The forums are busted at the moment. Sorry about that. We are currently using a piece of software called community server that we purchased so we didn't have to write our own. It has been nothing but trouble so now we are moving away from it to a simpler system. We are writing it so it will take a bit longer to finish, but you can expect to see it running within the week. The debate between whether to write your own software or to find something that exists is always a tough one. It is always nice to let someone else do the work for you, but over time it can actually be more cost effective to develop your own solution if:

• What you need is only a small subset of the off the shelf software and you want to simplify the experience for your users.
• You need a highly customized solution that would require extensive modification of existing software.
• The off the shelf software you choose is not so great.
• You can afford to do it.

In our case all the above criteria apply. I have written more than a few forums in the past in various programming languages so writing a custom one will only take me a few days. Now back to work I go.