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I've used the Backend of each forum software I mentioned, yeah.
I'm sorry, I meant to state "seen the back-end" in terms of actually seeing the source code and how everything is done, but whatever.
SMF's is easy to use, but a little too basic and not very in-depth.
phpBB's is pretty nice in terms of looks, but that isn't really what matters. It's pretty confusing until you get used to where everything is (however, this may be because I used IPB 1.3 and MyBB 1.44's Backend's first).
Agreed.
MyBB's is easy to use in my opinion. Everything is laid out nicely and how I like it, and each feature is easy to get to and edit.
MyBB needs to get rid of Smarty and either make use of a better templating solution, or just make one in-house. Since I'm all for code reuse, I vouch for a better templating system. Smarty is the worse thing there is.
IPB's Backend is also nice; alike MyBB's in some ways (even so you have to get used to it first). However, the way Modifications are installed is confusing and are hard to navigate and get to when installed.
The IP.Board back-end is the reason why PHP developers are often laughed at and dismissed at script kiddies. It's messy, and there is no intuitive way for real developers to expand on the code without having to sort through hacky and shoddy implementations of things.
vBulletin's is also great in my opinion. The Modifications are easy to get to when installed, giving themselves a section for themselves at the side.
The sections on the side are up to the modification developer, actually, but yes, vB'S back-end is efficient in the least, except not so much in regards to the hooks system (globals? are you kidding me?). My initial problem with vBulletin is how they fail to completely apply a consistent structure that separates templating from application logic. There are many things in the templates that can just be moved into the controllers, but for some reason, they're just kept there. I hear vB 4.0 is going to have vast improvements, so I look forward to more cohesiveness.