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{{short description|Open-source, Internet forum program}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Simple Machines Forum
| logo = File:Simple Machines Forum logo.png
| logo size = 254px
| developer = Simple Machines
| programming language = PHP
| genre = Internet forum
| license = Open Source<hr>SMF 2: [[BSD licenses#3-clause license ("Revised BSD License", "New BSD License", or "Modified BSD License")|3-clause BSD License]]<hr>SMF 1: Simple Machines License<hr>
| website = {{URL|https://www.simplemachines.org}}
}}

'''Simple Machines Forum''' ('''SMF''') software is an [[open-source software|open-source]] web application that provides [[Internet forum]] and message board services. It is developed by Simple Machines.

The name reflects the creator's initial goal of providing a website that could be operated by novice programmers and requires minimal server resources.<ref name=whois>{{cite web|title=What is Simple Machines Forum?|url=http://www.whoishostingthis.com/compare/simple-machines-forum/|publisher=WhoIsHostingThis|accessdate=January 15, 2015|archive-date=January 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123074302/http://www.whoishostingthis.com/compare/simple-machines-forum/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Simple Machines won the ''forum-software.org'' best free forum software award in 2009.<ref name=best>{{cite web|title=Best Forum Software of 2009|url=http://www.forum-software.org/best-forum-software-of-2009|publisher=Forum Software Reviews|accessdate=January 9, 2010}}</ref>

==Organization==
Simple Machines Forum is an open-source discussion board software project of volunteers participating in various operating functions including development, customization, documentation, localization/translation, user support, and marketing. The project is owned by a non-profit organization, named ''Simple Machines''. Liroy van Hoewijk is president and CEO of the organization; Aleksi Kilpinen is the current project manager of SMF. "Sesquipedalian" is SMF's lead software developer.

Simple Machines is organized and operates as a not-for-profit membership corporation organized under the laws of the U.S. State of Nevada. To be eligible for membership, a person or entity must be nominated by a current member of the corporation and must complete a written or electronic membership application and approved by the board of directors. The organization has not applied to become a [[501(c)(3) organization]]; however, its internal bylaws still prohibit activities which would disqualify it from becoming one in the future.<ref name="bylaws">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/about/bylaws.php|title=Bylaws|website=Simple Machines| accessdate=June 22, 2010}}</ref>

The organization is funded by private donations, advertisements on its website, and income from "charter memberships".<ref name="membership">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/charter|title=Charter membership|website=Simple Machines| accessdate=January 15, 2015}}</ref>

==History==
On June 16, 2001,<ref name=yabbdate>{{cite web|title=YaBB 1.0|url=http://mac.softwareweb.com/summary/yabb-1.0-SLIAS.html|website=Softwareweb.com|accessdate=November 12, 2001}}{{dead link|date=May 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 16-year-old Zef Hemel along with collaborators Jeff Lewis, Corey Chapman, T. Oswalds, and Matt Mecham released the first open source bulletin board written in [[Perl]] called '''YaBB 1.0''' (Yet Another Bulletin Board).<ref name=YaBBhemel>{{cite web|title=Interview With Zef Hemel – Founder of YaBB|url=https://theadminzone.com/threads/interview-with-zef-hemel-founder-of-yabb.10949/|website=The Admin Zone|accessdate=Jun 15, 2005}}</ref> YaBB 1.0 was the leading free forum software package at the time. It proved, however, to be inefficient and slow for active communities.<ref name=sitepoint>{{cite web|url=http://www.sitepoint.com/article/interview-jeff-lewis-yabb-se|title=Interview with Jeff Lewis, creator of YaBB SE|author=Bes Zain|publisher=Sitepoint|accessdate=August 13, 2002}}</ref>

On November 12, 2001, shortly after the release of YaBB 1.0, a second program, '''YaBB SE 1''', written by Jeff Lewis and Joseph Fung (from Lewis Media Inc.) with help from Zef Hemel and Christian Land (from the YaBB project) was released. Ultimately, users of this rough [[PHP]] port of YaBB also reported resource and security problems.<ref name=sitepoint/>

