[Darth-Apple]

So I haven't really followed SMF much recently, but I did hear today that SMF 2.1 is on its way. I'm going to go on a whim and say SMF 2.1 can almost be compared to phpBB 3.1 in a lot of ways. I won't necessarily compare it with MyBB 1.8 because, all things considered, MyBB 1.8 isn't really that much of an earth shattering update. Regardless, the official beta 1 release announcement can be found here. 

I set up a little test install out of curiosity. I'm pretty impressed by its features, but the theme looks messier than it has ever looked. Not sure I'm really a fan of it. I wasn't a fan of 1.8's theme either, but at least 1.8 had some consistency in its theme and was easy to "fix". This could use some improvement. However, the (mostly) responsive theme, alerts systems, etc., as well as the simplicity of setting up various features on the forum are, in general, pretty strong advantages. 

What are your thoughts on SMF 2.1? Feel free to register on that test site if you want a good example site to take a look at.

[CapTon]

SMF is a pretty easy-to-use forum software, in my opinion I used to have forums set up using it, and I found that everything was easily accessible. However, it didn't allow for as much customization as I would've liked, such as the code or a variety of themes.

[Darth-Apple]

That's where MyBB has really shined, in my opinion. All of the theme templates, plugin hooks, etc. are readily available. Plugin development for MyBB is ridiculously easy compared to development for other softwares, which is nice as well.

SMF's board permissions and setup process is certainly more streamlined though.

[Darth-Apple]

Here come the screenshots...



I actually really like the overall feel of it. It's very SMF-like, which I really find appealing. I just find some of the pages to be unnecessarily messy and cluttered with menus. The alerts preference page, profile pages, etc. are some of the worst.

The look and feel is still pretty nice though, all things considered. Hopefully they can clean some stuff up for the next beta, because if some of the messier pages make it into the final release, it will really be a shame.

[Harry K.]

I have never liked the look of SMF, however I have never really given it a chance I guess. I can get past the horrible, outdated design that they are still rocking.

[Darth-Apple]

I have never liked the look of SMF, however I have never really given it a chance I guess. I can get past the horrible, outdated design that they are still rocking.

We actually started out on SMF here at MS. I actually really liked SMF, but it didn't work well for teh community. Activity and registrations increased once we had moved off of it, and several people didn't really like it. 

There are some things that are actually pretty nice about it though. Once you get past the awful ACP design, it's pretty easy to set up boards, permissions, etc., but something just didn't feel right about it. I still can't put my finger on it. Either way, at the very least, MyBB has definitely worked much better for us here.