Any future comparisons may wish to consider the version near release which can be seen on www.dnnforums.com. Please note this site is only for viewing the next version, not for support.

Active Forums is a good module, I have seen it used everywhere and heard good things about it. I have partipated in several sites which use the module and it isn't bad looking either.

To address what you have listed here, the new version does have:

• A more flexible theme system. The site shows some flexibility.
• There is a notification system that allows bulk emails to go out in a seperate thread for the module. (Does not connect to NNTP or read emails and add posts from those emails)
• The code is far more stable than previous versions. (I have no idea vs. the Active Forums code though)

I don't know what other modules all have, but I do know some features I haven't seen being used as part of the other forum modules which have been added in the next version are:

• Thread Status - You can set a thread to "resolved, unresolved, informative" and search by these when looking for answers to questions.
• Email Template System Per Portal - Allows you to customize the outgoing forum notifications. Allows both HTML and Text email notifications and templates.
• Member Listing - Allows users to be listed in a member directory within the module.
• Private Messaging - Allows users to have private thread conversations (between 2 users) and receive notifications of new messages.
• Tight integration with entire DotNetNuke API. Uses core controls to provide a consistent end users experience as well.
• Default Forum View - Allows admin to select a default forum all users will be directed to for a module instance (similar to old feature for groups, how it is used here)
• Aggregated Forum - Old feature that allows all public forums to display as a single forum.

There are, however, items Active Forums comes with that the core module does not: (Just what I know of)

• Dedicated line of support
• Ability for anonymous users to post (on our roadmap)
• Quick Reply feature (on our roadmap)
• Capable of poll integration