Which forum platform I should use for PC related forum?

Hi everyone, I need to choose a forum platform for my new forum. it’s a computer related forum with contents like how-to guides, gaming & product review , water-cooling guide and computer modding. similar to this site: Overclock and linus`

So far, I’ve found these platform:

  • IPboard,
  • VBulletin,
  • BBpress,
  • Discourse,
  • NodeBB

I want to have a forum where people could easily interact and show off their builds. I would like to know which one is ideal for me. any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

As an end user, I like Discourse the most (what this forum uses). It’s easy to use, has a bookmark system, and a private notes system I like to use.

The fact that the reply box “follows” me to different posts is killer. I can actually leave a post I’m replying to, but the reply box stays at the bottom of the screen letting me do searches, quote people from entirely different posts, etc all from a single browser tab.

Plus it’s built by the same guy who made StackOverflow so community support is pretty insane.

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You’re using Discourse here.

I’ve liked it quite a bit since they switched to it and I think most of the people here probably feel the same. It’s very modern and intuitive.

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Hi @labofoz, Thanks for responding.

Wow, you’re right and I just noticed that the reply box do follows me everywhere. Also, there is the live preview. Not to mention it runs much faster than ipboard and vbulletin.

But there are few things that I want to know like,

  • How does discourser pictures uploading works? Can we configure it so user are able to upload it to our servers storage or cloud storage like amazon S3 or imgur?
  • In terms of setup and hosting, How hard it is to Install and setup discourse? Can we install it on our own server (e.g digitalocean or linode) ? or are there any convenient solutions to this matter?

Uploading pictures is easy - once you’re Trust Level 1 - uploaded, copy/pasted and even drag/drop.

Discourse users Docker, and there are a lot using DigitalOcean.

Have you taken a look around the meta site?

https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-deploy-discourse-on-digital-ocean-using-docker/12156?u=mittineague

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Hi @Mittineague, No, actually I haven’t look into it. Interesting, I have no experience using docker but I’m willing to try.

Also I’m wondering if there are anyone out there that has experience on managing forum either ipboard or vbulletin, So I would like to know what are your opinions with which are more easier to manage Discourse or ipboard/vbullettin?

Sorry for the bad english. I hope you guys get what i meant :smile:

Thanks for responding and the info.

I can’t say as I haven’t mananged either, but @HAWK should know about our old vBulletin forum and this Discourse forum.

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SitePoint was running on vBulletin until we migrated to Discourse a few months back.
There is a huge learning curve, but I definitely prefer Discourse. Are there specific things that you mean with regard to management?

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Hi @HAWK, Thanks for responding.

I’ve tried out IP board and vBulletin. I’d say both are equally confusing to use.But I find vbulletin interface are much easier to navigate then IPboard. What makes you prefer Discourse?

As I’m newbie at using a forum, I read that managing user and topics are some of the essential things we need to look at if we want to have a forum.How difficult it is for you to manage entire forum especially managing users and topics in discourse and vbulletin? Do you mind sharing your thoughts in this matter.

Moreover, Is there anything else I should take a look at before deciding which platform are ideal for my needs?

Looking forward to your response. Thanks for taking time answering my questions. :smile:

I find vB cumbersome, especially when it comes to things like pulling statistics. The open source nature of Discourse means that you can do with it what you like.

Essentially all the platforms give you the ability to perform the same tasks so choose based on the goals you have for your community, rather than the platform specifics. From a community management perspective, I believe that Discourse is the way to go. If you want a forum that is purely functional and the social science aspects aren’t relevant (eg a customer service community) then I’d consider XenForo. If you want to build a healthy, engaged community then I’d go for Discourse. They both perform the same functional purposes, it’s just a case of choosing one and getting used to it. If you have no experience with either, then you can make a choice based on your goals.

What is the purpose of the community that you want to set up?

[quote=“Febs, post:9, topic:105910”]
Is there anything else I should take a look at before deciding which platform are ideal for my needs?[/quote]
If you are not technical, and have no in-house support, then don’t choose Discourse. Having said that, Discourse is free and the others aren’t.

I’m happy to clarify any of this, or answer further questions if you have them. :slight_smile:

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Hi @HAWK, Thanks again for your detailed response. appreciate it very much.

You make a good point, I should choose based on the goals I want to achieve for my community and I do want to build engaged community. After several days spent as discourse user, I really enjoyed using it. I’m curious how it is on the administration section.

This is the problem, I noticed that discourse is build with ember.js and Ruby on rails and I don’t really know much about back-end programming (a bit of php and that’s it) but I do know a thing or two about front-end things (HTML,CSS & JS). Do you think I should learn more about ruby first before I start using Discourse?

For now, I’m planning to do a bit of customization, change the appearances (menus colors and some background images to match my other site which will be using wordpress) How hard/easy it is to customize discourse in terms of appearance?

What do you mean by in-house support? I don’t quite understand this term :stuck_out_tongue:
and what about hostting? Do you have any recommendation on which hosting I should use for discourse?

Looking forward for you another response. Thanks for the time!

It’s great. Powerful and generally (but not always) intuitive. It’s a work in progress.

[quote=“Febs, post:11, topic:105910”]
Do you think I should learn more about ruby first before I start using Discourse?
[/quote] No, you don’t need to be able to customise it yourself, but you do need to be able to install and manage it. Sounds like you probably have the skills.

[quote=“Febs, post:11, topic:105910”]
How hard/easy it is to customize discourse in terms of appearance?
[/quote] Relatively easy. You can mess with the CSS and you can theme it (or buy marketplace themes).

[quote=“Febs, post:11, topic:105910”]
What do you mean by in-house support? I don’t quite understand this term and what about hostting? Do you have any recommendation on which hosting I should use for discourse?
[/quote] By in-house support I meant that if you don’t have the technical knowledge, then you need someone on your team that does.

If you’re looking seriously at Discourse, you will probably get the most valuable responses re hosting etc here on the Meta forum. There is a theme and plugin marketplace there as well.

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Hi @HAWK, Thank you for your response.

Thanks for pointing me to the meta forum. I can’t wait to start!

Currently, I’m looking into cloudways,reclaimhosting and discoursehosting.com about hosting matter. Hopefully, I can decide after I talk to one of their representatives.

Thanks everyone! :smile:

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You’re totally welcome. Best of luck with it all.

If your are looking for free forum platforum then PhpBB is the Best. However many paid forum platforms are also present such as XenForo, Woltlab Burning Board,vBulletin,MyBB

Hi joyi21213 welcome to the forum
I am familiar with phpBB, why do you think it’s best for a PC related forum?

I think vBulletin is best , but may be you have to use vbseo for SEO. I am experienced in it, so I suggest vBulletin.
Regards

For all the platform i have tried VBulletin is the one i would recommend. Looks so decent and users can easily use it cause its a user friend platform.

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