JibberBook harnesses the spam protecting power of Akismet. A great customization feature is the ability to choose to store records in MySQL database or using XML. Admins can delete, view, or mark as spam comments left by site visitors. It also truly showcases the simple but noticeable effects of Mootools, which adds a great deal to the user interface and overall user experience.

Though guestbooks are an early web practice and perhaps a borderline Web 1.0 feature, they are still a useful and much saught after web application. And the fact that JibberBook is open source, simple and extremely easy to use, it is sure to be the guestbook application of choice for developers.

Administrators can create sticky posts, locked posts, categories, and all the things you would expect from a web forum. Users can create and reply to topics as well as subscribe via RSS. Default view lets you see all active topics. If you want just a specific category, just click on the category name and you’ll see just the discussions within that category.

When they say that Vanilla is “Fully Extensible”, they’re not kidding. They have a whole barnyard of add-ons including extensions, themes, styles, and languages. Want to integrate with Wordpress? The creators have put together a have a step-by-step guide here.

Vanilla is a great open source web forum keen on standards and a gleeming of simplicity.