Why SMF?

I don't know if this is the right place.

I think I am learning more and more about SMF everyday. I haven't found a topic about this so...

Why would you use vbulletin instead of SMF? I just wanted to know...

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Well, in my opinion vBulletin is the best paid forum software, while SMF is the best free one.

As I own forums from both software packages, I will try to make a small review...

vbulletin has the most feautures from any other forum, but still it is not the best software for modifications. For example when a new version of vb exists, there are no patches, so you have to install the whole forum again. Of course if you are not about to modify your forum vb is ok. Something else I don't like about vb is the way that it handles the resources. For instance the template system (as almost everything else) is database driven, which makes vb the most resources consuming forum software.

On the other hand SMF is the free forum software with the most feautures, and in my opinion is the only open source forum software that will be a direct competitor to vb in some time. The biggest benefit of using SMF is that it is very fast, and easy to understand. If you know some php you will find it very easy to modify (a real life example is this forum, right? ) As a newbie you will still find it easy to use and modify (thanks to the package manager), and it is very secure (in conjuction with phpBB which is the worst open source program I ever saw).

Yes, I am a php programmer. I am really finding it somewhat too easy as compared to what I imagined. Why do you think they say that vbulletin is worth the money when if you only know php (in fact only a little php knowledge is needed), you could do the modifications yourself ?

I ddn't know that there are no patches for vb.

PS. what is your other forum that uses vbulletin?

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Well vb has many many feautures, and in most normal forums you wont need any modifications. Of course if you are phpaholic like me you will find it easy to modify too (if you understand the system which is much different than any other project I've seen) and this is mostly because vb uses OOP.

My vb forum which I own with Maverick is the gibberishtalk.com

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