New software - Can it thrive?

[J Greig]

I am not asking this for myself as i have no intention of creating a forum software, but my friend is. I would like to know your thoughts on if a new forum software would thrive in today's marketplace? He has no idea whether or not it's going to be a paid or a free version, but the amount of features being added is unbelievable. What he does is visit many forums and check their suggestions forum for new ideas. He's added nearly everything he can think of, but he uses this method to see if he's missed anything. I'll get him to write up a feature list as you'll be quite impressed with it. I'll also get round to getting some screenshots of it.

If it's free, it would be competing with the likes of MyBB, phpBB etc.
If it's paid, it would compete with vBulletin, IPB and XenForo primarily. It won't cost as much though.

Do you think it could work?

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I like to check out new software's but I prefer established software's for my own forum.

 

[Darth-Apple]

Forum softwares used to have pretty basic requirements. They needed basic user management, simple profiles, boards and categories (preferably with descriptions), threads, good pagination, a few moderator tools, some footer stats and/or a memberlist, and a simple ACP. PunBB today is pretty much what old forums used to be.

Nowadays people expect advanced post settings, profiles, filtration, portal pages, CMS features, reputation systems, custom profile fields, modular admin control panels, plugin/extension systems, template engines, advanced theme management capable of supporting very modernized designs, advanced private messaging/conversations management, etc... I think it's safe to say the expectations have changed.

Even if you have a team of developers, it would likely take a couple of years to really get anything useful put together. As far as whether or not it will be competitive, if you're going for the same sort of concept that forum softwares such as MyBB or IPB are going for, you're in for quite a project. As for my advice for your friend, make sure that things are well planned before development begins.

Just my two cents,
-Darth

 

[Evil Eye]

I suppose if it's really good it could thrive.
Social media seems to be the big thing now though and there's already quite a bit of competition when it comes to forum software, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.