Idea Choosing The Right Forum

Hi guys, just wanting some advice if possible.

I currently run a phpBB3 forum on my first site, and chose the format because the Joomla Template club I belonged to offered a matching phpBB3 club. But I'm not overly happy with it, it works OK but it's just too complicated and too much overkill for my needs.

Now I have a new site and want to add a forum, but want to choose a native Joomla option this time. I've played around with most of the available forum options and just now trying to make my final decision between Kunena and another.

Could I just ask how experienced users of this platform have found it, are there any known problems with the software? Is it reliable? I expect the forum would only ever be small, and I will need to run adsense too. I really want to make the right decision this time.

Thanks for any advice

G'day, Julian, welcome to Kunena and thank you for your very good question! :woohoo:

Just what makes a forum product the right forum product for you?

Of course, I'm biased. I've been using Kunena for about 18 months and I must have used dozens of different forums in my life - I've even built one or two! So, of course, I could tell you to use Kunena and don't give it a second thought, but that's not really treating your question with the seriousness that it deserves.

Before considering whether you can trust the reviews given in the Joomla Extensions Directory and what others have written about Kunena in particular , let me summarise the situation very simply: There are a lot of people who like what you get about Kunena and there are a lot of people who don't but, on balance, there are more people who have tried Kunena who like it than there are those who don't.

There are those who argue that Kunena needs more features, others who want to strip out existing features and the rest of the users don't care either way. But look at the impressive list of features!

Kunena was designed, developed and made for Joomla. Standalone forum products, like phpBB, were not and they require "bridging software". You're right. These other products are just too complicated for site owners who want to get a forum up and running with the minimum of fuss.

Out of the box, Kunena works! Whether it's K 1.5.12 or even K 1.6 BETA, it works! It works and it doesn't need you to read detailed instruction manuals or configure anything. However, if you want to migrate your existing forum across ... well, that's where you have to do a bit of work.

Some Joomla forums have migration/conversion scripts that are supposed to eliminate the hassle of keeping your old forum and all the data and putting it into a different format. If migration is your number one issue then you should look at those "extra" features. One thing is for sure: not all of these migration scripts work and there will always be legacy issues remaining after you do those conversions. However, if you're starting all over again, migration isn't an issue, is it?

So, really, the choice is a personal one. Your choice should be influenced by what others have to say about the products that you're interested in. Your choice should also be proven by taking a product and subjecting it to your own rigorous testing. The main benefit in considering Kunena is that it's free - free to download and to experiment with - and the only investment you need to make is your time. Not every forum product can make that same claim.

The great thing about the internet, for me, is what I call "disposable technology". Try it out, experiment with your own ideas, push it to its limits and see how it behaves. If it turns out that the technology was not suitable then throw it away and start again. As I said, it's only your time that's been wasted ... and it's not usually a large amount of time that's involved.

Do I like Kunena? Just look at how many messages I've written here and I think that probably answers your question. With Kunena you get more than just a "product": you get the help, wisdom and support of thousands of other Kunena users, the help and guidance of an attentive moderation team and the expertise of top-grade software developers. You get attention, that's what you get.

Cheers!

I also have a phpBB forum and was looking for something native Joomla and less complicated than phpBB. I saw the huge amount of positive reactions in the JED and went over here to take a look.

A few very good things that I noticed:

- very good installer
- very easy configuration
- very responsive, fast and good help from the developers (sorry, I forgot also the mods and the community)
- very active development (version 1.6 is about to be released stable)
- already packed with features and more to come

Etc etc.

Yes, there are some things that can be improved, but I believe this development team can and will solve (the most) and make already the best forumcomponent the megarulingbest forumcomponent. I can't wait for the converters to be released and make all my forums Kunena.

Well, what can I say... Thank you, those are two of the most intelligent replies I've seen on a forum.

I did actually originally launch a Kunena forum on my first site, but it was right at the change-over time from Fireboard, and I was running into too many issues, hence I quickly had to look at another option. phpBB wasn't my first choice, Kunena was, and is again.

Quite some time has passed, and I am highly encouraged by the ongoing support and development of Kunena, that I am willing to give it another try.

I want to choose Kunena, I will play with the system some more.

Thanks again for the insightful wisdom.

Julian,

Hope you will find what you are looking for. Kunena is not the best there is, I am not sure that theses days there is A BEST. What Kunena is about is community and true Open Source. Everything including source code SVN and documentation is open to everybody. We encourage any and all Joomla developers to join in and contribute.
We are trying to manage all contributions and make it the best possible solution given the fact that every piece of work is a donation of time and effort by the developer who wrote it.
Kunena is not a product of a single developer and it is here to stay. Kunena will be fully compatibly with Joomla 1.6 (some bugs are still to be ironed out given that J1.6 is being finalized and changing from release to release) as well as future releases of Joomla. We are working very closely with the Joomla core and leadership team, we are implementing Joomla and Kunena at corporate (enterprise level) sites and are focused on making it a professional solution for small to large users.
To see how this community has come together and how rapidly it is growing is really encouraging. When we started Kunena some 18 months ago, we had no idea how it would evolve.
Many of us have donated hundreds and thousands of hours into this project. To see that over 500,000 sites around the world already use Kunena is one sign that we are doing something right.
At the same point we know that we are not perfect. We choose progress over perfection. Not all our code might be perfect design, we still carry older code around, but we do so with focus on delivery and the community.
We are not in a contest about feature richness or to put a checkmark next to every possible feature. We want to be smart to build a solution that fits all our needs, without making it too complicated to use.
When and if you find issues we encourage you to work with us to find a solution. The entire moderator and development team is very eager to learn from everybody in the community.
We need to thank every single user for helping out and contributing!

As I said at the very beginning: I hope you find what you need here, and if not, are willing to contribute back a little. Its the power of us all that is making Kunena happen.

Your experience is great and learning for other people.
Some time we never feel what we have done but for other that is big achievement

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