Have you heard about MyBB? No? Then you’re in for a treat.

A friend of mine has had the domain name uwred.com for a while now, and had been planning to use it to set up a Wisconsin Badgers fan forum. I finally got around to helping him out with that.

If you’ve ever set up a forum before, you’re probably familiar with phpbb. Phpbb is a popular open source forum package. I can’t say for sure, but I’d wager that it’s the most widely used open source forum package. It’s been around forever, and has an active developer community. Still, it’s a pain the butt to set up and use, and a nightmare to modify and maintain. I personally believe that the most recent release, phpbb3, was actually a step backwards in terms of usability.

So before sentencing myself to phpbb3, I thought I’d take a look at how far other free forum software has come. I’d done the same due diligence about a year ago, and in the end, determined that I was stuck with phpbb3. Better the devil you know, right?

This time around, I was thrilled to discover MyBB. Similar to vBulletin, MyBB flat out kills phpbb in terms of user experience and usability.

I won’t get into outlining the features I find attractive, as I think the package speaks for itself. Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia page, though, to give you an idea:

MyBB includes many features not included in other free forum software. Most notably, it includes a reputation system, multi-quote, and the ability to create custom BBCode (called MyCodes) out of the box. Additionally, MyBB includes support for multiple calendars with ranged and repeating events, a scheduled mass mail and newsletter system, and AJAX-based features such as quick reply, quick edit, and inline thread title editing.
For moderators, posts and threads can be managed through inline post and thread moderation, allowing for moderation actions to be applied to multiple posts or threads at the same time. Custom moderator tools allow administrators to combine moderation actions into individual tools to be used in thread and post moderation. MyBB also includes an extensive warning system, which allows for preset and custom warning types and configurable “warning levels,” where actions are automatically performed when a user’s warning level reaches a certain percentage.
Plugins require little or no modification to core files through MyBB’s extensive use of plugin hooks. Plugins are installed on your forum to give your forum enhancements or changes without having to manually edit loads of files.

Anyone who’s worked with phpbb can already see that this is a huge step up. Check out a demo on the MyBB site today, or check the working install at UW Red Wisconsin Fan Forums.