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"Among the frenzy of MySpace clones, let's not forget good old forum software.  Geeks use them for tech support.  Businesses use them for collaboration.  Here's our take on 70+ forum engines, hosts, and tools.\nForum Engines (Free Software)\n\n\n\n\nAdvanced Electron Forum - Easy to use PHP forum engine.\naterr - Simple multi-threaded board engine.\nbbPress - From the creators of Wordpress and Akismet comes an elegant bulletin board.\nBeast - A Rails-based forum written in only 500 lines of code.\nBeehive Forum - PHP forum engine with support for mobile browsers.\nBlursoft MetaForum - Has a ton of AJAX features, but manages to stay search engine friendly.  And yes, the back button does work.\nbttlxeForum - Basic ASP board.\nDeluxe Portal - All-in-one portal solution.\nDeluxeBB - Speedy engine with database optimization and GZIP compression.\ndnfBB - 3-tier C# forum that works with Firebird and MySQL.\nE-Blah - Basic BBS with Akismet spam protection.\nElite Bulletin Board - Light and customizable board.\neXtreme Message Board (XMB) - On the outside, it appears to be a basic forum engine.  Until you download the mods for it.\nIceBB - Beautiful board with feeds, calendars, and much more.\nIkonboard - Popular forum software.  Unique in that it can use both a database or a flat file as a backend.\nJForum - Great board with karma, phpBB migration, and search-friendly URLs.\nMegaBBS - Fully featured ASP board engine.  Note: only free for personal use.\nminiBB - Minimalistic board powered by PHP.\nmvnForum - Powerful JSP board under the GPL.\nmwForum - Great Perl forum with a wonderful look.\nMyBB - Plugins and an easy-to-use admin system make MyBB a keeper.\nMyTopix - Great forum with a unique design.\nnextBBS - Popular board with a ton of features and integration with Mediawiki, Coppermine, and Zoints.\nOrca - Nice forum engine with tools like a live post tracker and a WYSIWYG editor.\nOvBB - Lightweight vBulletin clone.\nPhorum - Popular forum engine that powers boards like the MySQL forum.\nphpBB - The granddaddy of Internet forums, phpBB sports a modular design for the control panels, support for almost any kind of database, and a host of plugins.  No wonder it won  the SourceForge Community Choice Awards' Best Project for Communications.\nPocoo - Never heard of a Python-powered board?  Neither did I, until I found Pocoo.  It's WSGI compatible, and has an advanced plugin system.\nPunBB - With XHTML-compliant pages, simplicity, and speed, what's not to like?\nQuicksilver Forums (QSF) - Based on the now dead MercuryBoard, QSF has grown into a mature engine sporting features such as 3D permissions or skinning.\nRForum - Strong forum with mailing list integration, powered by Ruby.\n\n\n\n\nSimple Machines Forum (SMF) - Originally a fork of YaBB SE, SMF features WYSIWYG, powerful groups, and much more.  Note: there is some dispute about whether SMF is free software or not, since you are not allowed to redistribute the forum/software itself without written permission.\nSnitz - Basic ASP forum.\ntxtForum - Tiny forum that stores its information in TXT files instead of a database.\nUnclassified NewsBoard Forum (UNB) - Easy to use forum engine with Jabber notification.\nUseBB - Lightweight, clear, and efficient board package.\nVanilla - Terrific AJAXified forum with a really nice look you won't find anywhere else.\nVikingboard - Minimalistic board engine for high performance.\nViscacha - Board with integrated CMS and conversion from CuteCast, Vision Board, phpBB, and WBB.\nYaBB - Easy to install and easy to use, YaBB is more than yet another bulletin board.\nYazd - Basic forum engine under the Apache license.\nForum Engines (Commercial)\n\n\n\n\nAspNetForum - Clean and powerful ASP.NET forum engine.  $85-$169.\nBurning Board - Easy to set up board that will import existing Invision Power Board, MyBB, phpBB, PunBB, Simple Machines Forum, or vBulletin forums.  $139.99-$269.99.\nFuseTalk - Powerful forum software used by big-names such as Adobe, Boeing, NASA, NBC, US Airforce, McAfee and Lonely Planet.  But the names will cost you.  $649-$4599.