For anyone that has their own Bulleting Board, which is a goos BB to purchase to run a discussion forum. I know there are free forums like probaoards and such, but I'm looking for one like the Clutchans, which has the authentication code to keep spam bots out of the forums. I can't recall if VBulletin has that authentication. Any help would be appreciated.
vbulletin is nice, there is also phpbb and invision power board, all three have their own pros and cons
Will you be on a dedicated server or sharing with others? Since you are considering spending for Vbulletin, then it appears that this is a serious venture for you. If you are going to have 100 members and perhaps 10 of those online, then dbulletin is a nice luxury. If you are going to have 1000 members and 100 online at a time, then you have the hosting angle covered?
I run a private vBulletin BBS. There aren't many forum software better in my opinion. I would think most "serious" boards would have the authentication functionality to log in and not create dummy accounts. If you want something along the lines of vBulletin to compare with it, try Invision Power Board (aka IP.Board). I think the support/community behind vBulletin is better, but that's just my opinion.
mine with invisionfree is in my link. It's been decent, but to keep out the bots I have all accounts have to be activated by an admin.