I have used many forum scripts, and it might come across differently than I intended, but I have always loved SMF. Yet, if I had the money (I don't), I would have multiple sites running Invision Community. At one point, I had five active licenses. Three main sites, but this has dwindled down to one.

MyBB is a nice forum, but I have never been a fan of vBulletin, which MyBB originally looked a lot like, but with hints of Invision. There used to be third-party portals that would integrate with it, along with Subdreamer CMS, and I chose the forum based on what I attempted to kick-start. Most of my ideas are what I consider projects, and then they fizzle out.

My SMF site has transitioned to using Invision. It was on it all the way to something like 4.5, but it could have been 4.7. The site used to have over 1000 members, which averaged 150–220 active members. It was a great joy. I am really hoping to get that type of environment back, and with the cost being less, there is a lot less pressure to succeed.

I don't mean for this to come across as if, just because SMF is free, it means I can be casual, but I can invest easier. There are many great free forums, some of which I don't personally like, but that's the good thing about having options.

SMF is very simple to use, yet it does have a great community. It reminds me a lot of the earlier days on the internet, when people coded for fun and released mods as a passion. The extent to which people are down-to-earth and helpful is a big achievement of the SMF community. Some can be unhelpful, stuck-up, and even rude. There's one which I respect, but it's difficult to use, and its support community is a nightmare.

I also admire a lot of the talented theme designers for SMF. I have a custom theme designed by Diego, and it's awesome.

The fact that there are many free mods is also super useful, and I have made donations to devs who release free plugins because I think that if you get something of value, there comes a point when you need to pay it forward.

Whilst I love Invision, I have a similar admiration for SMF. I remember when I first used YaBB and became excited when I learned about SMF. I recall using earlier versions that featured some incredibly entertaining mods, allowing for a personalised touch in the post-bit area alongside the old karma system. It basically had four parts, which showed stats and looked super awesome. I don't think it was ever released as a mod; I recall it being an edit. SMF has always seemed the Linux version of forums, where you can customise it to your wishes. While many products appear to be standard and lack durability, often breaking with minimal use.

What about you?

Great post! As I've said before, I love myBB's usability. The problem with it was that you had to manually add mods and themes. At one time, they had a mod that would do it for you but the coder shut it down.

I've always liked Invision but it was out of my price range so I never really got to use it much.

I used to play with phpBB but thought it was harder to use than other software. I used to be a beta tester for the arcade and thought the arcade was the best, bar none and used to be the admin for SMF Arcade!

Diego is very talented. We used to be on the same team when LogoOff themes was around. Boris, the creator, and I are still good friends and keep in touch. I still have some of his old themes on my hard drive. LOL

I've never used YaBB but heard about it. I didn't start using SMF until version 1.0.3 or 4, I think.

I miss dual-booting Win and Linux. LOL But now that I have a new PC I may do it again.