Selecting the right forum software

Hopefully I’m in the right spot here, I’m trying to decide between vbulliten and phpbb. I know there are endless threads on the internet about this and I’ve searched through them but I have a specific question regarding which one will be easier for my site. The site we’re creating is not simply a forum, it’s a custom made social application specifically tailored to the RC (Remote control) community which I would also like to offer forums for. Think facebook but specialized for a hobby.

My question is this, through the website users will have the ability to create and keep track of things like their flights, aircraft, blog, etc that will all be wrapped up into their profile. In addition, users can get “props” (karma) for visiting the site, from other users, etc… I want to select the forum format that will most easily allow integration between the forum environment and normal environment. Specifically, if a user gets props on a forum post it all pulls through to the overall website as well. I would also like for their to be links under the person’s user name on the left that shows flights, blog, etc that will let a user quickly see other users information found else ware on the site.

I’m paying to have the site developer and I’m not a programmer by any means. The two most important thing to me are the cost to implement and ease of use once it’s implemented.

Website is live and can be found here: www.rcflightshare.com

Thanks in advance!

I personally dislike vbulliten. I don’t know much about phpbb but I think it will be much better choice.

Ooops my that was not supposed to happen.

Looks like your site is powered by the Drupal CMS (Content Management System) - there are many forum addons/plugins, some free, some ‘paid for’ for Drupal. Do a search for ‘drupal forum addon’

Here’s 1 example for $200 one-time payment - depends on your budget for this project. However, you need to shop around for other examples. You’ll probably find some demos too.

On a slightly unrelated note I’m surprised how little the web forum has evolved in the last 10 years. vBulletin, PHPBB, SMF and such are for the most part identical to how they were 10 years ago. Sure they have a few new features but considering how much every other aspect of the web has changed, modern forums aren’t much different at all to the UBB forums we were posting on in 1998.