Honestly, I completely agree wit upgrading to a newer more modern software. Sure, I've worked with SMF a ton before, and was a great software (still is) Though I think It would be beneficial to move to something like Discourse, an open source forum, that self moderates, and is quite the powerful forum software.
Plus it has push notifications, its own mobile apps, and live posting (so if you're looking at the page, and someone replies) it will show