# forums...where are they? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2001, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forums-where-are-they/92844 "2001-11-12T02:32:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![msplaced](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@msplaced](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msplaced)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forums-where-are-they/92844/1 "2001-11-12T02:32:29Z")
Hey everyone out there! Does anyone know any decent free script forums that I can run from my web page? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forums-where-are-they/92844/2 "2001-11-12T02:40:21Z")
the most popular are [http://www.vbulletin.com/](http://www.vbulletin.com/) and [http://www.ultimatebb.com/](http://www.ultimatebb.com/) ( [http://www.infopop.com/](http://www.infopop.com/) ) infact, the SDMB runs on vBulletin. not sure how limited the free versions of these two are, but they’re definitely the benchmark as far as forums go. ---
**Author:** ![Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gut)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2001, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forums-where-are-they/92844/3 "2001-11-12T03:34:54Z")
Here are couple other alternatives. [Ikonboard](http://www.ikonboard.com/newindex.iB/) From the FAQ: Ikonboard currently requires the following to function to its fullest potential: - CGI enabled directory - About 10 megabytes of harddrive space for initial installation - Perl version 5.004 - CGI.pm v2.4+ (most web servers have this installed by default) - Sendmail, or SMTP access (optional it has some links to sites that use it so you can see what it looks like. and [phpBB](http://www.phpbb.com/) From the User Guide: 1 Web server w/PHP 3.0.15 or greater (Apache is know to work well) 1 MySQL server (phpBB has been tested on 3.22 and 3.23) 1 Admin crazy enough to run a forum (That would be you 🙂 ) both are free. Here is a site that runs phpBB so you can see what it looks like. [ClubVeeDub](http://www.clubveedub.com)