What's a good free forum/message board program

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a need for a small message board on my page. I don’t think that I’ll have more then 30 people, and probably not more then a post or two a day. I’m running a motorcycle tour this summer so I want people to be able to ask questions and get answers from myself and others.

I tried once a couple of months ago, but couldn’t get the database to work out right. I have an account at godaddy, but their help is a bit difficult to wade through. What are some good free, and easy to install and manage programs. I really don’t need anything fancy.

2

Nothing to do with your OP but I’d like to know about the tour. Are you talking about a run, ala San Carlos Run or touring around ala Robert Persig?

3

The tour is actually based upon places Indiana Jones has been to. In a nutshell there are 36 different cities on a list along with other a few other places and things. Each rider is given what’s called a rally flag, which Opalcat designed. At each city they take a photo of a city limit sign, their motorcycle, and the flag proving they were there.

For example, I give you a list of London, Berlin and Paris. You can find any London in the world, the one in England or one in Texas. Ride there and take the photo. It runs for six months. The reason for the message board is so that people can say, I tried to find London, TX, but it doesn’t exist.

For people who have the time they can get to lots and lots of places. I hope that explains it.

4

I use InvisionFree. I’ve used it for years with no complaints.

I just link to the forums on my web page.

I’ve thought about switching to PHPBB so I can host them myself, but the existing system works well so I’ve not bothered.

5

I actually wanted to keep it free from ads. I forgot to say that. But the invision might be ok, I’ll have to look into it more.

6

I’ve set up phpBB and used it before, and found it more than adequate for a small personal board. It’s a bit fiddly to customise sometimes, but I found I could work with it.

7

If you give them $10 or so it gets rid of aids for a bit. You may be interested in this short thread.

PHPbb is alright, I’ve used it before, but it has some bad problems.

You don’t want to use ProBoards.

SMF is what some Invision guys mutinied and created, and I believe it is free if you have your own host. If you don’t have your own host then go with Invisionfree. I have used it with many different projects for years and it is a fantastic program. If you know how to customize it or know somebody who is good with that (or teach yourself!), you can make something really impressive with it, something that can compete with a professional board for looks without yourself dropping a dime.