Switching Forum Software, Opinions Wanted

Jonas Larsson

Moderators of the discussion forums on CFD Online have been discussing to perhaps switch to a different forum software. The reasons to switch are:

1. We need a forum that requires registration and has some form of validation test in order to better prevent spam. Today moderators spend at least an hour every day to delete and block spam from the forums.

2. Other forum softwares have features like equation rendering using LaTeX, ability to attach pictures and files with posts etc. This would be nice to have.

Peter, one of the forum moderators, has suggested that we switch to vBulletin. A vBulletin forum looks quite different from our current forum though. For examples of how a vBulletin forum looks you can take a look at:

http://www.physicsforums.com/

or

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

As you can see these forums are quite different from the simple threaded forums we have today.

What do you think about switching to a vBulletin based forum on CFD Online?

If we decide to switch to vBulletin we should also have a discussion about what forums to create and how to best structure the different new forums, but lets wait with that discussion until we have decided to switch.

I don't want to enforce this switch without a clear majority of forum readers being positive. Switching forum software will create the following problems: Registration will be required to post and we will loose the simple threaded layout, which I know many users, me included, like. The benefits are many: Better spam control possibilities and many other nice features that our current forum lacks.

Give us your opinions!