: Adding a Forum to my site: build one from scratch or use existing open-source platform? Note: I posted this originally to stackoverflow.com, had it closed, and was told to post it on programmers.stackexchange.com.

@Gonzalez347

The question is now 5 years old. Today, you can achive this quite simple with the phpBB3 forum.

It would require the following steps:

Step 1
Use the Authentication Plugin to synchronize your database with your membership site, i.e. log users automatically in whenever a user logs into your membership site and update profile settigs (language, email, name, avatar, custom fields,..) whenever a user edits his profile on your membership site.

Step 2 Disable the User Control Panel at System->Module Managemenet->User Control Panel. You probably don't want that your users can be friends, send messages or edit their profile in the forum, because you probably cover that with your membership site.

Step 3 Disable private messaging at General > Board Configuration > Board Features

Step 4 Integrate notifications on your membershipsite by using this code: www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=461&t=2307731

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@Carla537

You could write it down that would be the best idea it would take some time but you will be able to solve the errors than to search for the solution first learn .php and mysql then write it you will defenitily win in this

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@Harper822

I'm in the habit of reinventing the wheel sometimes, 'cause u know what you are doing, It will be light weight, definitely lighter than any forum because they a far too much features that nobody use.

It's worth to spend sometime and design your own.
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General forums have bugs which is known and someone can attack u, but if u have your own forum then if somebody needs to attack, then he need to do a lot to know your forum's flaw.
Fully compatible with your site.

and at last periodically add some feature that your users need.

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@Alves908

Given your comment on John’s answer, I’d say go ahead and roll your own — if you understand and accept what you’re getting into. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to examine existing solutions for insight though. You could find gems of reusable code or discover an approach you may have overlooked on your own. You may end up with a hybrid, but you’ll understand the code base and it’ll be exactly what you need. I personally enjoy reinventing the wheel sometimes.

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@Bryan171

It's crazy to even think of implementing your own forums unless you either want something incredibly simple, or you need something very different from any of the existing forums you would otherwise think of using.

You have to monitor any forum for spam, and If you already have some kind of site registration already, disable the native registration for the forum and tweak the forum to use your exising account names.

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@Berumen354

I would run away from rolling your own forums. It will just be a headache in the long run. Please take a serious look at vBulletin for powerful forum solution, or vanilla forums for lighter weight package. Both have a robust plugin API which will allow you to integrate with your current site. Both have a very nice theme system, which can make the forums look a integral part of your site. Don't be afraid of all the features of vBulletin, eventually you may want to start using them.

For an example of vBulletin integrating with a website, checkout Bio Ware's new Star Wars forums. (Running vBulletin)

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@Kristi941

You seem to have a good understanding of why you should and shouldn't write your own forum software so I'm going to focus on my opinion instead of hashing out facts you already know.

Forums are favorite places for spammers to spam. They're right up there with blogs. Even existing forum software have a hard time keeping up with them. If you roll your own forum software you may find keeping up with them a full time job and not worth the time and effort.

Existing forums software offer a familiarity for users. There's really just a handful of popular forum software out there and most people who are active in communities have seen most of them. If you use one of them in your site your users with be comfortable using them right away.

Existing forum software offers you a chance to get your community up and running quickly. They also offer you a chance to add a lot of features quickly.

The cons would be a lack of "perfect" integration with the rest of your site. But the question is, "How much is that offset by the positives listed above"?

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