myBB forum application review

Default theme

Unlike phpBB, the default theme isn’t responsive. It is a problem since there are more and more people browsing forums from mobile phones and tablets.

User & groups

You can add a new group in myBB and change the user permissions of this particular group. You can create your own custom BBcode under the category mycode in the myBB admin panel.

Monetization

We found a paid membership plugin for myBB. Nevertheless, this plugin required the IPN to be set up in paypal. This means that you must set the url of your forum in paypal. I wonder what if you want to sell product and services from 5 websites when the IPN is set up for 1 website in Paypal? 

There is an extension called “my advertisement” which allows you to add advertisements to your myBB forum in postbits, header and footer. Here is the link.

Just like for phpBB, monetization is the achilles heel of myBB.

myBB visual editor

This visual editor of the “post a new thread” page has lots of features to modify the typography and add pictures, links, comments, code and smilies.

The thread is also very well made. Without overloading the layout, a thread has all the necessary features like buttons to PM or email a user, reply, report, quote. A user reputation system is integrated into the default installation of myBB. Also, users can give a score to the thread out of 5 stars.

Anti-spam features

For sure it is possible to ban a spammer. More importantly, stop forum spam is installed on myBB installation by default. A moderator can ban an IP address, an email address or username very quickly from the admin panel.

Conclusion

I found that the administration panel of myBB was much easier to use than the phpBB admin panel. The myBB default layout looks good even if it is not responsive by default. There are many features and for someone who needs a forum that would not monetized or would rely on advertisements it would be perfect.