FusionBB Review
Last Version | 3.2 (June 5th, 2011). | Released under | Proprietary License. |
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Company | InteractivePHP, Inc.. | ||
Price | 1 Year License - $149, Renewal - $39. |
Last Version | 3.2 (June 5th, 2011). | Released under | Proprietary License. |
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Resources |
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Company | InteractivePHP, Inc.. | ||
Price | 1 Year License - $149, Renewal - $39. |
FusionBB is a commercial community software, that is turning 8 years old this year. It is easily recognizable with its famous default orange and blue theme, and it is supported by the InteractivePHP, Inc. company, that basically has this product only in its catalog.
FusionBB main target is to provide a community software, but you will see that it also includes several good surprises as a Portal and a Blog infrastructure for all forum members. We are going to review in the following article the different features that FusionBB embeds.
Server Requirements | ||
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Programming Language
Required Architecture and Versions.
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Web Servers
How the forum is delivered to users.
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Databases
How Forum Data are Stored.
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Operating Systems
Systems Supporting this Software.
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Browser & Client Requirements | ||||||||
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Compatible Browsers
List of Compatible Browsers.
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Required Plugins/Technologies
Additional or Basic Requirements from Client Side.
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HTML, AJAX, CSS. | |||||||
Localization
Languages supported by FusionBB.
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No.
No.
We did not find translations packages so far for FusionBB, which is quite surprising for a software of this quality. |
Compatibility with Smartphones | |
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Compatible SmartPhones
Compatible Cellphone Brands and Manufacturers.
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No. |
Application Distribution / Type
How it is distributed / App Store Availability
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No. |
Forum Threads / Topics | |||
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Forum Style | Flat | Forum Organization |
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Thread Icons | Yes | Topic Tags | Yes |
Hot Topics | Yes | Unread Topics | Yes |
Hidden Topics | Yes | Sticky Threads | Yes |
Related Threads | No | Detect Duplicate Threads | No |
Announcements | Yes |
Posting Messages / Answers | |||
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Message Editing Form
How to Post Messages.
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Post Editing Format
Supported Markup Language (HTML, Wiki, BBCode,...).
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Spell Checker
Checks typos on posts and topics.
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No | ||
Image Attachment
How Images can be Attached and Displayed in Message Posts.
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Embedded Videos
Videos and Media Websites Supported in Message Posts.
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No. |
Posting Features | |||
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Quick Reply Box | Yes | Smileys | Yes |
Attachments | Yes | Syntax Highlighting | No |
Message Rating
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No | Message Quoting | Yes |
FusionBB is particularly easy to use, and has a really complete list of features in the range of posting and creating new topics. Note also that each user is able to tag a topic, if he wants to, in order to define more exactly what are the main subjects of a given thread.
Additional Forum Features | |
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Poll Creation | Yes |
Private Messages
Users Can Communicate using an Internal Messaging System.
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Yes |
Instant Messaging
Discuss with Visitors and Members in a Chat Window.
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Yes |
Calendar
Topic, Member Birthdays, Events are available from the perspective of a calendar.
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Yes |
Online Users List
Connected User List (Often Found in the Forum Footer).
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Yes |
Members List
Search and Consult the List of Members.
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Yes |
Technical Features | |
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Bundled Software
Additional Software Available with the Forum.
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RSS/Atom Syndication
Posts and Threads Exported to Feeds Aggregators
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No. |
Friendly URLs
URLs are clear and contain information about the topic (title, message,...).
Highly recommended for SEO purposes.
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No |
Post by Email
Post Directly From your Email Box.
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No |
Remote Control
Remote Control from External Software/Websites.
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No. |
Cache System
Cache pages to optimize bandwidth and load times.
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No |
Template Engine
It is easier to theme a forum using a known template engine (more docs & examples,...).
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No. |
The bundled Portal is a nice add to this forum software, and is particularly useful when you look for a unique software to manage your website.
The nice calendar feature is available by default, which is sufficiently rare to be said.
