I've been using Fireboard and now I'll use Kunena. The component is simple enough to come with Joomla because I personally think CMS is the main part in a Joomla site not the forum. If you want the forum as the main part you should choose a standalone pack and a portal. So to the authors of Kunena, please keep it light and simple :).



Cons: Kunena needs more SEF! Joomla core SEF uses the alias of items to make SEF, which is a good way to manage SEF with unicode characters. Kunena of course shouldn't use alias because it would take more and more space. But I believe the authors might consider this point and come up with a solution.



Thank you and Good luck :).

Tried Agora forum extension and got a ton of installation errors and it simply did not work (couldn't even create a forum), and it was supposed to be a stable release.

Then I found Kunena.

- Smooth installation

- Tons of built in features - no need for a bunch of additional plugins, which is more to manage

- Attractive and easy to navigate control panel

- Control over many options

- Up and going in 5 minutes

- Attractive frontend and easy to customize.



Great out of the box. Haven't used long enough to find any drawbacks or bugs, but no extension is perfect or will satisfy 100% of your needs. But, this one comes close. And, it appears that the Kunena team is very determined and aggressive. I feel that at their pace, they will easily surpass Agora and the rest in popularity.

I am using JomSocial and I like the fact that they are targeting JS for integration.



Thanks Kunena!

Good looking, tons of options, excellent integration with the rest of shape5 template and modules.

Rating: Pure 10!

I just installed 1.5.3 and it worked right out of the box. The support you receive from their website is top notch. Replies within minutes from experienced users or Staff themselves. Would recommend!

I have seen a few forums for joomla but i prefer kunena the most.

Why becuase of many good features it have. Using kunena you dont have to hack or modify any core files. Just install and its ready to use. No integration bridges as it is made for joomla only. Very good support at the developer website in the forums, sometimes i get response in minutes. Its GPL and can be used accordingly. Its non commercial and a helping hand towards poor joomla users. Its under development and developing extensions are good to use. I dont see any shortcomings except one i.e. no html in posts.

Overall good extension.

If you only need a very basic forum with basic permissions then this will do.



If you require complex user groups and permissions for a large forum with private areas and multiple administrators and moderators then you'd do well to test other components.



I've spent the two months testing different forum softwares and bridges for Joomla 1.5. For years I've been running a site based only on an SMF forum. When I launched my site I used JFusion to bring my forum and site together. JFusion is a nice alternative with frameless integration. It is only in RC status, but I have it working on a live site with thousands of users right now.



If you want to remain native to Joomla then I suggest testing out AGORA. I read that the next release is not far off. With that release it should be powerful enough to stand with software like SMF and phpbb3, in my opinion. If this is indeed the case, I will be switching to this component after the next RC... I also read that there are new design templates in development for it so the outdated look will be remedied.



Again Kunena fits the bill if you have a small forum, and your administration needs are minimal. Beyond that I would recommend testing other alternatives. JFusion and AGORA seem to be on a role. I know some will argue that Kunena has only been going for a couple months. But in that time I've watched two other options grow by leaps and bounds, all while providing top notch support in their forums.

Be careful installing this. Worked fine and looked great but then it crashed and I got the error link cannot be accessed. I tried to uninstall and got the same link in the back end. So I manually uninstalled it voila crashed my whole site broke.



Backup your site before you install this.

I have a new site and only had a few posts and was running Fireboard 1.0.4

I read the upgrade and the migration posts on the Wiki and just decided to uninstall Fireboard and install Kuenena.



I wasn't real concerened about loosing any posts so I just went for it.



I didn't loose anything. The settings stayed and i kept all my posts.



I very highly recommend this component!! *****

The install and configuration of the 1.5 Native alpha was easy and straightforward. But it is non-functional currently. As the developer states, not ready for production systems.



1. When integrating with Community Builder, going to the forums generates PHP warning errors only.



2. In Forum Administration, clicking New takes you back to the main page. There is no way to add new categories.



But give the developers time. It will eventually be ready for prime time.

Exactly what I was looking for, an excelent forum extension...! Very complete, and with and excelent CB integration.



Easy to install, and easier to configure it.



I had a little problem with forums creation that was solved in less than 5 minutes in the support forum. Excelent suppport team...!