There are a number of "impartial review" sites which have posted articles concerning board software. Here are some of the links:
Codango - 4.4 out of 5
Aspin - 4.4 out of 5 (same idiot saying not to use it, going from site to site, posting the exact wording - think he's impartial?)
Hot Scripts - 5.0 out of 5
Iterating - 9 out of 10
SnapFiles - 5 out of 5
Script Dungeon - "One of the Best on the Market"
DevScripts is 6 years out of date on all of the bulletin board reviews and software descriptions, not really worth a visit.
On
this "impartial review" site, I read that the ONLY way to go was PHP bulletin boards. The author's justification for that recommendation was as follows:
1) Snitz, as an ASP-based bulletin board has no features and no support (despite 26,430 messages in the Snitz support forums).
Why does he like PHP more than ASP?
PHP Features: "Support for all major databases, including MySQL, MSSQL, and even MS Access", "private messaging", "strong security", "polling", "Code Tags for formatting", "color themes", "user groups and permissions systems", "avatars, signatures, profile options", and moderation and administration facilities...."
However, he admits they cannot have custom icons, features cannot be turned on/off, nor added/subtracted without modifying software. Administration is weak, but if you leave a message, it will sometimes be "answered in a few hours" - but not necessarily by anyone who knows what they're doing. "The development team at phpBB have not added many new features to 2.0.x since it was released. They've appeared only to fix bugs or security problems.."
2) Everything other than ASP and PHP was prone to errors, etc.
If you read the "About the Author" information in the box at the top, you'll discover this:
David Mytton
David has been developing with PHP for over six years.
I wonder if that has anything to do with his "unbiased" opinion ... I posted a challenging response and they wouldn't put it on the web. I guess too much truth ruins a biased article. So much for user rebuttals. Every single PHP feature that the author thought was so special is also in Snitz - plus almost 200 others.<