I often get the following questions

“How do I control spam on my message board?” or “I want to setup a message board but don’t want to deal with all the spam. What should I do to reduce the spam?”

My next question would be what message board software they are using or plan to use. The answer would almost always be PhpBB. And my answer would be, don’t use PhpBB. Don’t get me wrong. I like PhpBB. To me, the community is large enough I often find answers with a quick search, it’s well supported, lots and lots of mods, hacks and what nots. But it’s popularity however is also it’s downfall today. It’s very much like the Microsoft theory. They get more spam because they are so popular. Hey, even spammers and
virus writers know about maximing their efforts. If you’re going to spend 100 hours writing up something to spam or wreak havoc might as well make it one that can get into the most number of systems as possible.

So what do I suggest? A simple search on a site like hotscripts.com will yield you plenty of results but I want to highlight a particular message board script that impressed me a lot lately. It’s Simple Machines Form also known as SMF. I find it’s got a lot more granular permissions than PhpBB and a very well thought out script. Using SMF doesn’t guarantee you’ll never get spammed but I believe a different message board other than PhpBB reduces them. SMF is free and you can get support on the forums but if you
want access to their Help Desk (priority support) the cost is $49.95 a year. There are also converters available for you to convert the forum from whatever system you’re using. Give it a try.