Well, the forums could at first be vBulletin, preferably in a new style. Ideally I’d like to write all new forum software. I don’t like vb anymore because they spend time on uninteresting features not directly related to the forums themselves, which could be a lot better imo.

This one is pretty much last on the to-do list.

Writing new forum software requires quite some time and I doubt it's worth it if you compare it to vB. I think everyone around here is familiar with the software, and I think a custom theme with custom plugins (or whatever they're called in vB) will do the trick, unless you have something big in mind.

Writing forums is a lot of work. I have several times half heartedly written about half of a forum solution as fun projects - the most interesting being one that was a bit google wavy but I never finished because ultimately it's more effort than it is worth - and there are so many forum packages out there already.

In some ways it is better to give users something they are familiar with, so even if vb isn't doing everything you want the fact that its instantly useable and little effort to maintain is a big win.

The question you have to ask yourself is: Do you want to invest all that time in security and maintenance, or have someone else do it for you but not have everything the way you want it?

I gather a lot of people are dropping vBulletin for XenForo, led by former developers of vB.
However if your looking at building a custom solution then alternatives on the market arent going to make all the much difference.

We're toying with the idea of building our own forum, personally i think its just too big a task, especially as it really needs to be functioning when the site goes live, even if its just the most basic of features, coupled with everything else required to go live its a heck of a lot to do.
Im not really sure there are enough benefits to it though, but then i wouldnt be the one building it and im not sure what the guy suggesting it has up his sleeve already, we already have a solid core to build from before really starting which i wasnt expecting to have, so maybe thats half the battle here too. Dunno.

I just get the impression people will miss a feature and moan about why you've not gone with vB 'cos its better than the &$*£ running at the moment' etc, and despite feeling like its quite an achievement what you've done, people dont really care and they'd settle for vB for all it matters to them. If theres something you can achieve which vB or similar cant offer, and your willing to put the time & effort into it all, I suspect it'll feel real good actually pulling it off.

The truth is, from the users point of view, vB is totally fine (at least from mine). I can't think of a good reason to switch from this, as it's doing everything I expect from a forum.

I think, that look of lfsforum.net is nice, but there are many spam, flood, trolling, etc here. I suggest to update moderators list...

lfsforum needs harder moderation and cleaning posts...

Also, when you delete message that not needed, after that left message like :

This message has been deleted by Victor. Reason: Not relevant to the thread topic

Maybe it needed only for moderators ? Thread look not good when there are many deleted messages...