Interview - Jeff Lewis of YaBB SE

Selecting Your Forums Software

There are several new forum scripts that came out recently, which created more competition in an already crowded market. What advice would you give to both novice and professional Webmasters who are looking for a good forum script? Should the people who want to run a forum as a business look for different criteria in forum software than might those who want to run the forum as a hobby?

To both novices and professionals I'd say: check a few scripts out. Figure out what your needs are, and go from there. Some packages may be a bit bloated for your needs, others may be just right. The majority of these scripts are simple to install and they're all pretty similar, despite what anybody says.

If you want to customize the look, make sure the software you choose allows you to do it easily. Some products require you to edit one file to change the look; others will have you changing dozens.

I also suggest that you don't ask for opinions of a product on its own forums. One thing I've learned about most users is that they are horribly biased. So do your own research into the products you like.

As for business versus hobby usage, the free scripts are just as good as anything commercial, except for maybe VBulletin, which is still probably right at the top of all the scripts out there. Besides that, look around for something with a bit of history, so you know it won't simply vanish one day without a word.

Thanks for your time Jeff! We look forward to the next release of YaBB SE software. For more information, visit the YaBB SE Website.