Only some select accounts are able to login. Still working on things.

This fine for now but now I have 3 different CMS to manage. I am thinking of taking on a new challenge of consolidating all 3 of them into one. The reason is to keep all forum threads in one place and because software support from the 3 CMS (XOOPS, SMF, PHP-Fusion) is either outdated, unmaintained, or prone to security flaws.

SMF is still maintained and I have been considering it because there are converters that can help migrate data from XOOPS and PHP-Fusion (+/- manual tweaking here and there). However, SMF is still old school design and new platforms are available now that have better integration with other social systems. XOOPS is also still around but seems to be on the verge of being abandoned. PHP-Fusion hasn’t received an update in the past 4 years.

I want to look at all the possible options before making the massive jump. Here is a list I am looking but not all fit the bill.

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-forum-software/

Here are some basics to keep in mind:

• It has to be PHP and MySQL based because that’s what my hosting is providing
• It has to be somewhat modern looking but not so modern that you can’t tell it’s a forum
• It has to be open source, still developed, no docker image.

I actually like Vanilla forums right now. Flarum and MyBB seem to be on the same level and modern looking.

Let me know what your experience is with Forum platforms.

Which one have you used and liked?
What other system have you used that is not part of the list in the link?
Share your experience...

I have been reading about the different options and the more I read, the more I think unifying everything into SMF (Simple Machine Forum) is the best way forward.

PHP-Fusion (Current arosworld.org) has not received any update in 4 years and the future is not clear. I need to move off of this CMS, there is no doubt about it. XOOPS, is the original CMS that was used on aros-exec.org but that too has not seen a stable release since 2023. Development is still ongoing with several beta releases in 2025 but the main module that would be used for forums (NEWBB) is not part of the CMS. It is an external module that also has stalled.

The new kids on the block I mentioned earlier are also not a good move forward. Vanilla forums is also stalled since 2023 and many are migrating off if. Flarum is a pain in the rear to setup and it comes plain jane with the need to depend on modules to extend functionalities. Plus, the UI is a bit hard to the eyes. I am not happy with any of the modern designs.

Then we have SMF. It's still maintained with security updates as recent as July 2025. It was already used for the aros-exec 2.0 version, so one less database I need to export to something else new. It's simple to work with, it is a dedicated FORUM CMS and not a CMS that depends on an external module to add the functionality.

I can extend functionalities of the core forum function with modules. It has a (in my opinion) a cleaner look and feel of forum categories and forum threads (see ae.arosworld.org). There are many themes that can help with modern styles (See amigalove.com) but I really liked the aros-exec 2.0 theme.

I am still interested to hear/read anyone else opinion and experience with anything different.

I've no experience with those forums (I'm just an user, anyway), but from what you've reported I think that the best choice would be moving everything to SMF (and with a unique db for both forums. But I think that there will be problems with the ids for the tables, which likely clash).

There will definitely be problems with the tables and IDs. That is the challenge in this task but I won't know if I don't try. Obviously I am going to try this offline and by trial and error, if I can manage to do it, then move forward. I don't think it is impossible, just tedious work which will require time and a lot of patience.

I am not sold on SMF yet. PHP-Fusion does have 2 more upgrades form the current version where this forum is on but for what I gather it's a one man show and the updates are mionr tweaks. Right now, I am focusing on cleaning accounts created by bots that have never been back since the initial creation and no posts in the forum.

The most important thing is unifying the dbs, if it's possible.
The final software for the forum can be investigated with calm, since there's still time.

Some thoughts from me:

1) I looked how Vanilla and Flarum look like - indeed they look&feel is more modern, they kind of resemble Github discusions feature. That's not a problem on it's own, but they just don't feel like "home". I guess my choice goes for oldschol forums with categories and threads (so +1 to SMF)
2) The key for me would be not to start from 0 again. I see steady dicline in activity on "AROS forums". Big part of that probably is that the 2010-2015 wave of "30-40 y.o. rediscovering childhood dream" is fizzling out, but I think startarting from scratch twice took its tolll too. Let's not do this 3rd time.
3) Forums software seems to be a shrinking category (pretty much like blogs). People migrated towards social networks so there is less need for such software. In effect this means that weak players will dieout first. IMHO it's better to bet on old imcumbent than new shiny thing - from the perspective of how long it will be maintained an how late will it die (so definatelly +1 for SMF, though I don't know if there is another forum software with more installs, but then point 2) kicks in)
4) If I remember correctly the only pain-point for me in AROS-EXEC 2.0 was weird handling of private messages. Though amiga.org is running on SMF and their handling of private messages is "normal". It would be ok for me to loose old private messages if better handling can be installed.

I am right there with you on point 2. I couldn't agree more. That is why I want to try and see if I can combine the three without sacrificing the user base and the current forums. If it's not feasable, then I won't risk it.

At least I know it's possible to migrate (with some AI help and manual MySQL table transformation) from PHP-Fusion (Forums and Members) to SMF Forum CMS. This is still in the early stages of migration. There is still a lot of work ahead but I think I got a good handle on how it is all mapped.