CSharpZealot.com needs a forum application...suggestions?

Well, the masterpages and controls are now created for the initial site schema of www.csharpzealot.com and i'm now working myself through houndreds of Forums/Bulletin Boards/Discussion Lists etc to see if i can find one that's suitable...

preferably it would be free - but i would be willing to pay for a license IF it would also get me the source code and rights to handle it in any way i saw fit (except reselling of course).

Looking at what is out there, here's a few items which i need to ensure is supported:

  1. SQL Server 2005
  2. ASP.Net 2.0
  3. Extensible via modules OR API OR source code
  4. C# (of course)
  5. Forms and/or Windows authentication (either way it must be able to use custom authentication source)
  6. Skinnable, via CSS and/or ASP.Net 2.0 Themes

Of course there's the question about basic functionality, but the following would be nice:

  1. RSS or Atom feeds
  2. Grouped/Cathegorised threads
  3. Security grouping of users (eg. Role based security)

So, if anybody know of an application (off the shelf if need be), please let me know..Thanks guys.

Published Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:31 AM by Brian Madsen
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Comments

# re: CSharpZealot.com needs a forum application...suggestions?

Ummm... Why not just use Community Server? I haven't read all of your posts, and I certainly don't claim to have any particular allegience to Telligent, but is a very able integrated system, including forums. I know for a fact that it'll do #1-4 and #6, and I'm pretty sure it'll do #5. And it'll easily handle the last 3 reqs. Just a thought/suggestion. http://communityserver.org

Monday, September 18, 2006 1:56 PM by vern

# re: CSharpZealot.com needs a forum application...suggestions?

Have a look at Community Server (communityserver.org). You're using their current version for your blog. You can easly turn off the applications you don't need (such as blogs or photo gallery) and just leave the forums running. There are skins available, but the interface at this point is painful. They are promising improvements in upcoming minor and major releases. This is what powers asp.net forums, so it can take a beating and smile about it.

Monday, September 18, 2006 2:42 PM by RJD

# re: CSharpZealot.com needs a forum application...suggestions?

Hey Guys,

Thanks for that - i haven't had any experience with Community Server (other than from blogs) and by the sounds of it i should at least check it out.

Feedback appreciated...cheers

Monday, September 18, 2006 7:48 PM by Brian Madsen