Lewis and Fung split off from the YaBB SE team to try a different approach for addressing the YaBB SE efficiency problems, security concerns, and to add new features. Lewis and Fung did a complete rewrite of the code<ref name=sitepoint/> and changed the brand name to ''Simple Machines Forum (SMF)''.<ref name=intro/> On September 30, 2003, the first "YaBB SE/SMF" product, '''SMF 1.0''' Beta 1a, was released.<ref name=smf1>{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=1715.145|title=SMF 1.0 Beta 1 Released!|website=Simple Machines| accessdate=November 13, 2003}}</ref>

The development and support team for YaBB SE was shut down in March 2004 with hundreds of communities in operation, when the developers joined the SMF project. A converter was developed to convert YaBB SE to SMF.<ref name=intro>{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=129960.0|title=Introducing Simple Machines LLC|publisher=The Simple Machines Organization| accessdate=November 27, 2006}}</ref><ref name=YaBB>{{cite web|last1=Lewis|first1=Jeff|title=YaBB Perl Software Community|url=http://www.yabbse.org/|publisher=YaBB SE|accessdate=March 4, 2004}}</ref><ref name=YaBB2>{{cite web|last1=Lewis|first1=Jeff|title=YaBB Perl Software Community|url=http://www.yabbse.org/community/index.php?topic=27708.0|publisher=YaBB SE|accessdate=March 31, 2004}}</ref>

On October 23, 2006, the Simple Machines Forum project was split off from Lewis Media for the purpose of "[solidification of] the team’s commitment to continuously providing free software, without the perceived risks of corporate influence". The new company was named Simple Machines, LLC.<ref name=about>{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/about/|title=Who are we?|publisher=The Simple Machines Organization|accessdate=January 15, 2015}}</ref> Simple Machines LLC was registered in the state of Arizona, and the transfer of copyrights from Lewis Media to Simple Machines LLC was completed on 24 November 2006 during a three-day retreat in Tucson, AZ.<ref name=intro/>

On Dec 02, 2006, '''SMF 1.1''' was released.<ref name="v11release">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=131008.msg835035#msg835035|title=SMF 1.1 Final|publisher=The Simple Machines Forum project|accessdate=October 25, 2015}}</ref>

On April 8, 2007, Simple Machines announced the introduction of SMF 2.0.<ref name="SMF2.0">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=163438.0|title=Introducing SMF 2.0|website=Simple Machines| accessdate=April 8, 2007}}</ref> SMF 2.0.x has been in development alongside SMF 1.1 since December 2005.

In June 2010, Simple Machines re-formed as a not-for-profit organization (NPO) registered in Nevada. The transfer of assets from LLC to NPO was completed in April 2011 and in May 2011, Simple Machines, LLC was dissolved. On the 24th of September 2010, the Simple Machines team announced the dissolving of the Simple Machines LLC and all assets moved to the nonprofit organization (Simple Machines) set up for the project.<ref name=about/>

On June 11, 2011, '''SMF 2.0''' was released.<ref name="v2release">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?&topic=437328.0|title=2.0 Final has been released|publisher=The Simple Machines Team|accessdate=June 11, 2011}}</ref>

On February 9, 2022, '''SMF 2.1''' was released.<ref name'v21stablerelease">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?msg=4110098|title=SMF 2.1.0 Released|publisher=Simple Machines|accessdate=February 9, 2022}}</ref>

==Licensing==
SMF 1.0 and 1.1 are published under a proprietary license. While it is [[Source-available software|source-available]], redistribution and/or distribution of modified components is limited to authorized entities.

