February 23, 201610 yr We've been using phpBB, and I believe it's just too bloated and clunky for our needs. The interface makes you go through so many hoops to set up private sections. I'm looking for a forum software with basic features, and really easy to set up private groups and forums. The nice to haves are text formatting. PMs would be good too. We can do without avatars, user profiles, file uploads, or polls. The most important feature that it needs is easy setup for public and private forums. bbPress would suit these needs, if it was standalone from WordPress.
February 23, 201610 yr We are using Xenforo for our photography forum, but I suspect it's just as bloated and clunky and overkill for what you need. We have private groups within it but I think that was with an add-on.
February 23, 201610 yr We are using Xenforo for our photography forum, but I suspect it's just as bloated and clunky and overkill for what you need. We have private groups within it but I think that was with an add-on. What about IP.Board? Same software that this forum uses?
February 23, 201610 yr To add to previous suggestions, there's also MyBB. However as you're looking for something lighter, Vanilla may be the right fit for you.
February 23, 201610 yr Author To add to previous suggestions, there's also MyBB. However as you're looking for something lighter, Vanilla may be the right fit for you. Was MyBB notorious for getting hacked or spammed, or was that SimpleMachines? Either way, I plan to test drive Vanilla (self hosted). The site doesn't get much traffic, so I'd rather not pay for a subscription service.
February 23, 201610 yr Discourse has an open source or paid hosted version, and also has all of the features you're looking for https://www.discourse.org/about/ plus more. Hosting is going to be a bit of a pain compared to a PHP based system, but there are one click installers on Digital Ocean. It depends if you're comfortable with managing it.
February 23, 201610 yr Was MyBB notorious for getting hacked or spammed, or was that SimpleMachines? I'm not sure to be honest, its been some years since I last played with MyBB and I don't see it being used very often. Just thought I'd add it to the list for evaluation. Edited February 23, 201610 yr by MikeH
February 29, 201610 yr I've used FluxBB in the past. It seemed very lightweight but had the features required (including private forums). Might be worth a look at
March 15, 201610 yr I've used FluxBB in the past. It seemed very lightweight but had the features required (including private forums). Might be worth a look at Cool. They look like they're regularly updated.
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