phpBB or vBulletin

here is my current planned feature list

Forum
user registration
message boards
multiple boards in multiple categories, and boards can have sub-boards, like in vbulletin (i realy hate that phpbb doesn't have that feature)
private message system
calendar
announcement system
easy to integrate other apps with userbase
easy migration from phpbb
support for different rdbms (mysql, postgresql, firebirdsql) and sqlite, and flat-files. (open architecture to make adding more easy)
attachment system
avatars
signature
ability for users to ignore certain users
report to moderator link that sends PM as well as email
auto-lock a topic that hasn't had any posts in, say 180 days (will be customizable)

The "ignore" feature on the yahoo forums is top-notch. I'll be adding that to a message board I built. I get a lot of flamers, so between "ignore" and mandatory registration, I should be able to put a stop to a lot of the negativity. I recommend "ignore". Either that or an active trigger finger on the delete button.

ok, an ignore feature will be included. I've edited my feature list

*sigh* I've contributed! Good luck on your project. It's going to be a BIG one.

You should have a report to mod type thing on threads/posts, so if a user sees something that shouldn't be there and the mod hasn't seen it yet, the user could click the link and any active mods would be PMed about it. But have it so something can only be reported once.
I know other boards have this type of feature, but the ones I have seen will e-mail the mod, and not sure about everybody, but I don't check my e-mail every few minutes. And since it would PM a mod that is online, it can get fixed easier.

this would be useful for boards with a lot of topics/posts, where mods might not read every single post, and may miss some.

I have had this idea for a while, and was thinking about eventually writting a plug in for phpbb2 to do it or something, but will be a while since I am no good at php yet.

Good idea tom, that'll make it in there. I've added another feature to the list as well, and that is to auto-lock topics that have not had a post in, for example, 180 days.

The idea of this is to stop people from bringing up old topics that no-one wanted to hear about any more.

I have been looking for a message board that can also be configured easily to work with a prebuilt login system. I cant find any out there or i just havent found any yet that can do this. I have built a nice little login system that just takes username password and email. I dont want to bother people with lots of mumbo jumbo. All i want the board to do is be able to read from sessions the username if logged in and then allow them to post using that username. If you know what i mean.

phpBB is under GPL license - if you develop some amazing script for it, you cant sell it.

You can sell it, you just can't use ANY of the phpBB code. Would be a bit awkward I admit, but could happen. Plus, with the size of the phpBB community, who is going to pay for stuff that's going to be copied and GPL'd?

btw, how's the project going rj?

dyefade is absolutely correct. Read section 2 of the GNU General Public License:

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

Specifically this:

i will recommend you to use phpBB 3 .... coz its the best free bulletin board software on the internet....
This new version is now more secure and reliable.
Demo : free forum

As much as I love phpBB, I'm voting vBulletin if you have the money. I've used it a lot and had access to its ModCP and it was very easy to use. If you don't have the money, phpBB should be sufficient.

vbulletin is better for sure