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Good forum software for a gaming forum?

agoajagoaj Top TierOne FearRegistered User regular
in Help / Advice Forum
My company is looking to move their community from Kongregate/Steam to their own company forum(Slow moderation is a big issue on Kongregate).
1. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to forums, I look at the default Vanilla forums layout and I can't read anything. Is this what modern forums really look like? Am I out of touch, or is it the children who are wrong?

It looks like wrangling Vanilla to be anything like these forums would be very time consuming and fighting what Vanilla is designed for. I've also heard a lot of gripes about PHPBB, vBulletin, and Simple Machine Forums, so...
2. Does anyone have any experience with running a forum with the above(or similar) software? What are the pros and cons in your experience?

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Posts

  • ceresceres When the last moon is cast over the last star of morning And the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderator Mod Emeritus
    I think some of the answer to this is going to depend on what you want to spend. A good bit of what goes into the PA forums is custom work, I believe, but @IcyLiquid would be the person to ask about Vanilla.

    And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    PHPBB is pretty popular for cheap foruming from what I can see, but it's kind of crappy for the users, and pretty ugly.

  • IcyLiquidIcyLiquid Two Steaks Montreal, QuebecAdministrator, Vanilla Staff vanilla
    edited February 2015
    @agoaj The level of customization you want to do does depend, to an extent, on your budget. That said, Vanilla Hosted theme customization is quick and straightforward and a one-time cost, so not that bad. We also have several different "layouts" or UI configurations, some of which are more traditional than others.

    We've also got a pretty nice repertoire of gaming centric features, such as a "featured posts" carousel (like Blizzard's forums) in our core product :)

    You should chat with someone from our sales team and see what can be done within your budget, couldn't hurt. Let me know if you'd like me to set that up for you.

    IcyLiquid on
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