It includes many custom templates for a personal and professional design of the message boards.SMF is written in the popular language PHP and uses a MySQL database. It is designed to provide all the features needed from a bulletin board while having an absolute Minimal Impact on the resources of the server. SMF is the next generation of forum software - and best of all it is and will always remain completely free. Here are some key features of "Simple Machines Forum":
General Features:
PHP and MySQL.
Comprehensive template system.
Advanced permission and user management.
Supports multiple languages at once.
Open and well-documented source code.
Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from the last visit.
Designed for optimal performance and scalability.
Multi-media output. (XHTML, XML, RSS, WAP)
Multi-language support from a large community.
Package manager that automatically installs or uninstalls mods (also known as hacks.)
Security:
All actions seamlessly require a session based authorization code.
Administrative actions require the user's password (and do not rely solely on cookies.)
Major actions are time and IP locked, preventing 'hammering'.
The number of login attempts from a certain IP can be limited and time locked.
Forum Settings:
Ability to display page creation time and query count per page.
Put a board into maintenance mode, allowing only admins to login.
Word censoring, either full word or partial.
Ability to break up long words.
Boards and Categories
Group boards into collapsible categories.
Set categories as non-collapsible.
Reorder boards within categories, or reorder categories.
Create child boards under other boards. (sub boards)
Assign moderators to boards.
Allow certain membergroups to access a board, including guests only.
Configure permission