\nFusionBB - Calendar, photo gallery, PayPal, article templates, and much more are available with this great piece of software.  $425 flat fee or $149 flat fee and $39/year.\nIdeal BB - ASP/COM board with a nice revision feature.  $299-$2099.\nInvision Power Board (IPB) - One of the most popular commercial boards of all time.  $149.99-$299.99.\nJive Forums - Powerful board used by companies such as EA and ESPN.  Unfortunately, very expensive.  $14950 flat fee, $1950/1000 users, $4950/5000 users, or $9950/20000 users.\nMyProBB - Powerful anti-spam features makes this one a keeper.  It's cheap, too.  $25/year.\nUBB.threads - $725 flat fee or $229 flat fee and $125/year.\nvBulletin - Extremely popular board with tons of features.  $160 flat fee or $85/year.\nWowBB - WYSIWYG, internationalization, and much more available with this PHP board.  $99 flat fee or $55/year.\nForum Hosts\n\n\n\n\nBlursoft MetaForum - Has a ton of AJAX features, but manages to stay search friendly.  And yes, the back button does work.  Free.\nConforums - Unlimited categories, boards, and posts with HTML and JavaScript customization.  Free.\nCuteCast - Basic forum hosting.  Free.\nGoBoardz - Nice forum with photo sharing and a nice interface.  Free.\nHyperboards - A big hosting provider with global login (one Hyperboards account logs you into every Hyperboards forum), skins, pages, and unlimited posts and boards.  Free.\nInvision Power Board (IPB) - One of the most popular commercial boards of all time.  $10-$75/month.\nProBoards - A well known host powered by YaBB.  Free.\nSudden Launch - Forum host with unlimited posts, replies, and boards.  Free.\nWowBB - WYSIWYG, internationalization, and much more available with this PHP board.  $99 flat fee and $3.95/month or $7.95/month.\nForum Integration\n\n\n\n\nbbPress and Wordpress integration - Official howto on integrating the two sister projects.\nFireBoard - Joomla component that adds a powerful forum.\nIntegrating Vanilla and Wordpress - Official guide to integrating the two popular CMSs.\nIpbWiki - Connects Invision Power Boards and MediaWiki.\nJoomla!Vanilla - Bridge between the Joomla CMS and Vanilla.\nForum Tools\n\n\n\n\nBBCodeXtra Firefox Extension - Context menu to insert BBCode or (X)HTML.  Freeware.\nBulletin Board/Forum Code Converter - About.com offers a simple HTML&gt;BBCode or BBCode&gt;HTML converter in JavaScript.  Freeware.\nHTML To BB Code Converter - Basic HTML or website&gt;BBCode converter.  Open source.\nText Formatting Toolbar Firefox Extension - Formatting toolbar for BBCode, HTML, or Wiki code.  Freeware.\n\nSee also:\nVOIP TOOLBOX: 30+ VoIP ServicesP2P TOOLBOX: 30+ Peer to Peer ServicesDIGG TOOLBOX: 50+ Digg Tools and ResourcesWORDPRESS GOD:300+ Tools for Running Your WordPress BlogGREEN LIVING TOOLBOX: 80+ Green SitesTravel Toolbox: 75+ Online Travel ResourcesITUNES TOOLBOX: 30+ Tools For iTunesCOLLEGE TOOLBOX: 60+ Tools For Back To SchoolONLINE PRESENTATIONS: 30+ Presentation &amp; Slideshow ServicesGMAIL TOOLBOX: 60+ Tools For Gmail30+ WordPress 2-Column ThemesONLINE BUSINESS TOOLBOX: 230+ Tools for Running a Business Online30+ Tools to Turn Wordpress into a Personal HubSHOPPING SPREE: 18 Sites for Social Shopping &amp; DealsSOCIAL BOOKMARKING: 50+ Social Bookmarking Sites30+ WordPress Plugins for StatisticsINSTANT MESSAGING TOOLBOX: 90+ IM Tools40+ Free Blog HostsONLINE POLLING TOOLBOX: 40+ Online Polling SitesFLICKR TOOLBOX: 100+ Tools For Flickr AddictsHIGH SPEED DOWNLOADS: 60+ Download ManagersIPHONE TOOLBOX: 75+ iPhone Resources30+ WordPress 3-Column ThemesFreelancers\u2019 Toolbox - 30+ Online Freelance ResourcesEBAY TOOLBOX: 50+ Tools for eBay Buyers and Sellers30+ WordPress Plugins To Get More Blog ReadersDOWNLOAD EVERYTHING: 30+ Firefox Add-ons For Downloading Images, Videos &amp; FilesFacebook Powertools: 150+ Apps, Scripts and Add-ons for FacebookCMS Toolbox: 80+ Open Source Content Management SystemsMake Money Online: 100+ Tools and ResourcesQ&amp;A TOOLBOX: 30+ Tools For Questions and AdviceONLINE STORAGE: 80+ File Hosting and Sharing Sites\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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