Member Options & Features | |
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Bookmark Threads
User Profiles Keep a List of Followed Posts and Topics.
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Yes |
Email Notifications
Receive Emails When New Messages are Posted in Followed Threads.
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Yes |
Export private messages
Private Messages can be Downloaded by Users.
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No |
Payment Subscriptions
Paying Membership Subscription.
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Yes |
User Profiles | |
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User Profile
User Information and Settings.
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Yes |
Avatars
Pictures of Members, Useful to Easily Identify their Posts.
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Yes |
Signature
Signatures Added at the Bottom of Each Message.
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Yes |
Ranks
Tags and Labels Identifying the Members, based on specific criteria (Total Posts Count, Credits, Moderation Level...)
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Yes |
FusionBB has a dedicated project, called MyPaymentPal, to allow paid subscriptions.
Moderation is really something well designed, as any moderator is able to modify publishing status and position of each threads and posts inside each threads.
Moderation & Threads Management | ||
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Moderation |
Post-Moderation
The moderation is done afterwards, if an administrator notices a problem or if a member reports something wrong. Each message is therefore directly published.
Reactive Moderation
By reporting any problems, members are reactive against moderation problems.
Moderators' main objective is to regularly check user reports, without having to follow each threads.
Distributed Moderation
By organizing the forum around moderators, who are usually power and experienced users, moderation is self-powered and only depends on the community.
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Moderator per section | Yes | |
Global Moderator | Yes | |
Move Threads
Move Threads from Topics
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Yes | |
Shadow Topics
When a thread is moved, the previous position is kept in order to inform users of this modification.
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Yes | |
Close/Lock Threads
Close/Lock Problematic Threads
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Yes |
Users Management | |
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User Groups
Organize and define groups of users, and apply different actions and settings on them.
Common Groups: Guests, Members, Moderators, Administrators,... |
Yes |
User Registration |
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Limit Features For New Users
Features are limited if a user has created a small number of posts.
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Yes |
Guest Posting | Yes |
Multiple Administrators | Yes |
Send Warnings to Users
Inform users by email or PM that they infringe the board rules, and could be excluded for such behavior.
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No |
Forum/Section Restricted Access
ACL could be use to determine if a user or a group of users can access (in read only, post message) to some sections
and topics.
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Yes |
User Banishment | Yes |
Permissions can be really defined precisely, and each features and steps can be allowed depending on the current level of a user group.
The Administration Panel is definitely complete and provides many way to tweak our forum, but we would prefer having a simpler interface for beginner users, that would probably be a bit lost in this huge list of menus displayed on the left sidebar.
However, an advanced or experimented users won't have any problems in navigating and administrating his forum.
Database Management | |
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Backup Database
Backup forum datas that you could store somewhere else.
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Yes |
Prune Database
Remove old and unused datas from your forum.
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Yes |
Restore Database
Restore a backup of your database if the previous install crashed.
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Yes |
Administration Tools | |||
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Statistics
Statistics about posts count, users, traffic...
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Yes |
Error/Notice Log Viewer
Forum Logs could be consulted.
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Yes |
Tasks Scheduler
Maintenance tasks are regularly launched and could be scheduled.
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Yes |
Mass Mailing
Send an email (newsletters, advertisements, information,...) to all users.
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Yes |
Installation & Upgrading | |
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Installation Method
How this forum software could be installed.
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Installation Wizard |
Upgrading Method
How this forum software could be upgraded.
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Upgrade Wizard |
Updates Notifications
The Admin Panel informs you when a new version is released.
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No |
Forum Migration
Convert an existing forum to FusionBB.
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Yes. |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Site Statistics |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - New Cron Task |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Log Entries |
FusionBB includes a particular big list of administration tools, and notably a task scheduler and a log viewer, particularly useful when you need to launch planned tasks and monitor your forum.
The FusionBB Administration Panel includes a very nice tool, called Import Data (in the Database section), that allows importing users, topics and forums from existing forum infrastructure.
