SMF-Forum

SMF or Simple Machines Forum is an open source forums software that is written using the PHP scripting language and uses a MySQL database. The SMF forums are user friendly and these forums are extensively used by online visitors. A Simple Machines Forum(SMF) can be used for maintaining both large or small communities. Installing or integrating a forum to your website is an effective process to draw traffic to your main site.

Features :

SMF provides all the features and functionalities required to run an online discussion forum. Some of them include the following:

	Template Based : SMF has a template driven architecture containing a huge library of templates to choose from. Custom layouts can also be created and integrated with SMF.

	Languages : SMF provides support for over 20 languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, German, Russian, and Chinese among others.

	Posting Messages : Members can post messages to specific discussion topics. All topics that have been read by the user are tagged as ‘Read’.

	RSS Feeds : Discussions topics can be added to RSS feeds.

	Server Side Includes: The Server Side Includes feature of SMF enables the discussion forum to interact with the website with which it has been integrated.

	Search: Extensive search functionalities are provided with SMF enabling users to easily search for and browse through discussion topics.

	Phrase Manager : The Administrator can create a list of banned words, phrases. Users will not be allowed to enter the listed words or phrases in their posts.

	Personalization : Members can set their display and layout preferences for the discussion board. They can choose from the default themes available or can upload custom themes.

	Categorization : The discussion topics can be classified on the basis of various categories and sub categories.

	Member Registration : The forum administrator has the option to enable/disable member registration. In case the member registration has been disabled, any user can post messages. Members of the discussion forum can be categorized into groups. Rights and permissions within the discussion forum can be assigned to the member groups.

	Moderation : The option whether or not a discussion topic is to be moderated can be specified. Specific users can be assigned as moderators. Moderators are provided with various tools/features that enable easy moderation of messages.

	Reports : Detailed statistical reports can be generated enabling the administrator to track and monitor the performance of the discussion forum.

	Banning : The Administrator has the option to ban or block a user from participating in a discussion topic. The administrator can also define the banning parameters such as IP address, expiry date, ban reason etc.

	MODs : MODs or modifications are extensions available for SMF. MODs can be integrated with SMF to provide additional features not available with the basic SMF setup.

	Package Manager : The package manager available in SMF enables the administrator to install MODs and updates to SMF without the need to modify the underlying source code.

	WAP Compatible : SMF discussion forums can be accessed and viewed on WAP enabled mobile phones. It supports WAP, WAP2 and I-mode protocols.

	Tools : Tools such as spell check, smileys, avatars, signatures etc are provided to members of the discussion board.

Residential IT provides SMF maintenance services. Security of your SMF is one of our prime concern. Our forum programmers can set up the security settings for your forum which will help you to limit the access of the unwanted forum users or spammers. The administrative / moderator panel of your SMF forums can also be customized as per your security parameters.

If you are interested and want to know further about our service, just fill out our quick contact form. We will get back to you as soon as possible.