Topic: Simple Machines Forum SMF is the BEST Free Internet Forum Software for PHP/MySQL

[Software Santa]

Simple Machines Forum (SMF) is the BEST Free Internet Forum Software for PHP/MySQL!

Software Santa uses SMF - Simple Machines Forum - for THIS Web Site!

Simple Machines Forum - https://www.simplemachines.org/ 

And It Didn't Cost him a Nickel!  For over 13 YEARS, now: Software Santa has been Using Free Software to help him GIVE AWAY Free Software! How Novel!

THE Easiest way to Install this for yourself, on your new domain, is: IF your Hosting Plan has a Control Panel installed like cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, InterWorx, H-Sphere ... just look for the Softaculous Auto Installer ("Softaculous") section under "Forums" - Click on SMF ... and you can have it up and running in 5 minutes with that Install Button! http://www.softaculous.com/softaculous/apps/forums/SMF

Simple Machines Forum — SMF in short — is a free, professional grade software package that allows you to set up your own online community within minutes.

Its powerful custom made template engine puts you in full control of the layout of your message board and with our unique SSI - or Server Side Includes - function you can let your forum and your website interact with each other.

SMF is written in the popular language PHP and uses a MySQL database. It is designed to provide you with all the features you need from a bulletin board while having an absolute minimal impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software - and best of all it is and will always remain completely free!

FEATURES:
General

    Uses PHP and MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite.
    Newly developed template system making it easier for custom edits.
    Advanced permission and user management.
    Supports multiple languages at once.
    Open and well-documented source code.
    Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from your last visit.
    Designed for optimal performance and scalability.
    Better SEO(Search Engine Optimization for search engines.
    Log where search engines crawl your forum.
    Multi-media output. (XHTML, XML, RSS, WAP)
    Multi-language support from a large community.
    Package manager that automatically installs or uninstalls mods (also known as hacks.)
    Ability to install mods to custom themes within a few mouse clicks.
    File based caching for a performance increase on all forums regardless of whether an accelerator is installed.
    Search
        Search the entire forum, a category/board or within a topic.
        Search within your personal messages.


Security

    All actions seamlessly require a session based authorization code.
    Administrative actions require the user's password (and do not rely solely on cookies.)
    Major actions are time and IP locked, preventing 'hammering'.
    The number of login attempts from a certain IP can be limited and time locked.
    All new powerful CAPTCHA system.
    New Anti-Spam system allowing you to create questions to appear upon registration to help avoid bots.


Forum Settings

    Ability to display page creation time and query count per page.
    Put a board into maintenance mode, allowing only admins to login.
    Word censoring, either full word or partial.
    Ability to break up long words.


Boards and Categories

    Group boards into collapsible categories.
    Set categories as non-collapsible.
    Reorder boards within categories, or reorder categories.
    Create child boards under other boards. (sub boards)
    Assign moderators to boards.
    Allow certain membergroups to access a board, including guests only.
    Configure permissions for each membergroup on the board level.
    Ability to indicate new posts to child boards but nothing new in parent.


Member Registration

    Require registration before forum entrance.
    Require a user to agree to terms before they register.
    Disable member registration completely (allowing only moderators to register people).
    Require email authentication by sending an authentication link.
    Require a moderator to approve registration.
    Register new members from the admin center.
    Add custom registration fields and decide whether they are required or not.


Member Navigation and Authentication

    Several security checks during navigation.
    Password reminder option, by email with confirmation. (doesn't automatically reset your password.)
    Both cookie and session based authentication (works without cookies.)
    Cookies can be set local to a path, global to all subdomains, or normally.
    Adjustable expiration time for authentication cookies.
    Members allowed to login using OpenID.
    Easily to edit dropdown menus to get you where you want to be faster.


Member Tracking and Tracing

    Sortable and searchable public memberlist (accessible by a permission.)
    Powerful sortable and searchable admin memberlist.
    Show all (error) messages and IPs made by a member. (track user)
    Show all (error) messages from an IP address or range. (track IP)
    See who's doing what (accessible by permission.)


Statistics

    Several board statistics (accessible by permission.)
    Tracking of member's online time in seconds.
    Tracking of topics, messages, new members, and hits per day.
    Individual member statistics accessible from their profile.