It supports the following forums:
Security & Spam Protection | ||
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CAPTCHA
Captcha protects your forum against spam bots.
e.g.,
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Yes
Complexity:
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Abnormal Behavior Detection
Detect users or request strange behaviors, and try to process proactive actions.
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No | |
Words Filtering
Offensing Words are automatically replaced.
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Yes | |
User Blacklist
Prevent specific user accounts to register (based on email address, name,...) and disable potentially harmful members.
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Yes | |
IP Blocking
Prevent access to spam robots and other scripts that could attempt
DDOS or Brute Force attacks on your forum.
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Yes |
Customization | |||
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Plugins
Add new features to your forum installation.
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No.
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Themes
Modify the style of your forum easily.
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Yes. | ||
Custom BBCodes | Yes | Smiley Packs | Yes |
Custom Thread Icons |
Yes |
Additional User Profile Fields
Ask more about your members with custom fields.
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Yes |
Integration with Applications, Social Networks, Intranet... | |
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Social Networks
Users can share information from their social network account...
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CMS / Blog Bridges
Integration with existing Web publishing tools.
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No. |
User Accounts Integration
Do users be able to log in with their corporate, Google, Facebook,... accounts?
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No. |
Content Aggregation
Forum allows to integrate news and content from other website,
using an aggregation protocol (RSS, RDF, Atom,...).
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![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Social Networks |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Site Overview |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Edit Portal Layout |
![]() FusionBB - Control Panel - Navigation Links |
By default, it is really easy to insert different snippets of HTML code in some already defined place of the forum layout, and more specificly at: header, footer, top news,... It's even simple to add custom <head> tags using this interface.
Social Networks on which members can share topics and posts are customizable, with 6 different networks initially.
Norms & Accessibility | |
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HTML / XHTML Markup
See W3C HTML Definition.
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XHTML 1.1 Transitional.
![]()
Click to see if it respects HTML norms.
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CSS Stylesheets
See W3C CSS Definition.
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CSS 2. ![]()
Click to see if it respects CSS norms.
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Accessibility (WAI)
Web Accessibility ensures that the forum is usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.
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Conformance to A level.
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UTF-8 Support
Default encoding used to support all locales and countries.
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Yes |
Conformance to W3C Norms
Does FusionBB correctly follow (X)HTML and CSS norms?
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Yes. |
Key points and major differences that make FusionBB unique:
FusionBB is a very good forum software, that will successfully fulfill your needs if you look for a very complete community software that supports almost all big and important features. Of course, you will have to pay for this, but the price is quite decent when you compare it with other competitors.
We especially enjoyed the huge number of features we do not find in most forum software, like the RSS Feed integration, an embedded Portal, really precise permissions, an integration subscription API for payment,...
Comments (7)
FusionBB has lost all their
FusionBB has lost all their developers. Bug fixes and support are non-existent. Go to their web site and see the lack of postings and participation. It was good when people were working on it, but that has ended. It's too bad, because it had great potential.
FusionBB is not what it was.
FusionBB is not what it was. Most users have moved to IP.Board which offers a better solution.
Essentially it is just a one man band now, and very little ever happens and probably never will.
A great shame as it could have been very good.
It should now become
It should now become freeware, the price they charge is silly. There is no development, no support team, as the above post says it's a one man band. Spend your money on a properly supported product instead. You'll be chucking it down the drain elsewhere. A poor review by the website really, not taking into account support, back-end staffing level, forum activity etc. You've only got to look at the level of spam registrations for crying out loud....
If the comments below are
If the comments below are true, it's a shame coz I like very much the layout and all its features, I need to do more research coz still like it, thank you guys for your comments.
FusionBB lost all its
FusionBB lost all its developers. Bug fixes and support there. To their website and see the lack of publications and participation. It was good when people are working on it, but it's done. It's a shame, because it has great potential.
Thanks for review.
Thanks for review.
Yes its very good review .
Yes its very good review .
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