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Geek Culture / All those free forums, proboards, SMF, PHPBB, etc

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Agent Dink
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Posted: 30th May 2007 16:51
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Which, in your own opinion, is the safest and most secure from hacking attempts? I have had 2 forums on my site and both have been hacked or cracked into in some way, one was a PHPBB and is what I am using now after I recently repaired it. I can't remember the other forum unfortunately as it was a few years ago, but it was also destroyed by hackers.

So, any take on the most secure forum available without having to program my own?

Thanks
Adam

Free music, textures, models, and tutorials.
Silver Dawn
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Richard Davey
Retired Moderator
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Posted: 30th May 2007 16:58
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FUD Forum is easily the most secure one available written in PHP. Probably has the most features too, but most people don't like it because it doesn't look as 'pretty' as phpbb.

Never trust a computer you can't throw out of a window
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 30th May 2007 17:06
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Well, 'pretty' has nothing to do with it in this case, I just don't want to feel like I need to backup the forum every night before bed. I'll check it out, thanks Rich. I think I can trust your words over anyone elses here considering what you do for a living ^_^

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Silver Dawn
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Kentaree
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Posted: 30th May 2007 17:09
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It's quite unfortunately named, FUD, or "Fear Uncertainty and Doubt" . Personally I'd recommend SMF, been using it for a few years, and never had a problem with it.

Nephin Games
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 30th May 2007 17:12
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SMF was what I was considering before posting here as I know of 2 sites that have had SMF trouble free for quite a few years.

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Silver Dawn
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Josh
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Location: Pompey, Great Britain =D
Posted: 30th May 2007 21:33 Edited at: 30th May 2007 21:34
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Never EVER EVER use phpBB. My pet cat can write better software than that, honestly.

If you want security and quality free software then go with SMF. I've never heard of SMF being hacked as long as you're careful with who you give the admin/mod permissions to, but that's obvious (or at least it should be).

SMF is also by far the best for themes and MODs, there may not be thousands of them out there but they are easier to install, easier to upgrade and bloody easy to write your own so long as you know a bit of PHP and MySQL!

SMF is such quality software that you can build an entire website on top of it. I've used SMF for the back-bone of a couple of my websites now and it's been perfect every time. =) As you can see SMF gets my vote! ;D

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 31st May 2007 01:21
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as Josh vote's for SMF - I'm gonna vote for Drupal Hehe...

The ONLY bas thing about Drupal Forums is that technically they're not forum's - they're just "nodes" which function slightly differently and get grouped slightly differently than other nodes - however the biggest advantage is that Drupal isn't just a Forum - its a complete content management system AND a development platform.

I use Drupal for my site. The company I work for use Drupal for all their sites. MTV UK use Drupal for their sites.... IT has backing.
Security... Every CMS and site can/will get hacked. Where there is a will there is a way.
I've never heard of SMF being hacked - but until I chatted with Josh, I'd never heard of it. phpBB on the other hand... It can plain sod off. Its really REALLY poor.

One thing you can do - which we're considering at work for our main sites - is to use something like vBulleting or SMF for the forum and then Drupal for the main site. There is a module for drupal with synchronises the userbase between SMF/vBulleting and Drupal.

Note: vBulletin isn't free - but I've heard its the best out there.

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 31st May 2007 03:44
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We had PHPBB on the MISoft website for a while, but it was horrible. Chris Franklin and I were clearing out dozens of pornbot and prescriptobot threads every single day. Since then we've switched over to SMF, and we haven't had a single bot problem using it.

PHPBB is suspectible to bots because your forum actually says "PHPBB" in its URL. Bots hunt down anything called "PHPBB" and storm it like it's Normandy. It has horrible "security features," which did more to keep human users away than to actually stop the bots.

The switch seriously killed us, too. We had about 15 human users on PHPBB, and when we switched to SMF, we now only have 3 users (counting myself and Chris!). I think some of them just gave up on the forums after so many bot attacks. Seriously, don't use PHPBB, I have had nothing but horrible experiences with it. SMF was easy to install, easy to mod, and the community is actually helpful. I equate my experiences with the PHPBB community with that of visiting gamedev.net. That should speak for itself!


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 31st May 2007 04:06
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Hmmm, seems like popular majority is saying SMF, anyone have any more words about FUD?

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Silver Dawn
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dark coder
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Location: Japan
Posted: 31st May 2007 16:15 Edited at: 31st May 2007 16:34
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My forums(which are barely used anymore) use SMF and I've had no issues.

[edit] also the most used forums on the web(some anime site) uses PHPBB albeit a very modified version.

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Kentaree
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Posted: 31st May 2007 16:22
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Quote: "15 human users"


Nephin Games
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Dazzag
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Posted: 31st May 2007 17:25
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http://rankings.big-boards.com/This supposedly shows the top boards. Don't think we are on there though Should be though as the lowest has only half a million posts and I'm pretty sure if you added up all our forums we have more than that (Geek has 300k all by itself). Outrage!!!

