Considerable time and effort was spent evaluating freeware for creating an integrated forum and message board for a custom website design project. My choice for ease of use and feature support is Simple Machines LLC free forum software.

The setup was simple one-click installation after creating a single blank MySQL database on the server. Most hosting plans will likely include the minimum basics for proper functionality. The SMF Community Forum is extremely helpful with over 1 million posts and nearly 100,000 members as of June 2007.

For the project currently in work a secure members only environment was a requirement that is easily met with the SMF freeware. The administrator’s functions allow access by admin approval only, so this closed community can avoid problems with public access. In addition, category and subcategory setup of boards from the admin panel was easily done.

While the custom project is still in development and confidential, I created a new public forum for one of my oldest personal sites. The Degerstrom International Family Page began in 1996 as an introduction to the genealogy and history of persons with the Degerstrom surname, and includes six known branches in the US and Scandinavia. This (neglected) project was due for a makeover, so the home page has been redesigned in XHTML and the balance of pages will follow.

While the SMF software has limited color schemes, their forum community has many add-on features developed by members. My choice was recreating graphics to match the family site, so it has been customized for a familiar look.

Finally, I almost installed another open source freeware brand before finding SMF, and in retrospect the other option seemed behind the times though functional. I recommend SMF for anyone considering adding a forum or message board to their website.