Hello everyone

I'm a software dev who has a text based rpg running for 5+ years. Recently i decided to build a new game to replace one of my favourites that doesn't exist anymore.

I'm at the point where i need to put in communication systems like forums and messaging but I'm really torn between using a third party solution (Vanilla Forums) and building one from scratch.

Both sides have their advantages and I believe building it would be better but I just don't think i should write another 1000+ lines for a forum when I can have one out of the box easily ready.

What do you folks think?

Work on what you care about, do you want to make a forum or make a game? Also do consider how vulnerable your own forum would be compared to a third party solution. Of course you lose flexibility by using a third party solution but I think the cost is worth it.

Thanks for you input!

I moved this to Business, because it was a "should I" instead of a "how do I." Communicating with your user base is very important for your business cycle. I see no reason to spend the time and risk the problems of creating your own, when there are packages available. But you want to choose one that lets you collect lots of data, even on things you don't think now that you will need to collect.

I support the notion to use third party software.

Don't re-invent the wheel, unless a) you have to (because of license issues, the wheel does not exist for your OS/Platform, or whatever), or b) your wheel brings some added value that you cannot add to an existing wheel (via plugins, mods, whatever).

If you rewrite the same forum with the same features that already exists as third party solution available for free, you should do it for your own learning or entertainment. That is the only reason to build something that already exists, with the two exceptions above.