As Chair of the School of IT at a local college, I was tasked with finding suitable software to run a forum for my church. Yes, we are looking to enter the twenty-first century! I was looking for a free, open-source solution with exceptional security and protection for our members and guests. I also wanted to set up publically accessible boards as well as private boards specifically for our members. Furthermore, I wanted a calendar that our members could see and add events to that was not publically visible. I wanted to optionally show birthdays (but not birth year) on this calendar. I also wanted to upload a logo. And a bunch of other things, too.

Fortunately, I found SMF. I set up a subdomain, installed SMF 2.0.2 and selected and installed various mods. Of course, the spam bots came -- so I set up a complex password requirement, email verification, capcha, verification questions and installed the Bad Behavior mod (which includes http:BL from Project Honeypot). I highly recommend BB. Problem solved! I also fine-tuned the member permissions.

So, with about a week's worth of part-time work and testing, I have a very functional and secure forum. I am just about to announce its presence to the congregation. I know they will be pleased.

So, I would like to highly recommend SMF and commend the folks here for all that they so selflessly do. Thank you all.