http://live.pirillo.com/ – Forum software is piece of software that is installed on a web server which allows a community to interact in an organized and categorized format. Unlike blogs, forums tend to be more structured and can contain the views of multiple users rather than the maintainer of the blog. A user on the chat room wants some recommendations for forum software.

Headzoo recommends GetVanilla, which provides a clean and simple forum interface:

In Vanilla you can quickly and easily see which discussions you haven’t read, and how many new comments are in each discussion. You can run advanced searches through discussion topics, comments, and users. You can change the way Vanilla operates using per-user preferences. Finally, you have a very customizable account profile where you can provide pictures of yourself and add as much information about yourself as you like.

phpBB is a popular bulletin board system recommended by many users:

Since its creation in 2000, phpBB has become the most widely used Open Source forum solution. Like its predecessors, phpBB 3.0 “Olympus” has an easy to use administration panel and a user friendly installation process, which allows you to have a forum set up in minutes.

Ponzi doesn’t really like forums as they’re not as social as a blogging network. Instead, she likes the idea of a social networking website like ThisNext:

ThisNext is a shopcasting network where you can discover, recommend and share things you love. Everything on ThisNext is recommended by real people like you.

What forum software do you use? Do you use forums at all or do you prefer blogs and social networks?

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