OS forums like IPB?

[mushroomz]

I really like IPB for it's theme, it looks very nice and modern. But of course, I am here because I can't afford it. So does anyone know of a forum software that looks like IPB? I am using phpBB, but I really dislike it because I've never found a good looking style for it.

[TwistedX]

I don't know of one but you can register for one of Invisionfree's free IPB Board at Invisionfree.com

[mushroomz]

Yeah I know, but they are still using the old forum and plus it comes with ads and you can't put it on your on webhost like here.

[Zephyrus]

Try Simple Machines Forum. Not that it really looks like IPB/vB, but it has the same sort of professional style. That or wait for phpBB3 which comes with this really shiny new silver theme.

[joemama718]

well if you're talking about phpbb2, take a look at the newer phpbb3, which I find looks alot better. if you're talking about phpbb3, then I guess there's Yabb (Yet Another Bulletin Board) - you can install that from your cPanel.

[DarkMunk]

Isn't Yabb a derivative from the Proboards software? Plus the last version of Yabb I used I found really buggy, but that was a while back... I'd say go with phpBB or Simple Machines.

[joemama718]

personally, i use phpbb.

[karath]

SMF is pretty good

[mushroomz]

SMF is pretty good

 

 

Yeah, I think it works good. But I'm shallow when it comes too appearance. And I'm not too giddy about the way the styles for it looks.

[Andrey]

I would try phpbb3. It looks a lot better than phpbb2, and has a better admin control panel.

 

But if you want to go for IPB, there is a good service that gives you an up to date version of it for free. Even though you still cant put it on your site, it works just as great. Here is link to their site:

 

http://ipbfree.com/home/

 

[mushroomz]

Yes, thanks for the IPBFree link, someone actually pm'ed me it also earlier. I won't be using it as a main forum for my site though, but I will bookmark for later in case I need a special forum when my site goes down or something.

 

PHPBB3 looks okay, though it doesn't have the classy look of IPB or VBulletin in my opinion.

[AverageJoe]

I've found the best luck with simplemachines and http://www.tinyportal.net/ which is a portal add on for smf. It also has some really nice themes. You should check that out. go to the tinyportal forum and try all of their themes. Scribles and new def are really cool themes.

[1337]

IPBFree actually runs the old version (1.3). Just the skin is updated

[mushroomz]

IPBFree actually runs the old version (1.3). Just the skin is updated

If only someone ported that nevv dark theme from IPB to PHPBB.

[olala]

Actually, I've tried just about every forum host out there, and I personally think Forumotion.com is better than IPBFree, invisionfree, proboards, and almost all others.