Best Web Forums for Businesses? 37
"I had started one with a particular provider and worked a few hours on customizing it. Then they wiped my settings back to the defaults without explanation. This is -exactly- the type of thing I would wish to avoid.
The forum would have to support privacy (only approved users get access, since this would be for internal communication only), and it would have to support attachments (since one of the main purposes is for us to store our official documents there).
I strongly suggested that we run one on our own servers, but it seems that this is not an option, so we must look for a 3rd party to supply us with the forum."
Prefab NNTP Solution? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or, if they want it in website form, using some sort of prefab browser-based newsreader. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Re:Prefab NNTP Solution? (Score:1)
If there are, please point me to one. FreeAgent is the best I've ever seen, and it's still rather awkward.
Re:Prefab NNTP Solution? (Score:1)
Or you could use Outlook Express! If its a typical office most users will be familiar with it already. Though it may lead to problems of un-snipped, top posting in HTML.
Re:Prefab NNTP Solution? (Score:1)
A good barometer of forum software ... (Score:1)
vBulletin: 295
phpBB: 34
Invision: 23
UBB: 22
I've got vBulletin 3.0 RC 2 running on an urban planning-related forum [cyburbia.org] that I run, and I'm extremely happy with it.
I've heard of one... (Score:4, Funny)
Um, flashcode... No.. that's not it...
Um, lashdot... No, that't not quite right...
Hmmm... try this: http://www.slashcode.com/
phpBB (Score:4, Informative)
It's also free, open source, has good community support, is easily modified (with many mods available), works with a selection of databases, and you don't have to rely on your host provider for anything other than the space and a db program like MySQL (unless you can install it separately).
Re:phpBB (Score:3, Interesting)
Okay, done with my shameless plug. Move along now.
lightweight forums, real solution (Score:2)
Try PunBB [punbb.org] or Phorum [phorum.org], for good examples of lighter-weight BBs.
On the other hand, the original poster needs a 3rd party forum provider. Hmm. You can get this sort of thing as part of massively expensive "portal" services from companies who also want to manage your email, VOIP, etc., etc., though many of these have now gone out of business simp
Re:lightweight forums, real solution (Score:2)
Re:phpBB (Score:2)
One thing to be aware of...
Adding the file upload mod creates some incompatibilities for many of the other mods and some of the themes.
I've been running one of these boards for about 6 months... this is my only complaint. I'm also a member of a couple phpBB forums that support 200+ concurrent users.
Invision (Score:5, Funny)
What you should do is set up your own external server and charge your company anonymously as a 3rd party. Not only can you get a few bucks, you could also get all of your company's paperwork. You could also pretend to crash it occassionally and automagically retrieve it, thereby ensuring job security.
Re:Invision (Score:2)
I went to site that used it and got scared away.
Vbulletin (Score:3, Informative)
Agreed (Score:3, Informative)
check out silverorange's intranet (Score:2)
Lithium (Score:4, Informative)
UBB Threads works well for me (Score:2, Informative)
I've been using UBB threads (php + MySQL (et al)) for a public forum for over a year and it has been robust and easy to maintain. Its cost is about the same as vBulletin ($229). Using it for intranet, authentication integration with existing systems will be something to worry about.
OTOH, back in early 1990's era SGI, NNTP/trn was the only way to go. sgi.general, sgi.bad-attitude... ahh, those were the days. Corporate YP solved auth.
How about... (Score:1)
Yahoo Groups? [yahoo.com]
Ha ha, that would be funny...
mycompany@yahoogroups.com and then all the ads and random named spammers come along.
The sad part is many small businesses still use free email for their company email, i wouldnt be suprised if there were businesses using this.
I agree with phpBB, doesnt get any better.
Why not a Wiki? (Score:4, Insightful)
Most modern Wiki software (TWiki included) has revision control so no matter what they do they can't break it. The hard part is getting the luddites to adopt it [twiki.org]. If that gets tough you can set up a sensible structure yourself and use TWiki's comment plugin [twiki.org] to make it easy on them.
Drupal? (Score:4, Informative)
Drupal [drupal.org] is worth looking at.
Or, if you need a technical support forum, perhaps it would be better to adapt something like Double-Choco-Latte (DCL) [sourceforge.net] to your needs?
Fudforum (Score:1)
Fudforum is available under the GPL.
It's possible to get commercial support from the developers. They'll give you support, or even host it for you.
Check them out at http://fud.prohost.org/
YaBB? (Score:2)
Re:YaBB? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
ghetto.. (Score:2)
Slashcode (Score:2)
We all know it obviously does discussions, handles user logins, can do SSL too. And user ACL's for permissions if you want it to.
servers (Score:1)
Unless you're some sort of 2-person company that doesn't have your own servers and uses aol dialup for internet access, somebody is being incredibly stupid. I sure wouldn't want important company documents and business plans stored elsewhere.
Re:servers (Score:1)
Anyway.. The people running my company are not idiots and are generating a lot of money during crappy economic times. Perhaps the resistance-to-running-ones-own-servers approach has more business merit than eit
Infopop OpenTopic (Score:2, Informative)
http://infopop.com/products/opentopic/
ArsTechnica uses it for their board: http://infopop.com/products/opentopic/
I must admit I have used older versions of ubb (made by infopop), and newer version of vBulletin, and liked vbulletin much more, but if you want it hosted, Infopop might be your best bet.
Selmer Code! (Score:1)
Best forum software (Score:1)
Running your own... (Score:2)