Best Web Forums for Businesses?

ClintJCL asks: "I've recently been tasked to create an online web forum for my employer. Actually, they said 'weblog' but when I got more clarification, it is not really a blog but more of a message forum that is what they want. How do I find a good forum? I have looked into many, many forums, and there are simply too many out there to compare them all myself. Is there a website that reviews online forums and their software? Is there somebody who is experienced in doing this, that perhaps has some good advice?" We last touched on this subject exactly a year ago, and it seems that businesses are warming to the idea. Have new and better options popped up in the intervening time?

"I had started one with a particular provider and worked a few hours on customizing it. Then they wiped my settings back to the defaults without explanation. This is -exactly- the type of thing I would wish to avoid.

The forum would have to support privacy (only approved users get access, since this would be for internal communication only), and it would have to support attachments (since one of the main purposes is for us to store our official documents there).

I strongly suggested that we run one on our own servers, but it seems that this is not an option, so we must look for a 3rd party to supply us with the forum."

Comments

Prefab NNTP Solution?

[RaboKrabekian]

What about setting up an nntp server, and then using a newsreader?

Or, if they want it in website form, using some sort of prefab browser-based newsreader. Does anyone have a suggestion?

I've heard of one...

[FroMan]

Its called slashcode I think...

Um, flashcode... No.. that's not it...

Um, lashdot... No, that't not quite right...

Hmmm... try this: http://www.slashcode.com/

phpBB

[TheWanderingHermit]

It might be too lightweight for what you want, but I've found I can do what you've asked (you need to add a mod for attachments, though). I think the upload directory had to be chmod 777, but I think you can put it outside of the html tree.

It's also free, open source, has good community support, is easily modified (with many mods available), works with a selection of databases, and you don't have to rely on your host provider for anything other than the space and a db program like MySQL (unless you can install it separately).

Re:phpBB

[Kethinov]

phpBB is NOT lightweight. Granted it's not the most bloated forum on earth, it does have tons of totally pointless "features" that go beyond the scope of most websites. If you want true minimalism, try mine out. Of course mine is still in the developmental stages and there are bugs. But it is totally bloat-free.

Okay, done with my shameless plug. Move along now.

Invision

[L. VeGas]

Invision does all this. pretty darn well.

What you should do is set up your own external server and charge your company anonymously as a 3rd party. Not only can you get a few bucks, you could also get all of your company's paperwork. You could also pretend to crash it occassionally and automagically retrieve it, thereby ensuring job security.

Vbulletin

[toygeek]

Vbulletin is a PHP/MySQL based solution that I believe would work. It costs a bit of money ($200) but its well worth it. I run PHPbb at www.battleborncruisers.com and it works very nice for the price ($0)

Lithium

[linuxwrangler]

You might want to check out Lithium Technologies. This is what they do and their customer list includes Dell, AT&T, Nintendo and a host of other big-name clients.

UBB Threads works well for me

[PenguinOpus]

I've been using UBB threads (php + MySQL (et al)) for a public forum for over a year and it has been robust and easy to maintain. Its cost is about the same as vBulletin ($229). Using it for intranet, authentication integration with existing systems will be something to worry about.

OTOH, back in early 1990's era SGI, NNTP/trn was the only way to go. sgi.general, sgi.bad-attitude... ahh, those were the days. Corporate YP solved auth.

Agreed

[waldoj]

We vBulletin for nancies.org's discussion boardS, as we have for the past three years, and we're really happy with it. It's against my grain to pay for software (as opposed to writing it myself or using free software), particularly one with as many good free options as web-based discussion boards, but each annual reevaluation of the market has led me to conclude that vBulletin is the best choice out there. It has good support, a nice feature set, it uses MySQL and PHP (a major bonus, as far as I'm concerned), and product updates are frequent and worthwhile.

To be fair, I haven't looked at phpBB in the past ten months, so perhaps it has improved vastly in the meantime.

-Waldo Jaquith

Why not a Wiki?

[ThenAgain]

I've had success with Wikis in organizing office proceedures, documentation, logs, etc. They take just a little more lernin' than a simple "post your message here" arrangement, but they reward you with the ability to create flexible and extensible structures quickly. I use TWiki because it has a flexible calendar plugin. There are several open-source Wiki's available.

Most modern Wiki software (TWiki included) has revision control so no matter what they do they can't break it. The hard part is getting the luddites to adopt it. If that gets tough you can set up a sensible structure yourself and use TWiki's comment plugin to make it easy on them.

Drupal?

[Asprin]

Drupal is worth looking at.

Or, if you need a technical support forum, perhaps it would be better to adapt something like Double-Choco-Latte (DCL) to your needs?

Infopop OpenTopic

[TermAnnex]

A professional board hosted by the same people who make it.

http://infopop.com/products/opentopic/

ArsTechnica uses it for their board: http://infopop.com/products/opentopic/

I must admit I have used older versions of ubb (made by infopop), and newer version of vBulletin, and liked vbulletin much more, but if you want it hosted, Infopop might be your best bet.