smf SMF anyone?

[Shole]

I have been using SMF since I got into forums. I used it first from Smfnew an auto hosting site. You just select a domain and they make you a site in 5 min and then you modify it. There were limits so I changed to free hosting and then paid cpanel hosting.

There I really learned to love the simple mod installation and easy to use admin panel of SMF. Since then Simple Machines Forum was my favorite and still is. Every of my current forums runs on SMF software and I am currently learning its codes so in some time i might be able to create my own mods

What are your thoughts about SMF?

[Nathan]

It's a good product until you outgrow it.

 

I had another forum that I created and at about 10k-15k posts I got overrun with spammer and people trying to login as users all the time.

 

It created a lot of problems such as if a user was logged in and these spammer tried to login over and over it would log the person out.

[chiller]

SMF is great for new forums or small communities.

If you want to run a big forum with lots of members and traffic, go for paid forums like IPB or vBulletin.

[dojo]

I never liked it. Tried using it 5 years ago, it was impossible to modify the skin as I'd like to have to. The default skin is absolutely horrible, the entire script didn't really make me love it. Now, if I see a SMF powered forum I actually think twice before joining it, I dislike the script this much. I believe it's 'dated' and not suitable for a 2012 forum. I don't like any free scripts anymore, I think that, if you want to start a forum, you should be able to INVEST in it, but, if I had to use a free option, I'd go with MyBB.

[DarkGizmo]

I strongly dislike SMF. The overall layout feels like it belongs in the early 1990s, and it's just clunky and a hassle to work with. It has nothing that has brought it into the current generation of forum softwares and even phpBB 2.x feels more advanced then SMF. The themes all look the same and most are very ugly and unprofessional looking. I would quit visiting and running forums before I touched SMF.

[wjack2010]

I never liked it. Tried using it 5 years ago, it was impossible to modify the skin as I'd like to have to. The default skin is absolutely horrible, the entire script didn't really make me love it. Now, if I see a SMF powered forum I actually think twice before joining it, I dislike the script this much. I believe it's 'dated' and not suitable for a 2012 forum. I don't like any free scripts anymore, I think that, if you want to start a forum, you should be able to INVEST in it, but, if I had to use a free option, I'd go with MyBB.

I know the feeling, to me SMF needs an extremely major update to get even one spot higher in my ranking of forums.

MyBB has always been the top forum software for me, with phpBB right behind it on it's tail wing. MyBB is expected to have a 2.0 update soon, which will really improve things, though it's mean to be years before it's released as there re-writing every aspect of the MyBB code.

[Victor Leigh]

I have just googled for big forums which use SMF. Some of them are really big. Like Red and White Kop which has nearly 6 million posts and 30K members. I suppose they have found a way to use SMF efficiently and effectively. You can check it out here:

http://rankings.big-boards.com/?sort=posts&filter=SMF,all&p=all

[JackClarke]

Security is absolutely terrible and the system is not well built. I've never had a good experience with SMF, the Admin CP is confusing as things often just don't work or can be done so many ways it clearly hasn't been thought through, the themes themselves are often ugly and this just makes me want to avoid sites.

[Jaypee]

Last post here was over a year ago and a lot has changed with SMF since then.

 

I am using SMF and I'm very satisfied so far.  It's free, easy to manage, and most importantly - I get great support from the SMF community.  As for the SMF look - nowadays you can make your SMF forum look cool too (unlike before).  A number of web developers have seen the demand of SMF forum owners for nice looking SMF forum themes like DzinerStudio.com.  I recently got a simple, clean and free theme from them and I'm really enjoying the look of my forum now. 

 

I'm also not worried growing my community  with SMF.  As mentioned by Victor - it can handle millions of posts and hundred thousands of members.

 

So far - for me it's SMF all the way!

Edited August 31, 2013 by Jaypee

[kingpost]

vBulletin is better then SMF i think!!

[JoshSmith100]

Im a big fan of SMF, its by far the best free forum software. For best overall software though I prefer Vbulletin. SMF is very easy to use and ive used it on a few forums.

[CDNeely]

I am definitely in the minority it seems with my like of SMF. I don't have any troubles with navigating the admin panel and the look is exactly what I was looking for. Of course, they have done some major changing in the last several updates which makes it better. It's hard sometimes to get older mods to work, but I work around that as best I can. The reasons I use forum software would be counter to using a paid software package anyway.

[Grumpy]

SMF is a good forum software, but it's one that is rarely used and not really marketed. When the words "free forum software" are used, the first two forum softwares that I think of are MyBB and phpBB. In my view, they're the most established forum softwares available, they have relatively active and dedicated support & development teams, and they have a lot of modifications and plugins available to change & add things to the way the software itself works. SMF is a decent software but it just can't compete with the likes of MyBB because it's not "well-known" enough.

[BlueFalcon]

Honestly, I've used SMF several times, and I enjoy it. SMF has come a long ways, and way more efficient than a couple of years ago. 

 

I have to say though, since I have bought an IPB license, I have had to say IPB over runs SMF without any doubt in my mind. 

[crazycroc]

I'm currently running myBB (free) and XenForo (paid) on my forums. Way back I gave phpBB and SMF both a try and found myBB to be the best one in the free forum market.