Easiest forum script for newbie?

[billsfan2012]

Hope I found the right place for this post.

I have a site with a little growing community that would benefit from having a web forum instead of corresponding with each other through wordpress comments on various posts.

I have promised my audience for a forum, and thought it would be a piece of cake to create one, but I setup phpBB and was freakin' LOST.

My question:

What is the most 'noob-friendly' and easiest to setup forum script of the following:

1) phpBB (please don't tell me this one is the easiest)
2) Simple Machines Forum <-- this was going to me my 2nd effort. i think the word "simple" sold me
3) MyBB
4) Advanced Electron Forums
5) Vanilla
6) PunBB
7) XMB
8) Phorum
9) FluxBB
10) bbPress
11) FudForum
12) miniBB

As you can see I've got a lot of choices here.... Although I'm a newbie that was dumbfounded in the face of phpBB, I do have experience installing and running sites on scripts, most specifically, TGP and Tube sites, but I'm not really in need of the most robust forum here. My site is simple, my needs are simple, and therefore I think the forum should be simple.

Thx for reading.

 

[Zapdos]

SMF. Lots of mods and a great community on their forums. Making mods and templates is a breeze too. Though I'm surprised you didnt mention vBulletin. Bit pricey and more complex, but more mods and with more complexity comes more features.


If price is an issue: SMF
If not: vBulletin

 

[billsfan2012]

SMF. Lots of mods and a great community on their forums. Making mods and templates is a breeze too. Though I'm surprised you didnt mention vBulletin. Bit pricey and more complex, but more mods and with more complexity comes more features.


If price is an issue: SMF
If not: vBulletin

Thanks for the suggestion! I was listing the options in Softaculous via my webhost. I think vBulletin wasn't included because it only lists free options.

 

[Zapdos]

I'd suggest not using a script installer to set it up; they're known to cause issues. Installing SMF yourself takes all of 2 minutes and is the recommended route by SMF.

 

[carlikito]

I'm also looking for the same thing...A simple forum script with minimal features.

OP which one did you ended up using?