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Dazzag
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Posted: 31st May 2007 17:30 Edited at: 31st May 2007 17:30
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Actually adding it all up we have 1,168,290 posts. That deffo gets us..... thats forum number 1175!!!! Just below Soap Chat on page 59. C'mon we MUST beat soap chat! Someone contact them and end this travesty!!!... sorry end of my working week. Too much energy now...

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Posted: 31st May 2007 19:08
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Quote: "as Josh vote's for SMF - I'm gonna vote for Drupal Hehe..."

No surprise there!

Quote: "Seriously, don't use PHPBB, I have had nothing but horrible experiences with it"

I had the same experience.

I haven't used any others, but wrote my own instead. Haven't really tested it in the wild yet so who knows how many holes it has.


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Matt Rock
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Posted: 31st May 2007 20:49
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Hey now Kentaree, you leave my 15 previous human users out of this .

Quote: "C'mon we MUST beat soap chat! Someone contact them and end this travesty!!!"

I call it a sad day when TGC's forums can't beat soap chat. I'm assuming it must be soap opera boards... if it's just Soap, then we should all be ashamed. Downy and Irish Spring must pay


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 31st May 2007 22:00
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Mr. Clean probably moderates those boars. CURSE YOU MR CLEAN!

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Silver Dawn
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 1st Jun 2007 01:40
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Dang it, we don't have a comparable figure/ mascot on our boards . I guess Lee could drop a pyramid on Mr. Clean's head, but in a straight fight, I dunno... Mr. Clean is a big dude


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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Three Score
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Posted: 3rd Jun 2007 05:33
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heres my submission..
lol..

what really sucks for forums is is YaBB..it just sucks...It got hacked on my website like 3 times..and then PHPBB I installed and no hacks..just like 2 or 3 spambots on it too(they didn't get past some verification thing though, so they can't post) last time I checked..

I haven't tried many forums though, so don't trust my opinion..

Open86 --My Emulator (now with it's first super alpha release
I'm addicted to placebo's...I would quit but it wouldn't mean anything! lol

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Ric
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Posted: 3rd Jun 2007 14:12
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Phpbb will get spammed to death by spam-bots - in its unmodified state. However, there are a ton of mods available for it which are very easy to integrate - I use one that asks the new member to answer a simple sum when they sign up. Since then, not a single spam post. I'm actually in the minority here in that I really like PHBB with a couple of modifications - but I know I'm in the majority overall .... it is by far the most popular bulletin board, free or otherwise, and that means there is a lot of support for it. And it looks pretty.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 3rd Jun 2007 16:35
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See - i'm from a Drupal background where Module is ACTUALLY a module. You can enable it and disable it at the click of a button.

As I understand it - PHPBB's idea of a module is a set of instructions of where to hack code into other code.

Yeah, you CAN tweak PHPBB to be decent enough - but it completely screws up your upgrade path.

[center]
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Shadow heart
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Posted: 4th Jun 2007 07:56 Edited at: 4th Jun 2007 08:02
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dude let's see I would go with aceboard. the graphics aren' the best but phpbb is terrible, it gets hacked likkke so much. anywya mine has never gotten hacked... It's the safest i've ever used from my other invisionfree boards which only got spammed once because of loose settings where guests could post.
Element Line Games
http://www.elementline.aceboard.com

to the ones thats trapped inside of you, this is it!!
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GatorHex
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Posted: 4th Jun 2007 17:18 Edited at: 4th Jun 2007 17:21
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Forget PHP if you want a secure forum use Perl instead although everything depends on how you set it up.

I recommend YaBB http://www.yabbforum.com, you don't even need a SQL database to use it!

Very simple and secure try an crack mine if you like at http://www.kumkie.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl

War MMORPG http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=106577&b=8
DinoHunter http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=98385&b=8
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Agent Dink
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Posted: 4th Jun 2007 17:47
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I wouldn't know the first thing about trying to hack your forum GatorHex, so I won't try.

I've used old versions of YABB before and they seemed pretty good, however, I've had way more experience in the past with SMF, and right now I'm thinking of using it. I really don't care about the graphics of any of the forums as they weill be changed anyhow. I just want it secure so I don't have to back up the forum every day. I think SMF will do that for me, I'm familiar with it and all that.

Thanks a ton guys for all your advice, the info helps alot.

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Josh
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Posted: 4th Jun 2007 22:58
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PHP is only "un-safe" if it's incorrectly setup and incorrectly used, as with all powerful tools. =)

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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Posted: 6th Jun 2007 03:47
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Quote: "Dang it, we don't have a comparable figure/ mascot on our boards "


We could adopt RGT's old mascot?

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=104239&b=3


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Matt Rock
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Posted: 7th Jun 2007 01:33
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heck yeah, he could cog Mr. Clean to death!


"In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe"
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