Add forum to WordPress

With SMF you won’t be able to integrate well. They run as 2 separate sites, and it’s almost impossible to get it to work anymore. I used to have it running, and it died, and I gave up

Check the plugin repository, here’s one thing it lists
https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/wpforum/

But search the pkugins for forum because there’s other stuff there

edit–just read your post more closely. With those plugins, the forum runs within wordpress. If you don’t care about any integration at all, then you can do whatever.

I use SMF and dig it. Have about 100 users on it. Never had any problems. Things is, it’s totally outside of wordpress. You install it in a different directory or subdomain…it’s styled separately, uses different database, etc

I just noticed the link I gave youo is waaaay out of date. Terrible advice! You may want to dig a little deeper, sorry

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/forum-server/

is up to date

Some swear by https://simplepressforum.com/

I love bbPress!

Ditto for bbPress. Plus for your consideration … bbPress can now be installed with ONE CLICK within a WPMU installation with BuddyPress. This means you can also configure the forum within WPMU backend. Thus, with the coming final merge of WP and WPMU codebases, this would also be the logical forum solution, but that’s just me ??

Is there an advantage to using SMF on a subdomain for security purposes? I’ve read that some of the forums running on WP have weak security.

Also, if I go with SMF how do I link to this from a WP page? Sorry, I really am a newbie.

You can just put it in your links, or put a menu item or image in your theme…. (I have a graphic menu on my theme with links to my non-wp sites, and an image on my SMF theme to click back to my WP install-takes a bit of work, but I like the results)

Or use this technique and in the Page Links To custom field but the URL of your forum:
How to easily display links to both Pages and Categories in the blog navigation header?

I sure wish the whole WPMU, buddypress, etc was around about 3 years ago! Cuz I’m doing all that with multiple paltforms on multiple subdomains….. plus custom themeing to make them all uniform…

My life would have been so easy! (but I guess I would have learned less….)

Again, how do these forums compare on security? I’ve heard the plugins for WP have weak security (base 64 or something??)

thats an issue with out of date wordpress and out of date plugins mostly. Keep thinkgs up to date…..

All software will be insecure if you don’t stay on top of it…. If you keep on top of updates, secure your WP install properly, etc, you should be fine.

The current SMF is also secure, they do a good job about patching.

It’s more about you staying proactive than anything to be honest

Also, if I go with SMF how do I link to this from a WP page?

To create a tab in the menu to any external page from within WP, you simply create a new page with exactly the same title as the name of the folder, no content added, simply publish the page and this will create the menu tab with the link. By default, the folder overrides any file.

Folder called “forums”, new page called “forums” = menu tab taking you straight to the forums.

WP is as secure as you want it to be. A great start is reading
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Hardening_WordPress

also, look into password protecting your wp-admin folder through .htaccess

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I also forgot to mention site is hosted on HostGator and cPanel provides the following security features, though I’m not clear on how they work differently or which may be best to protect secure pages or the forum:

Password protect directories
IP Deny manager
Hotlink protection
GnuPG keys

I’m trying to implement the suggestion above about linking to SMF (which is on a subdomain) by creating a new page with same name, however I cannot get this to work. Any help would be appreciated.

I actually hardcoded a menu for links to my other web sites…. you can peep it at https://www.rvoodoo.com

That is one way if you have a few places to link, or you can just place a text or image in your theme that links to your forum