I've just found out about Vanilla yesterday, but immediately began playing around with it. Apart from a few minor glitches - like the extensions subfolder not being created - the installation was a breeze. Very fast and easy setup. Setting it up, using it, installing new extensions is very fast and slick. It makes decent use of Ajax technology but doesn't cry out to be web 2.0 - I kind of like this 'stylish understatement'.
The forum is very simple and not comparable with phpbb - but that is its beauty. In my opinion phpbb is a real monster. It can do everything but cook tea. That's great and a good choice in a lot of cases. I do administer and have administered some phpbb forums in the past, and it was the right choice there. But I also have often found phpbb to be too large for the job when all I want is a small, simple, clean and fast forum. That's where Vanilla comes in handy. I would never use Vanilla instead of phpbb for one of the sites I'm running where we have over a hundred very active users and a bunch of group-private message boards. On the other hand I would never use phpbb on my private homepage where all I want is a nice little forum thats easy to use and quick to use, even for people who normally shy away from the more complicated forums.

I think Vanilla is a great piece of software - and I'm delighted at the ease with which you can install, activate and deactive extensions. It's a breeze and very fun for the phpbb-plagued admin. It's like a vacation from the tiring tasks of the phpbb. of course, only where Vanilla suffices - which is far from everwhere. I think both forums have their right place to be, and Vanilla is great in its own way.

So give it shot, if you like - it's always better to judge for yourself! :-)

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Wow, phpBB seems to have finally caught up to where other forum systems were 5 years ago!

Honestly the only reason to use phpBB is it's large mod community. I personally prefer SMF: http://simplemachines.org

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