phpbb and phpnuke user

[microman]

Hey folks,

As the title says I am a user of these open source cms and forum packages. They are great for some things. One thing they do not have is the ability to act like a yahoo user group where users can just use their email application to converse, instead of having to go to a site and login to create, post and read messages. But with that said, Yahoo User groups have limited funcitonality that most forum packages provide. The ability to create separate discussion areas for different topics and more.

What I am looking for is something that combines both. I want to be able to have separate discussion topics based on our software products. Then I want our paid subscription base of users to be able to decide what topics they want to listen too and which ones they don't care about. When someone creates a topic in an area they are interested in, they get an email right away, like a yahoo group. Not a digest message received the next day.

I am pretty sure the ability for users to send messages back to the thread through email does not exists (why? only to drive people to site?) But I need someone to explain to me how vbulletin works in this regard.

Thanks

[microman]

I think I answered my own question but please someone correct me if I am wrong.

1. A vb user can subscribe to a forum (any forum under a sub forum) and receive daily or weekly 'digest' like messages.

2. a vb user can also subscribe to individual threads by selecting 'Instant Notification by Email', Daily or Weekly.

3. Must come to web site to review or respond to message? Can message be reviewed in the instant notification or is it a simple YOU HAVE AN ANSWER kind of email?
Thanks

[peterska2]

1. This is correct

2. Yes, they can also subscribe with no email notification.

3. The email notification is only sent once until their next visit. Responses cannot be sent in via email. The message is displayed in the email.