General Simple Machines Forums  - SMF - Features

• Uses PHP and MySQL.
• Comprehensive template system.
• Advanced permission and user management.
• Supports multiple languages at once.
• Open and well-documented source code.
• Tracking of new and old unread topics, not just from your last visit.
• Designed for optimal performance and scalability.
• Multi-media output. (XHTML, XML, RSS, WAP)
• Multi-language support from a large community.
• Package manager that automatically installs or uninstalls mods (also known as hacks.)

SimpleMachines Forums -SMF - Security

• All actions seamlessly require a session based authorization code.
• Administrative actions require the user's password (and do not rely solely on cookies.)
• Major actions are time and IP locked, preventing 'hammering'.
• The number of login attempts from a certain IP can be limited and time locked.

SimpleMachines Forum -SMF - Settings

• Ability to display page creation time and query count per page.
• Put a board into maintenance mode, allowing only admins to login.
• Word censoring, either full word or partial.
• Ability to break up long words.

Simple Machines Forums -SMF - Boards & Categories

• Group boards into collapsible categories.
• Set categories as non-collapsible.
• Reorder boards within categories, or reorder categories.
• Create child boards under other boards. (sub boards)
• Assign moderators to boards.
• Allow certain member groups to access a board, including guests only.
• Configure permissions for each member group on the board level.
• Ability to indicate new posts to child boards but nothing new in parent.

SimpleMachines Forums -SMF - Member Registration

• Require registration before forum entrance.
• Require a user to agree to terms before they register.
• Disable member registration completely (allowing only moderators to register people).
• Require email authentication by sending an authentication link.
• Require a moderator to approve registration.
• Register new members from the admin center.

SimpleMachines Forum -SMF - Member Navigation & Authentication

• Several security checks during navigation.
• Password reminder option, by email with confirmation. (doesn't automatically reset your password.)
• Both cookie and session based authentication (works without cookies.)
• Cookies can be set local to a path, global to all subdomains, or normally.
• Adjustable expiration time for authentication cookies.

SimpleMachines Forum -SMF - Statistics

• Several board statistics (accessible by permission.)
• Tracking of member's online time in seconds.
• Tracking of topics, messages, new members, and hits per day.
• Individual member statistics accessible from their profile.

Simple Machines Forums -SMF - News & Announcements

• Ability to create announcement boards (members receive a notification of topics automatically.)
• Member option to disable receiving announcements.
• Email or private message your members by membergroup.
• Show a news ticker or news fader.

SimpleMachines Forum - SMF - Communication

• Ability to choose sendmail or SMTP (with or without authentication.)
• Ability to send a topic to a friend.
• Ability to view a "printer friendly" version of topics

Simple Machines Forums - SMF - Member Groups

• Create member groups to group members on permissions, access rights, and/or appearance.
• Assign several member groups to a single member, with one member group as the primary group.
• Define member groups that are auto-assigned based on the amount of posts a user has.
• Determine the maximum number of personal messages a member group is allowed to have by group.
• Assign graphical symbol(s) to a membergroup - by primary group.
• Determine which membergroups are allowed to access a board.

SimpleMachines Forum - SMF - Banning

• Ban members based on their username, email address, IP address or hostname.
• Support of wildcards for email address, IP address, and hostname.
• Include a ban reason (viewable for the banned user).
• Include a ban note (only viewable by the admins).
• Chose between full ban, 'no post' ban, or registration ban.
• Include an expiration time for bans.

SimpleMachines Forums - SMF - External Integration

• Integrate parts of forum software into existing website using SSI or PHP.
  • Recent topics or posts.
  • Recent news posts in a board.
  • Recent polls.
  • Several forum statistics.
  • List of users online.
  • The menu bar.
  • News.
  • Search.
  • Login/logout.
  • Today's events/birthdays/holidays.
• Export forum data using XML/RSS
  • Latest members.
  • News.
  • Recent posts.

Simple Machines Forum - SMF - Wireless Access

• Support for WAP, WAP2 and I-mode protocols.
• Browse through boards/topics/messages with reduced page size.
• Ability to login and logout (not with WAP 1.)
• Ability to see new topics/boards with new replies.
• Ability to jump to first unread reply.
• Ability to post new messages (not with WAP 1.)

SimpleMachines Forums - SMF - Theming and Templating

• Ability to allow or disallow your users to select their own theme.
• Ability to reset all of your members to a certain theme.
• Ability to install a new theme via your administration center.
• Default templates are XHTML 1.0 Transitional and CSS 2.0 compliant.
• Admin can add smileys and smiley sets.
• Members can choose which smiley set they wish to use (or none.)
• Themes can be installed by way of the "latest and greatest themes" panel.
• SSI can have and show layers and the like from the template system.

Simple Machines Forum - SMF - Posting Features

• Spell Check.
• Quick Reply
  • Members can disable it or collapse it.
  • Can be used with "Quote".
  • Also contains "Spell Check".
• Vast number of "bulletin board codes" to use (including rtl, acronym, and others.)
• Timelimit before showing a post was modified.
• 'Insert Quote' feature on posting screen to quickly quote previous replies.

SimpleMachines Forums - SMF - Polls

• Can be added or removed to existing topics.
• Ability to set expiration date.
• Ability to hide results till expiration of poll.
• Ability to hide results untill after people have voted.
• Ability to determine how many votes a user may cast.
• Polls can have up to 256 options.

Simple Machines Forum - SMF - Attachments

• Allowed on a per member group or board basis.
• The filename can be encrypted to increase the security (so you can upload .php files, etc.)
• Optional restrictriction on what filetypes may be uploaded.
• Ability to restrict such that only registered members can view them (disables hotlinking, mostly.)
• Images can be embedded into posts.

SimpleMachines Forums - SMF - Calendar Tools

• Shows Birthdays, Events and Holidays.
• Display calendar information on board index.
• Link an existing topic to the calendar.
• Allow only certain members/groups post events.
• Event poster can edit event.
• Events can span multiple days.

Simple Machines Forum - SMF - Moderation Tools

• Ability to lock and unlock a topic.
  • Topics which are locked by an administrator can not unlocked by anyone else.
• Ability to allow members to use moderation on just topics they posted.
• "Report to moderator" link.
• Delete or modify posts.
• Ability to Merge/Split topics.
• Move or delete topics.
• Sticky or unsticky topics.
• Recycle bin/board for all deleted topics and posts.
• Moderation log which shows moderation activity and disallows log removal outside of 1 day.

SimpleMachines Forums - SMF - User Profiles & User Options

• Ability to hide your email address from the public.
• Select their favorite theme among the activated forum themes.
• Select their smiley set from the ones available.
• Email notification
  • New topics per board.
  • Single topics.
  • Private messages.
• Login with 'invisible' mode.
• Options to hide other members' avatars and signatures.
• Ability to download and resize uploaded avatars.
• Personal text, avatar, signature, and all the nicities of forums can be used and are kept up to date in all your posts.

SimpleMachines Forum - SMF - User Resources

• Icons for topics you've posted to.
• Show new replies to your posts.
• Collapsible 'Additional Options' on post screen.
• Ability to view most recent messages.
• List all topics that have new replies since your last visit.
• See who is browsing the same boards or topics as you.
• Topics that span multiple pages have the page numbers listed as well as an "all" link.