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Top 5 Best SMF Mods You Should Use On Your Forum

I just added a forum to my collection and I must confess to you guys that as far as progress is concern, it is going well and smoothly :). Well I am using a free platform called SMF (Simple Machine Forum) – it is a popular forum platform.

smf-mod

The main reason I choose SMF, is because they have enough mods like wordpress has “plugins” and also their technicians are ready to answer any questions thrown to them :).

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Why I created the forum? I created the forum because I still have so many topics I want to talk about and I just don’t want to create dozens of niche sites for it.

Well, how I created a forum is not why I am publishing this post today. A friend of mine is creating a forum as well using the SMF platform and he asked me to recommend some of the best mods he can use… so on my today’s post, I will be talking about five must have mods for a new and existing SMF forum.

Top 5 Best SMF Mods You Should Use On Your Forum

So without wasting much of our time, let’s start with the number one on our list…

Anti Bot: Are You Human/Bot?

Playing smart can be a good idea but only if you play it tight and smooth… :).

What the “Anti Bot: Are You Human/Bot?” does is – it asks you a simple question upon registration, if you can get it right your registration will be successful. But the thing is, some spammers are getting smarter by the day so adding the next mod is the next smart thing.

Akismet Spam Blocking:

We all hate spammers, right?  A spammer can destroy the reputation of any blog, site or forum. A spam infested blog or forum is not a best idea to post your blog link for traffic or you might get penalized by the big Gs.

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Now what Akismet spam blocking does is – it prevents spammers from making post on your forum. Believe it or not, it is working 100% and has been helping me combat spam posts.

FB & Twitter sharer Mod 2.0:

As the new saying goes – “there is love in sharing”. The only way your post can be shared on all social networks is if you add a share button, right? If you have a blog or a forum and you don’t have a share button, your content will be hardly shared (fact).

What the FB & Twitter sharer Mod 2.0 does is – it simply provides you with a Twitter and Facebook share button below your post for your readers to share your post if they find it interesting.

Share This Topic:

Who doesn’t want their post to be shared to even more social networks?

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If you want to add more sharing options for your forum readers then the Share This Topic mod is indeed a good choice for you. It comes with addthis option and even more choice for your best sharing experience :).

Ad mod:

After putting hard work in creating your forum, it is good to make money at least to help with the cost, right?

What the Ad mod does is it gives you the chance to place ads below and above your forum. And it also helps place ads on your sidebar and in post. Sound awesome, right?

Conclusion

The above mods are my recommendation to any new forum users and even existing ones. And I do hope you enjoyed the little top 5…

Let’s Talk:

Do you have a forum? Have you ever have the thought of creating one? Do share with us using the comment box below.

What other modulation would you like to add to the list? Drop them using the comment box below

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Do you have comments, questions or thoughts you’d love to share with us? Then please do use the comment box below and drop them. Remember that your comments, questions and thoughts are highly welcomed and most appreciated.

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24 thoughts on “Top 5 Best SMF Mods You Should Use On Your Forum”

  1. Hi Babanature,

    Congratulations on adding a forum, though I don’t think/see it’s on this blog 🙂

    Yes, I’ve seen some bloggers do wonderfully well with forums on their blogs, and they too have it for the very same reason as yours and also because they want to reply to the numerous queries people have, which they possibly cannot write posts about each time for. I think good and interactive forums are a great feature to have, something that I’d also thought of having on my blog long time back, but never got down to it. So, a good reminder for me.

    I didn’t know that we needed these additional add-ons for a forum too, but you are right, anti-spams are needed all over, and so are the social share buttons, at least the main ones. Bookmarking this page right away for the time I might make mine.

    Thanks for sharing. Have a nice weekend 🙂

    1. Hello Harleena,
      I created the forum but i did not add a clickable button here to the forum because i am about to change the theme of my blog :). After changing it, i will indeed add my forum category. But i have already added it to this blog mobile view.

      Yes, Forum platform is just like wordpress, joomla and other cms platforms. It needs mods to add some cool features that were not in the default installation.
      Having a forum is indeed a good thing Harleena and it will indeed be nice creating your :).

      Thanks for your wonderful comment and do have a blissful weekend start my friend

  2. To be very honest with you I don’t use a lot of SMF mods. Why? Because most of them are not developed well, they may just end up causing you problems. Congrats on your new forum though, I also launched mine recently and dealing with spammers has been difficult.

    I’ll try out these Anti-Spam mods you be recommended though. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hello Ugee,
      Indeed some of the mods are not developed properly. But there are some that are awesome and developed well like the ones i mentioned here.
      Do try them out, i am sure you’re going to love them.
      Thanks for your lovely comment buddy. Do have a best weekend ahead…

  3. Hi babanature..thanks for this awesome post..i’ve been having alot of spammers on my bloq especially trackbacks..pls which Anti Spam plugin do you think i can use? thanks.

  4. Hello,

    Well to be honest I’m totally noob in forums stuff and i really love to learn more and more about it. This post has gained a lot of information about forums and their mods.

    Thanks for sharing!

  5. I have no forum and intend to create one in the nearest future. Thanks for sharing the must-have mods to use in the forum. I guess it would be very helpful to use the ideas shared in this post to make future decisions on the mods to use.

    Sunday

  6. Yes I started a forum and to be frank I first started with SMF, but I figure out is not what I’m looking.

    With this free software I could not stand out from the crowd, just a little bit maybe. That’s the first reason I moved to a paid forum and I must confess I’m more than satisfied with Xenforo.

    Sure thing content is the king no matter what, but where content is hosted matters more than I though, there’s a lot of work to be done but I’m not hurry. No no, not me!

    Kind regards, see you next time bro’!

    1. Hello Daniel,
      Wordpress is a free platform right? But millions of people are using it for their blogging. The only thing that can make you standout is by using a theme to differentiate yourself right?

      SMF is one of the best forum platforms around and believe it or not, xenforo looks just like the SMF :).

      Content is indeed the in-thing. With what you share, you can always stand out from the crowd no matter the platform you use.

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping you wonderful comment. Do have a good weekend…

  7. I have of course thought of creating a forum and this has somehow drawn more light on what I need to do.

    Thanks for this Babanature and do have a great weekend.

  8. Hello mate,

    I was also thinking to create a tech forum very soon and these Best SMF Mods are really beneficial and informative. I’d bookmark the post of future reference.

    Cheers!

    1. Hey Ashish,
      Seriously, creating a forum is indeed a step ahead. But to make a forum more successful, more hands needs to join you to make it versatile

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your lovely comment. Do have a lovely weekend 🙂

  9. Yeah! These are the best SMF. No doubt, it’s really helpful to newbie as per well as some professional! Thanks for sharing this awesome stuff with us!

  10. Hey mate,

    Wow! Forum huh? Seems like many people are doing that and let’s see how it turn out to be! Even I myself am planning to start one soon.

    Fingers crossed and good luck mate. Remember to invite me :p

    1. Hello Reginald,
      As at now, the forum is doing pretty good for its self.
      Now a forum would be indeed a great way to go in the New year 🙂 . I would be looking forward to it mate

  11. That’s nice to hear. I have a forum site but I’m not using SMF. I use Mybb script for my forum. SMF doesn’t uave a good and nicely looking mobile version that’s why I don’t like it.

    1. Hello Inyavic,
      Mybb is also a great forum platform and it is also a popular platform.
      I choose smf because of the simplicity and i have been handling it since 2009 so i know my way around the platform pretty well.
      Do have a brilliant week ahead…

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