i think features are everywhere the same today (well, except here of course). The thing with PHPBB3 is that i persoanally was totally disappointed with it. It was just a bloated phpbb2 and had the same problems as the predecessor (size, speed..). SMF on the other hand has an excellent 'plugin' system for features. Simply upload a package and youre done, no longer 'hacking' your sys and one of the major advantages of SMF is the speed and it's small footprint which is especially at a forum like this quite important.