Just wondering if there is any better software I can get than Vbulletin everyone keeps telling me that there is nothing better or nothing else available.

Any advise would be appreciated.

vBulletin is shoddy expensive software for forums. If you purchase it, just like any Japanese car, you will have to buy again to upgrade and ditch your old, because the new is not compatible with last week's old. Use SMF http://www.simplemachines.org for your forums. SMF is free, constantly upgraded and being open source, is far more flexible than vBulletin will ever be.

If it's just an ordinary website that you want, then WordPress http://wordpress.org is what you need.

@Cailen.

I do not want a free site that is controlled  by the content. ( free sites do not fit my expectations) as you are at the whim of their moralistic views.
No problems paying for a site..just do not want Vbulletin..
Want a forum where anything go's any topic any subject bar a few of course that will bring down heat.
Do I have to build my own.? is that possible..? how much?  how to go about it..??
What about servers that are not controlled by the whim of others ...
What about security...Hackers..

Free software installed on a site of your own is your software - usually as long as you keep the credit or logo somewhere on the page - but if it's freeware or open source, you can usually edit it to your hearts content, as long as you give credit to those that came before. Paying for software to put on your own site doesn't mean a thing. You only rent the software until such a time as it fails to operate and you ditch it. Upgrades to paid software often come with a twelve month limit. Upgrades to free software is for a lifetime.

If you pay for webhosting, you can put whatever you like on it - depending on the freedom of speech status of your webhost.

If you build your own server, you are limited to what your Internet Service Provider will agree to. As you are in Australia, you cannot act as your own webhost with any measure of success. You are limited to a dynamic IP address (which means it changes all the time), your connection speed is limited as is the amount of people able to connect to your server at any one time. Of course you can get around the dynamic IP address, but you cannot get around the rest without paying out a fortune for something you can get from an already established webhost in the US dirt cheap by comparison. And unlike Australia, the US does have rights to freedom of speech. Anything hosted in Australia can be shut down ... all it takes is a phone-call from the JOG and that's the end of your home server business. No breach of the law required. With the US, it depends on whether the webhost respects your right to freedom of speech as to whether they shut you down because of a few bitching naysayers. I speak from experience on that one. Just make sure to research your webhost well and you'll be fine.

@Cailen.

Thanks for that will do some more research.