I decided on discourse mainly because it’s free, well supported, and it just-works. Mybb/fluxbb/simplemachines/Vbulletin etc are really starting to show their age
However I have a lot of criticisms of it.
The infinite scrolling thing is cool for mobile and touchscreens but just not an ideal desktop experience imho, there’s a feeling of being ‘lost’ mid-way through a thread
The style of discourse actually seems best for real-time discussions, not small forums due to it’s auto-updating post ability
At the end of the day though it does what I need. It has great admin tools and I feel like I can just leave it alone without worrying about it. And I’m also growing attached to it.
I might move to Xenforo just because I feel it has a better visual design and I don’t like infinite scrolling, but I feel they charge too much for a license. Like if I run 3 xenforo sites that’s over $200 initial cost plus $120 per year in renewal. Which is just too much overhead for minor improvements here and there.
anyway
I’ve been using it for a year and have a self-sustaining community on it so it’s all good
I also learn a lot about CSS in the process XD