Thread: Fastlane Opp -- Who Wants It?

Those of you that operate your own internet forum, what would you like to see in an open source forum software that differs from Vbulliten?

If it were me I would set it up like the Linux of forum providers.

Originally Posted by Ready2bfamous

I am going to take on this project, it has been identified so I am going forth. Should you have any benefits, ideas or thoughts. Please go ahead and message me. I am going forth

Interested in partnering up?

This would be a great opportunity, but I don't know if I know enough to do it by myself... I am gonna give it a shot anyway and who knows?

There are already a lot of forum software around that do not have much issues that vBulletin has. For example, SMF and Vanilla. I think the reason why most forum owners choose vBulletin is that it is more user friendly than other forum software IMO.

is tapatalk free?

Great app for android and iphone. Not sure what forum types it supports though.

Anyone know of similar applications that would be suitable for a neighborhood association? Forums, calendar and other related functions? Thanks!

Agreed, vbulletin is quite bloated and inefficient in what it does. Customizations can be horrendous if you don't know how to approach it. However, all the free alternatives out there don't come close to the features it offers (paid member areas, more customizations). Not only that, but the large community has developed plugins (integration with other software, etc) that can be downloaded for free within through the main forum.

It's name has also become pretty synonymous with forum hosting. Others may also think that since they're paying for it, it must be better than the free alternatives.

I think this would be an interesting project to take on.

-EDIT-
I had some more points here, but actually I may have some ideas on my own about this that may be worth investigating..

Originally Posted by mrhahn

Agreed, vbulletin is quite bloated and inefficient in what it does.

Wordpress is popular because of its EASE OF USE, and ABILITY to CUSTOMIZE/BRAND. (And it's free too)

vBulletin is neither.

In other words, someone needs to "Wordpress" the forum software industry while simultaneously merging it with social media components.

I know on the Apple App Store it is like $4 or something, but I use it almost every day. I have it synced up to several forums. Very handy application.

It supports the following:

CphpBB3 3.0.x, vBulletin 3.6.x/3.7.x/3.8.x/4.x, xenForo 1.0.X, Invision Power Board (IPB) 3.x and Simple Machine Forum (SMF) 1.1.11+/2.x are supported.

saw this on techcrunch today - a new platform for forums:

The Realtime Web: RealTidbits Teams With Echo To Breathe New Life Into Forums

not affiliated with realtidbits at all - just my disclaimer since this is my first post on here and im talking about a product.

im actually interested in this project as well (ruby on rails developer), but been doing research. anyone tried these guys out?

Originally Posted by MJDeMarco

Wordpress is popular because of its EASE OF USE, and ABILITY to CUSTOMIZE/BRAND. (And it's free too)

vBulletin is neither.

In other words, someone needs to "Wordpress" the forum software industry while simultaneously merging it with social media components.

i was gonna mention WP...but i wasnt sure how well it scales...but there are WP forum plugins that are dead simple to use...there is also buddypress...which is a social network type WP install...check it out when u get a chance

I'm not sure about using WP here. I have Buddypress forum running and it's, well, simple. And I mean it's SIMPLE. Maybe too much for forum like this.

I personally think that wisdom gathered in this place is worth a proffesionaly made place. Or do You keep jewelery in a paper box?

Simplicity doesn't necessarily mean poor quality.

I've actually added Simplepress forums to my WP blogs because the integration was seamless. It may not have all the bells and whistles of vbulletin, but it does the job better and is easier to customize and manage.