I am designing a site I hope to put up in 2 or 3 months. A key part of the site will be discussion forums.

What recommendations do others have for this software? Can anyone direct me to a discussion of the different features available, the pros and cons of each, the things to be careful about, etc? Maybe a comparison of different packages available? Thanks.

I guess you can search Google - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...forum_software

Most of my friends are using phpBB and I think it's quite popular.

Cheers,
Maggie

Yep, I would try phpBB first because of the large support forum community. The thing with forums and other web apps is...they ALWAYS eventually break. It is nice to have a large pool of experience to draw from when trouble shooting these issues.
The two most popular kinds of forum scripts are flat file, which needs no data base and are really kinda "old hat" and PHP/MYSQL which use MYSQL databasees to store your information. You will want to make sure your server and hosting account on that server has access to PHP & MYSQL. Do'nt use a hosting company that does not allow this type of database access.
Lastly, you will want to back up your data once your forum is up and running and back it up often.
There are over 200 different forum scripts at the link below. Most have links to a site with feature descriptions and demo's so you can compare.
Good Luck.
http://hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_an...rds/index.html

They're not cheap, but I find the most popular (and most reliable... and most simple to use) message board software packages are Invision Power Board and vBulletin.

As I say, they're not cheap and only worth getting if you're expecting loads and loads of hits. Otherwise, I've heard phpBB is very good (although I've never used it personally).

-Invision Power Board

-vBulletin

Hope this helps!