SMF version 2.0 and 2.1 are licensed under the [[BSD licenses#3-clause license ("New BSD License" or "Modified BSD License")|3-clause BSD license]].<ref name="license">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/about/smf/license.php|title=Simple Machines License|website=Simple Machines| accessdate=November 13, 2003}}</ref> It is also open source with redistribution of modified code subject to the BSD requirements.<ref name=whois/>

==Products==
Simple Machines Forum (SMF) software is written in [[PHP]] and uses MySQL for database management – it is built around established industry standards and is generally valued for its high security standards. The use of PHP, MySQL and the fact that SMF is freeware, helped spawn the creation of a large and relatively active volunteer development community.<ref name=whois/>

SMF is commonly deployed on basic web hosting packages, usually Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP (LAMP) compliant servers. Installations on VPS or dedicated servers are usually needed for sites with a large number of concurrent users online at the same time. The number of concurrent users that can be handled depends on the available [[System resource#General resources|server resources]], the resource limits a hosting provider may imply, the server configuration, and on which kind of modifications have been installed. SMF itself has virtually no limit of traffic it can process, however: the more users online, the more powerful hardware it will require in order to function.<ref name=whois/>

Simple Machines Forum has 4 versions, SMF 1.0, SMF 1.1, SMF 2.0 and SMF 2.1

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
!width="75px"|Version
!width="140px"|Release Date
!width="75px"|Latest Rev#
!width="140px"|Revision Date
!width="75px"|Development
|-
|'''SMF 1.0'''
|Sep 30, 2003
|'''1.0.23'''
|Dec 16, 2012
|Inactive{{efn|Replaced by SMF 1.1}}
|-
|'''SMF 1.1'''
|Dec 3, 2006
|'''1.1.21'''
|April 24, 2015
|Inactive{{efn|Replaced by SMF 2.0}}
|-
|'''SMF 2.0'''
|Jun 11, 2011
|'''2.0.19'''
|Dec 21, 2021
|Active{{efn|There are 33 improvements between 2.0 and 1.1<ref name=new2a>{{cite web|title=Differences between SMF 2.0 and SMF 1.1 |url=https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Differences_between_SMF_2.0_and_SMF_1.1 |website=Simple Machines |accessdate=August 27, 2011}}</ref>}}
|-
|'''SMF 2.1'''
|Feb 9, 2022
|'''2.1.4'''
|Jun 10, 2023
|Active{{efn|There are 54 improvements between 2.1 and 2.0<ref name=new2b>{{cite web|title=Differences between SMF 2.1 and SMF 2.0 |url=https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Differences_between_SMF_2.1_and_SMF_2.0 |website=Simple Machines |accessdate=March 29, 2014}}</ref>}}
|-
|}
{{notelist}}

==Feature add-on modifications==
SMF has a modification base repository for free modification hosting and tracking via the Simple Machines main site. Many modifications, or "mods" as they are usually called, have been created and distributed free of charge, including an [[video arcade|arcade]], Help desk, profile additions, gallery, [[Akismet|spam filter]], various SEO features, and many more. Before being listed on the SMF Mods site, the mod is validated by the SMF Team, to ensure that it complies with the SMF Coding Guidelines.

The [[Package Manager]] included in SMF is one of the flagship features. It allows an administrator to install modifications and updates to SMF without having to modify the code of the script, usually with only a few mouse clicks.

==Criticism==
Even though the sources were available from the start, SMF has been criticized by the open source community for not being available under a [[free software]] license. Redistribution of earlier releases of the software, even unmodified, is not allowed without a written permission. The source code is not redistributable either, although it is allowed to distribute instructions on how to modify it.

Starting with the 2.0 release the software is available under the BSD license, resolving the concerns.<ref name="opensource">{{cite web|url=https://www.simplemachines.org/about/opensource.php|title=Simple Machines and Open Source|author=Joshua Dickerson |publisher=Simple Machines Organization| accessdate=January 15, 2015}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Comparison of Internet forum software]]
* [[List of Internet forums]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
*[http://www.yabbforum.com/ YaBB Community] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191009113104/http://www.yabbforum.com/ |date=2019-10-09 }}
*[http://www.yabbse.org/ YaBBse Community]
*[https://www.simplemachines.org/community/ SMF Community]
*[http://www.forum-software.org/simple-machines-2/review Simple Machines review, demonstration and screenshots]

[[Category:Free software programmed in PHP]]
[[Category:Internet forum software]]
[[Category:Free Internet forum software]]
[[Category:Software using the BSD license]]

Simple Machines Forum - Revision history

imported>Stefan1200: /* Products */ Added version 2.1.4