News and Announcements

    Ability to create announcement boards (members receive a notification of topics automatically.)
    Member option to disable receiving announcements.
    Email or private message your members by membergroup.
    Show a news ticker or news fader.
    Mail queuing system to slow down the sending of emails to improve performance on small and large forums.
    Email users wishing them Happy Birthday with several different templates.


Communication

    Ability to choose sendmail or SMTP (with or without authentication.)
    Ability to send a topic to a friend.
    Ability to view a "printer friendly" version of topics.


Membergroups

    Create membergroups to group members on permissions, access rights, and/or appearance.
    Assign several membergroups to a single member, with one membergroup as the primary group.
    Define membergroups that are auto-assigned based on the amount of posts a user has.
    Determine the maximum number of personal messages a membergroup is allowed to have by group.
    Assign graphical symbol(s) to a membergroup - by primary group.
    Determine which membergroups are allowed to access a board.


Banning

    Ban members based on their username, email address, IP address or hostname.
    Support of wildcards for email address, IP address, and hostname.
    Include a ban reason (viewable for the banned user).
    Include a ban note (only viewable by the admins).
    Chose between full ban, 'no post' ban, or registration ban.
    Include an expiration time for bans.


External integration

    Integrate parts of forum software into existing website using SSI or PHP
        Recent topics or posts.
        Recent news posts in a board.
        Recent polls.
        Several forum statistics.
        List of users online.
        The menu bar.
        News.
        Search.
        Login/logout.
        Today's events/birthdays/holidays.
    Export forum data using XML/RSS
        Latest members.
        News.
        Recent posts.


Wireless access

    Support for WAP, WAP2 and I-mode protocols.
    Browse through boards/topics/messages with reduced page size.
    Ability to login and logout (not with WAP 1.)
    Ability to see new topics/boards with new replies.
    Ability to jump to first unread reply.
    Ability to post new messages (not with WAP 1.)
    Allows forum to easily detect the use of a mobile phone's browser.


Theming and Templating

    Ability to allow or disallow your users to select their own theme.
    Ability to reset all of your members to a certain theme.
    Ability to install a new theme via your administration center.
    Default templates are XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS 2.0 compliant.
    Admin can add smileys and smiley sets.
    Members can choose which smiley set they wish to use (or none.)
    Themes can be installed by way of the "latest and greatest themes" panel.
    SSI can have and show layers and the like from the template system.


Posting Features

    Spell Check.
    Quick Reply
        Members can disable it or collapse it.
        Can be used with "Quote".
        Also contains "Spell Check".
    Vast number of "bulletin board codes" to use (including rtl, acronym, and others.)
    Enable the use of WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get).
    Optional editing grace period before a post is shown as modified.
    'Insert Quote' feature on posting screen to quickly quote previous replies.


Polls

    Can be added or removed to existing topics.
    Ability to set expiration date.
    Ability to hide results till expiration of poll.
    Ability to hide results until after people have voted.
    Ability to determine how many votes a user may cast.
    Polls can have up to 256 options.


Attachments

    Allowed on a per member group or board basis.
    The filename can be encrypted to increase the security (so you can upload .php files, etc.)
    Optional restriction on what filetypes may be uploaded.
    Ability to restrict such that only registered members can view them (disables hotlinking, mostly.)
    Images can be embedded into posts.


Calendar Support

    Appealing to the eyes calendar look.
    Shows Birthdays, Events and Holidays.
    Display calendar information on board index.
    Link an existing topic to the calendar.
    Allow only certain members/groups post events.
    Event poster can edit event.
    Events can span multiple days.


Moderation Tools

    Ability to lock and unlock a topic.
        Topics which are locked by an administrator can not unlocked by anyone else.
    Ability to allow members to use moderation on just topics they posted.
    "Report to moderator" link.
    Delete or modify posts.
    Ability to Merge/Split topics.
    Move or delete topics.
    Sticky or unsticky topics.
    Quick moderation to quickly go through topics and post by checking them with checkmarks.
    Recycle bin/board for all deleted topics and posts.
    Moderation log which shows moderation activity and disallows log removal outside of 1 day.
    AJAX editing:
        Edit a post without page reloads.
        Double click to edit topic subjects on message index.
    Powerful moderation center to allow moderators, and other forum staff to quickly go through reported topics and topics pending approval.
    Warning system to allow moderators and forum staff to put a user on a watch list, have all their posts require approval and to not allow them to post at all.


