: we are
: looking for a forum format that our members can use. Is there
: one you can recommend?

The system that runs this form TetraBBS: http://tetrabb.com/ has a lot to recommend it. It is free and reliable.

I like its ability to support free, wide-ranging discussion. Most forum systems work under a Head-of-the-thread index system. In other words the index of threads links to the first post in a thread and that link indicates the subject of the first message. In many discussions the child messages will veer off the original topic. For a reader coming to the index there is no way of knowing what is actually being discussed within the thread without opening up the the whole thread.

With this system it is easy to change the subject header as I have done on this message and readers can have an idea of where the subject discussion is going.

I also like the way this system marks new messages. I've found with some systems that it can be very hard to look at a thread of discussion and see where the new messages that I have not yet read.

This system uses rather old technology as far as web tech goes. It is written in Perl instead of PHP, but as such it is very stable and has proven reliable in the 13 years I have been running various versions of the script.