Simple pluggable forum software

We had a requirement to provide a support forum in our online store for Secret Server which led to the classic "Buy vs. Build" decision. 

Build:  The requirements were very simple and it could be developed in-house but who wants to write simple forum code when it has been done many times before?!

Buy: Most of available options were too sophisticated for our requirements which could make integration difficult (either no source code provided or overly complicated software or restrictive licensing).

Then I found the Riverside Internet Forums on CodeProject by Mike Puddephat.  The forum uses 4 generic database tables and has custom controls in one dll (with source code provided).  You can add the custom control with a unique "forum id" to any ASPX page and it just works!  It was easy to integrate and achieve "single sign on" with our existing system by ensuring that our user maintenance code keeps the WS_Users (a forum table) up to date. 

Voila!  Secret Server now has an online support forum!

Jonathan Cogley is the CEO and founder of thycotic, a .NET consulting company and ISV in Washington DC.  thycotic has just released Thycotic Secret Server which is a secure web-based solution to both "Where is my Hotmail password?" and "Who has the password for our domain name?".  Secret Server is the leader in secret management and sharing within companies and teams.