Hey guys, I am back again to introduce to you yet another authority site. This time it is a site for a forum script. The script is called Vanilla. I am sure if you are a forum webmaster, you will know this name. Although I won’t say it is as popular as PhpBB or VBulletin, it is nevertheless pretty famous. Why is it famous? Well, the main reason is it is unique. It is not your regular forum in the way that it displays the messages and threads if the forum, some of which is being copied by other forum scripts. The latest threads will be shown at the top of the main page so you don’t need to browse to a subforum before looking at the latest discussions. The arrangement and the layout of the threads is very intuitive. You can even browse by the regular method of subforums(or by category) if you so wish. They also have a very powerful search function available for those who like to do searching.

The thing about Vanilla is that it comes out of the box lean and very light-weight. Their requirements for installation and setup is low, so most web servers (with PHP support) with MySQL would work. Although it has all the basic functions for the users and the administrator, compared to other scripts, you can say it is very plain. But Vanilla has a lot of “add-ons” available. In fact, it is designed so that developers can easily and quickly create powerful add-ons for the Vanilla system. Oh, if you are worried about the looks, Vanilla sure won’t disappoint. It has the web2.0 kind of feel but there are many other themes and styles out there too. I am actually very impressed with it’s look. So if you are looking for a unique design for your brand new forum, you will be able to find them easily or you can look for developers to help you create one.

Yes, this is a free script. Open source and standards compliant. They have a very active community which I am sure will be willing to help you out if you have any problems with the script. And furthermore, it supports a variety of different languages with add-ons available. You can finally make your truly global internet forum real soon with this forum script.

Oh, the great MJZ Hosting forum is using this script as well.