a copy of UltimateBB from someone who no longer runs a board and I don't know if it is still legit to use. Thus started my search for a similar program, preferably open source or freeware. In general, ikonboard and phpBB were at the top of most listings, and vBulletin comes up at the commercial software end of the scale. phpBB requires mySQL database, so I can't run it at my rental web host, but I have installed and tested it on my private home server. All I can say is that the installation was amazingly easy. It is very much click a button and go. Feature wise, it doesn't rival IkonBoard, but it seems really fast. I would definitely run it if I had mySQL. IkonBoard by the way, also supports mySQL, but I haven't tried it. There is talk about a php/mysql version of ikonboard coming, which will compete directly with vBulletin.

I have now spent a very solid week each with UltimateBB and IkonBoard. Installing, extensive modifying - codes and visual elements and implement non-standard addons. These are my conclusions, minus the obvious stuff:

UltimateBB
commercial software ($US$200?), runs as perl cgi, its own database, expensive, stable, small and lean.

UltimateBB installation is a matter of changing paths in a few files, upload and voila. I had to make several code changes and installed addons to add to the very limited feature list. There are dedicated users, and non-official support is plentiful. Codes are very clean and by my amateur standard, easy to decipher and modify. Almost all aspects are customisable.

+ performance
+ easily customised
+ can turn off the use of category, for smaller boards
- even avatar support is via third a party hack
- inability to hide forums from users who don't have access priviledge
- without a hack, a user has to specifically check to see if there is a message waiting

Ikonboard
free with the usual legal limitations, feature packed, quirky, heavy comparing to UltimateBB because of the features. runs as perl cgi, requires (DBM perl module), can work with its own database, mysql etc.

Ikonboard comes with an installer which double checks each step but uploading and setting up permissions for the seemingly endless amount of files and directories are a pain. It also requires certain perl modules which you or your host will have to install if they are not there.

Features and features! Most notably, the ability to pin a message, so it would always appear at the top of the list, setting up polls... strangely some of the expected features are not there, like admin notifications of new post, bulk email to users, turn off category... I had decided to take the not so easy path of changing the codes - which are much harder to decipher comparing to UltimateBB - to make it behave and look like the UltimateBB I installed and modified a week earlier. Support is via official forums, and there are a handful of dedicated IkonBoard hackers.

+ the feature of course
+ ability to backup, switch, import and export databases.
- numerous UI quirks such as inconsistent]"5le formatting
- buggy "printer friendly page" feature
- noticeably slow by comparison

For my needs, an ideal BBS system should have:

• (all the features noted above)
• simplicity in modification
• email to a post feature

Do you have a favourite system? I am open to trying more, preferably non-commercial scripts. A poll will be set up if this generates enough interest.

Tuesday, 6 May 2003
Had a glimpse of vBulletin, nice feature set and organisation. Annoying "fear of giving too much" attitute! I had a pirated version, which I run locally just out of curiousity. Aparently it calls home. I would say it is a more complete package than ikonboard (at the moment). But at that price, it would mean a few cents per entry based on my current access rate! vBulletin is a subscription ware. Your licence is time limited,

Monday, 3 November 2003
I am ready to try Invison Board, by the original creator of ikonboard, in PHP...

Links

• Forum software roundup