Wow, it's great to hear from the GOTD admin team - hope to hear more from you on a regular basis - happy, healthy new year 2010 to all of you.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Still there is no intention to change anything about the forum. The main reason is that we are quite happy with the level of integration between the forums and the site as Bubby and Ashraf has mentioned.

Moreover bbpress forum has quite clean and user friendly interface, not overwhelmed with extraordinary functions. And we consider it to be good for novices.

Best regards,
Giveaway of the Day project team

The only things I don't see (and that can't be integrated) is a skin editor, calendar, ACL (no idea what this is), and a lot of types of data storage. None of those seem like a big problem to me, but its not me that is making the switch :P

There are probably more of us that have been involved in forums than meets the eye. I agree there are others with more options and controls but take what we had vs what we have now, well I won't complain.

Good luck thewebmaster aka Webmaster.

Another good one to check into is proboards. I run a forum on proboards. They are very user friendly & have a great support board to answer any questions you may have.

http://www.proboards.com/

You may want to check this out, TNP:
http://www.forummatrix.org/compare/bbPress+miniBB+phpBB+SMF+vBulletin
Being a moderator, I wish there was more flexibility, like SMF or phpBB.
That's why I made this topic.

I have been to other forums. This one looks clean and has a great community...which is my general requirements. Maybe I don't use forums to their entire extent, but I have never been frustrated with them (besides the logon problem). The site is different IMHO, as I don't like the stickr, and the voting needs a tiny bit of tweaking.

I'm not very good with this stuff...but what is wrong with our current forum? (Well, besides the search...which is horrific)

I'm not very good with this stuff...but what is wrong with our current forum? (Well, besides the search...which is horrific)

They don't need to pay their staff, for I'm willing to do it all, not that they would let me, let alone that it would be even possible.

Take what Ashraf said there. He says you can integrate phpBB or SimplePress with WordPress, which would be way better than our current stage of "forumness" :)

I'm not saying it will happen, but if the GOTD team is willing, I am a volunteer.

I own a SMF forum. It's really good, lots of administration options, and just lots of neat options. From what I've read, phpBB is even better than SMF, and I really like it.

So, yes it would be a job. Does that mean it's not possible?
-Webmaster

Bubby is right. Integration is key - it is the biggest problem. Even BBPress and Wordpress integration can be a pain depending on what versions of each you are using. However, integration between atleast phpBB and Wordpress (don't know about SMF) is actually not that hard that you need half a dozen people :P; it is just annoying.

In terms of integration, SimplePress is the best forums script to use with a website built with Wordpress. However, SimplePress is, to put it lightly, in its baby stages - very incomplete in terms of features.

You have 2 chances.

The entire site uses WordPress.
bbPress is the Forun software developed by the creators of WordPress.

I believe the idea is that there is a level of integration between the forums and the rest of the site. Although at times this integration might seem less than perfect.

The problem comes when someone has to actually integrate another forum, export/import/migrate data across to the new system, and then when either system phpBB or Wordpress make a change or update - go back and test to make sure no new bugs or security issues were introduced.

If the GOTD team had half a dozen people doing nothing more than fetching cups of coffee, and picking up the dry cleaning - then perhaps manpower to do the work wouldn't be an issue.... (They aren't volunteers - so the initial setup, and then regular updates and testing would have a financial cost also)

It's fine to ask, but there are too many gotchas, and not enough gains. Especially when bbPress is "good enough". (ok maybe that last comment was said through clenched teeth).

So here's the deal:
I really don't like bbpress. What's bbpress? It's the forum service that this forum uses. There are two others that are much better (I know from experience) and are free 100%.

If the GOTD team is willing to work with me, I have a way to transfer everything to a new and better forum service, that is, PHPbb or SMF.

So what do you think? Do you think it's a good idea?
Please give your feedback!