Easiest Forum Integration

[michaelcarter]

Hey Guys,

Ok, http://www.LegendSeeker.net is off to a running start, getting 500+ unique per day so far and climbing. My next step is to add forum software into the mix.

What is the best way to do this? Drop vBulletin or PHPbb into a Church php file or just make an external link and then attempt to style the vBulletin or PHPbb sheets?

What have other people come up with in terms of ease of use but seemless integration. I would really prefer to keep the look of the existing site and continue it into the forum applications. ie: take a look at what studiopress has with these forums. Their existing site header remains at the top and the footer along the bottom is also the same I believe.

Cheers,
Michael

[adew]

Michael,

It depends what you mean by "seamless integration". If you're talking about the colour scheme, graphics, fonts etc, you can do this with any forum software (with more or less effort, depending on which one you choose). On the other hand, if you mean shared login, users not having to login/register twice on your site, etc, something like Simplepressforum is just about as "seamlessly integrated" as you can get.

[michaelcarter]

Thanks Ade, I'll take a look at this later today... I forgot the new versions of vBulletin are now Pay ONLY! (at one time they were free, a few years ago the last time I used them).

So it looks like a plugin for Wordpress like you mentioned or PHPbb are my alternatives....

I wasn't so concerned about the logging in and out of seamless as the aesthetics. Users don't have to register to leave comments on that site (although they are moderated) so they wouldn't have to sign in twice. I just want the forums to have the same look and feel as the rest of the site.