What's your favourite forum software, and where do you prefer to host it? My fave is IPB, but it costs too much
I prefer to host them on my own site, so I usually only use free hosting. PHPBB3, or SMF is good. XMB's too complicated
Anyway, what are your views?

Personnally, I prefer PHPBB. I find it rather easy to install and administrate.
I hate ads on my own forum. That's why I don't want to use a forum provider like invisionfree. Besides that, some "free" forum providers warned me after some monthes that it's not free any more, some other ones simply suppressed my forum without any warning.
So, I prefer to use my own site. Astahost has no ads, and the account lasts as long as I can post on their forum, if I cannot post any more I will have to switch to a paid hosting account.
Some other providers give you a free account with a very small and acceptable text-based link at the bottom of your web page, I think that I could accept that.
However, my favourite remains PHPBB freely hosted by Astahost.
Yordan

Welll I prefer the free quick to apply kinds, no matter what there format is

My favorite, through personal experience, is phpBB. I used it once upon a time on a website that was hosted on my brother's server. Anything that's free and open source, and actively developed, is worth investing the time.

I wouldn't mind trying Invision, but I think that you have to pay for that? So that's a "no" for me. Especially to keep up a hobby.

I started out as a YabbSE forum user and later converted to SimpleMachines Forum. Been using SMF ever since. The installation itself is very easy to setup and so are the mods. Support and security are definitely some of the stronger points also. I gave phpBB a try in the past before, but for some reason, passed on it. phpBB3 has a lot of rave and I will need to give it a test drive. I probably will remain a loyal SMF user, but don't mind exploring other forum systems and see how they work

For the hosting part, I rather host on a free webhost but I don't mind paying for one. I actually have been using a paid one for years now even when I have a free hosting account here at Astahost. Hosting doesn't cost a lot unless you want to be on a dedicated server

In my time I have used both phpBB and Invision PowerBoard. Personally, although they came close I preferred phpBB. Firstly, it's free. I also found that was slightly easier to install (and easier to control further on, once it had been opened) and in my opinion it was simpler to change and customize the design and layout of my forums quickly and easily.

As for the hosting, I would much prefer to host my forum on my own website than on a free forum provider such as InvisionFree. This is mainly because I like to be able to control the design of the forums completely and if a problem was to arise, I would not want to have to wait on someone else to fix it for me.

If I were to have my own forum, I would chose SMF. It's easy to install and it's not very complicated for admins. Well for me at least, I know a lot of people who have a hard time installing SMF fourms.. I would defiantly pay for my own dedicated hosting if I were actually into making a really good forum with lots of members. I've found that when there is a lot of ad's it attracts less people, so I would pay for no ad's. It might cost a lot but in the long run, but if it becomes a successful active community then it would be totally worth it.

I always host my own forums. It gives me the flexibility and control over my boards. It's also easy for me to add features and remove useless ones that I don't want by editing the core files. I prefer Quicksilver Forums and use it on all my websites. Including my main website Kwokinator.com.

xboxrulz

Have you noticed that the creators of SMF is the same as YabbSE? They are the same project with different names .

xboxrulz

The forum software I use is not listed up there. I have been working on my own forum software for my site so I can costumize the layout without having a copyright. However it is a very basic script one day I plan to share it with the public as freeware. I host my forums on astahost mostly because it is the only free web host that has MySQL databases and allows PHP with .HTTACCESS Other then that I would say invision power boards is the best but it also costs the most. If you cant afford Invision get vBulletin but if you want free you should get invisionfree or Simple Machines. Do not get PHPBB because it is very bad and has too many exploits (I think there are mods to stop the exploits but I am not sure).
Thanks,
Sparkx