4 PhpBB (a snapshot of which can be seen in
Figure 10-6) is completely open source, and runs on MySQL and PHP. Its features are comparable
to other major platforms: comprehensive back-end and admin, full thread and
member management, a rich member profile section (including the ability to tag other
members as ???friends??? or ???foes???), and a well-designed search function.
Since there is no formal company backing phpBB, support comes through the large and
active community (which can be found at the website??™s own internal forum) and a detailed
set of documentation. There is no option for paid support, although you can buy a phpBB
t-shirt to fund the development team.
PunBB. In the early 2000s, a new breed of alternative forum software packages began
turning up. This generation focused on two things: a stripped-down feature set (meaning
that all the bells, whistles, and functionality bling in software like IP.Board is largely lost)
and a stronger adherence to web standards (which means that the chunky, artery-clogging,
table-based layouts of phpBB are replaced with light and zesty CSS-based layouts). PunBB
is part of this new generation.
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