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Posted May 28, 200717 yr Hi I am intereseted in purchasing ipb becuase I saw some other boards had it and I liked the features on it. Currently I own a smf board and they made a realease for smf 2 which seems really cool but seems like ipb already has these features. It also seems easy to retrieve themes and install mods on smf how is this with ipb. Why should I switch to ipb compared to smf?
May 28, 200717 yr What I love about IPB is the slick interface excellent features and when you buy IPB you get support. The support you get is excellent. If I have a problem I send a support ticket and my problem is sorted.I have been using IPB for a while now and I have even bought all the addon software Gallery, Blog and DownloadI like it so much I have switched my Hosting to invision. ;)
May 28, 200717 yr I've never used or heard of SMF, so I couldn't give you an opionion. Have you asked at the SMF community forums as well? You know - to get both unbiased sides. ;)
May 28, 200717 yr SMF is not even in the same league. Try a demo run of the Admin controls and IPB sells itself.
May 28, 200717 yr Although IPB is superior, if SMF does what you want and has all the features you need then I don't see the point in paying for IPB.
May 28, 200717 yr There's a lot of skins for both forum software. Have a look for skins for both SMF and IPB and choose which one you like best overall.
May 28, 200717 yr IT seems like a tuff choice how many themes are there for ipb?I would say it's a fairly easy choice to be honest - IPB. As kewlceo best summed it up, they aren't even in the same league as one another. And to answer your question, yes, there are many quality free and paid themes available for IPB.
May 29, 200717 yr IP.Board is very secure, but no software will ever be 100% free of any bugs or exploits.
May 29, 200717 yr Also how safe is ipb when it comes to safetySafe enough that unless you post your password somewhere, or let us know what your logins are, then we can't get access to your forum. On a side note you can also restrict your admins in the ACP from doing certain things such as deleting the root accounts, ect.Also you can disable guests from doing certain things or accessing features, different permission masks, password protected forums, disable non-registered people from viewing images, profiles, signatures, avatars, prevent them from searching, reading posts, ect.View a demo here: http://community.ipslink.com/board/demo.htmlThe only other forum that comes close with permissions and user roles is PHPBB3. Which is in RC1, I use both and PHPBB3 defeats IPB with permissions and access, but it gets annoying settings them up. I would go with IPB, but depends on the forum, what is your forum about?
May 29, 200717 yr Also how safe is ipb when it comes to safetyMuch more so than SMF, from my experiences.
May 29, 200717 yr If Smf has the features you want why would you wanna pay for something you already have
May 29, 200717 yr If Smf has the features you want why would you wanna pay for something you already haveI'm not trying to speak for others, but personally, I would never use SMF as it lacks alot of features. While I'm not (yet) a IPS customer, I would definitely go for IPB should I decide to open any forum. I hear IPS provides excellent support etc, and personally, I like IPB, it has a great interface and great features. ;)
May 29, 200717 yr To be honest, i say SMF is more secure with IPB. However the latest release of IPB is extremely secure; wiki article:It was the first version to undergo a security audit by a company named Gulftech to find any security holes missed by the IPS development team as part of their ongoing effort to keep IPB as secure as possible.
May 31, 200717 yr On a side note you can also restrict your admins in the ACP from doing certain things such as deleting the root accounts, ect.That is restricted by default for the admins not to be able to delete the root admin account(s).
May 31, 200717 yr This is a hard choice.. >_>What it ultimately comes down to is what you wish to gain out of the forum software. You should extensively demo each one from both the frontend and backend perspectives so you can get a better feel for each forum software, and further your decision for which one is the right choice for you. We've shared here what you've asked, and now you need to gather that information and make an informed decision after extensive testing (as I said).Good luck in your choice!
May 31, 200717 yr i persoanly would choose ipb over any other forum software, to me its easier to skin, its a well popular bard out there, people love using the software, and theres are tones of mods and skins out there, plus chances are if u want or need a skin for your site someon out there will know how to do it, with others your sources in my opion are limited on finding help with addons ect.
June 1, 200717 yr Not to mention, most people that run SMF seem to be total ignorant know-it-all snobs.Just an observation. :P
June 15, 200717 yr I opened my first forum using phpBB, then came across IPB when i got my first free PHP enabled web hosting account. Ever since then i have felt guilty using the free version, so i decided to fork out for the paid one. :) It's worth it.
June 15, 200717 yr i develop alot in invision and i can tell you that its code is VERY clean and sleek, its very quick (even quicker in 2.3) and tidy, there are great mods around and anything you can think of you could pretty do or add easily to invision.
June 20, 200717 yr I used to use PhpBB, I think it was around 2.1 back then, it was basic but did what I wanted, as my members grew & new features were required I upgraded to SMF which was quite a good package, to this day I still enjoy using this software, then I discovered IPB through a friend who runs his own site, he gave me access to his test board so I could play around & I loved the Admin panel so I purchased just before 2.2 came out & have loved the software sinceI even had a test run on v-bulletin but the Admin CP scared me off, too complicated & confusing, Support with IPB has been pretty good too ;)
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