User Profiles and User Options

    Ability to hide your email address from the public.
    User subscriptions allower users to subscribe to anything for free or to pay.
    Select their favorite theme among the activated forum themes.
    Select their smiley set from the ones available.
    Email notification
        New topics per board.
        Single topics.
        Private messages.
    Login with 'invisible' mode.
    Options to hide other members' avatars and signatures.
    Ability to download and resize uploaded avatars.
    Personal text, avatar, signature, and all the niceties of forums can be used and are kept up to date in all your posts.
    Ability to fill in custom profile fields set by the Administrator.


User Resources

    Icons for topics you've posted to.
    Show new replies to your posts.
    Collapsible 'Additional Options' on post screen.
    Ability to view most recent messages.
    List all topics that have new replies since your last visit.
    See who is browsing the same boards or topics as you.
    Topics that span multiple pages have the page numbers listed as well as an "all" link.




In order to run an SMF forum, the server must meet the following requirements, and will run best on servers that also meet the recommendations below. This software has been tested and verified to work with the clients listed below, which are all internet browsers.

Basic Server Requirements

The following are required on any server intending to run SMF 2.0.

    A webserver with approximately 20MB of available disk space. Much more is recommended so that other content can be uploaded over time.
    A webserver that supports PHP, such as Apache or Internet Information Server (IIS).


    PHP 5.4.0 or higher
        Versions of SMF below 2.0.7 will not work on PHP 5.5. If you use PHP 5.5 it is required to use SMF 2.0.7 or greater.
        Versions of SMF 2.0.14 and higher will not work on PHP 5.3 or below. If you use PHP 5.3 it is required to upgrade to a newer version of PHP.

    The following must be changed in the php.ini file:
        The engine directive must be set to On.
        The magic_quotes_sybase directive must be set to Off.
        The session.save_path directive must be set to a valid directory or empty.
        The file_uploads directive must be set to On.
        The upload_tmp_dir directive must be set to a valid directory or empty.

    One of the following databases must be installed:
        MySQL 4.0.18 or higher (at least 4.1.0 would be better) and PHP MySQL client API 4.0.18 or higher.
        PostgreSQL 8.0 or higher (standard_conforming_strings must be set to off, starting from PostgreSQL 9.1 default is on)

    The following are requirements for the database:
        For a clean SMF installation, at least 2 MB of storage space in the database. Please note that this is only enough for the installation.

        The database user must have at least the following privileges: SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, ALTER, and INDEX.
        The database user must have the CREATE and DROP privileges during installation, conversion and some package installs.

Server Recommendations

These are not required, but may be beneficial to your SMF install and enable you to use more functions.

    GNU Aspell 0.50 or higher (with appropriate dictionaries) for spell checking functionality.
    Apache 2.0.x or above with AcceptPathInfo set to On for queryless URL support.

    PHP with the following set in your php.ini file:
        The max_input_time directive set to a value of at least 30.
        The max_input_time directive set to a value of at least 30.
        post_max_size and upload_max_filesize set to the size of the largest attachments you wish to be able to upload.
        The memory_limit directive set to a value of at least 32.MB
        The max_execution_time directive set to a value of at least 15.
        The register_globals directive set to Off.
        The session.use_trans_sid directive set to Off.
        safe mode disabled, or PHP suExec enabled.
        BCMath library enabled for using the OpenID registration method.
        mod_security disabled (please see Mod security for more information).

    GD Graphics Library 2.0 or higher.

Basic Client Requirements

    Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher (7.0 or higher recommended).
    Opera 7.0 or higher (9.5 or higher recommended).
    Netscape 6.0 or higher.
    Mozilla Suite 1.0.2 or higher.
    Konqueror or Galeon
    Apple Safari 1.0 or higher (3.0 or higher recommended).
    Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or higher (3.5 or higher recommended).
    Google Chrome 1.0 or higher (12.0 or higher recommended).
    Any Modern browser made after 2011

Simple Machines Forum - https://www.simplemachines.org/ 

Categories: Internet Applications - Install on your Web Server - FREE Internet Community Management - Forum Software - Requires PHP - Requires MySQL database