Creating your own forum

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L

Liam1981

  • #1
    Hi all

    Has anyone ever created their own forum or know much about it?

    I'm looking to create a health and fitness forum linked to my personal training business. I know that 123-reg offers an instantsite package that has a forum, does anyone know if this is any good?

    Thanks
     

  • #3
    Why not just use one of the free Open Source forums around, and secure yourself some decent hosting.

    I setup mine (link in sig) using MyBB, which is very easy to use, and host it with Phil at Openmind, costs little and is great service.
     
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    bluecm

    bluecm

    Free Member
    Aug 9, 2007
    163
    22
    Birmingham
  • #11
    Liam1981 said:
    thanks! which do you think would be better... hosting a new website for the forum or linking the forum into my existing website?
    Click to expand...

    Well presumably you want users of the existing site to use the forum, if this is the case then I would integrate the forum as part of your website. If you do this I would advise having your forum follow the design of your site.

    HTH

    Nathan
     
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    I, Brian

    I, Brian

    Free Member
    May 18, 2005
    1,964
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  • #17
    Forums are incredible time sinks and extremely difficult to build up a momentum with a user base. They are also integral targets for spam and hacking attacks, which adds further to the time required to run one.

    I think the key point is to determine how a forum fits into a business plan, and how it can be leveraged as an integral part of providing for that process.

    SMF is probably the best free forum platform out there - it has fewer coding issues than MyBB and less vulnerable to hacking than phpbb.

    vbulletin is the kind of forum software, but best used only when you know you're serious about it.

    2c.
     
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    L

    LeeBranch

  • #19
    Hi chaps, sorry for the screaming headline but this bombshell is worth it I promise :eek:

    There's a new player in town that makes hosting a forum extremely easy (including managing members and approving posts etc) and COMPLETELY FREE.

    They've basically done what blogger has for blogs. Sign up now and start getting excited... :)

    http://www.lefora.com/
     
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    I, Brian

    I, Brian

    Free Member
    May 18, 2005
    1,964
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  • #20
    LeeBranch said:
    There's a new player in town that makes hosting a forum extremely easy (including managing members and approving posts etc) and COMPLETELY FREE.
    Click to expand...

    Free is over-rated - having full control over your admin and data is more important.

    Free is great, until the provider "accidentally" deletes your forum, or else you want to make any significant changes. :)
     
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    I, Brian

    I, Brian

    Free Member
    May 18, 2005
    1,964
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  • #22
    Yep - you got that wrong. :) I don't actually set up forums for people - in fact, I freely advise on how others can do it themselves:
    Basic install and optimisation of a vbulletin forum
    How to combat spam on vbulletin forums
    Choosing forum moderators

    I've seen busy forums deleted from free hosting providers. There's no user agreement to protect the interests of the users or forums. Hence if you're serious about a forum, you need to ensure you have full control and ownership.

    I mean, seriously, would anyone have their main business website as nothing but a URL on a free provider? If not, why not? Same principles apply IMO.

    2c. :)
     
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    P

    Page

  • #24
    But if it helps - setting something up to a play level - to see what is involved and the settings that you can choose etc only takes 1 - 5 hours from scratch. Hard to put an exact figure since it depends on your current skill set and knowledge.

    You could do this on some free forum space much quicker - allow an hour for a decent first play - and see what you think. Doing so may then help you have a clearer idea of what is involved and even what features you want on your forum. Not all software is created equal.

    Otherwise I think there are a few key posts in this thread - why in the first place - why not the free route - getting it going and keeping it going.

    If you are non technical and then want to go ahead with your own on your own site I would then suggest paying someone to do the install etc.
     
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    C

    Crafty Sara

  • #30
    I have a craft website, and am self taught with no technical knowledge! I downloaded a phpbb forum, and altered the look of it to go with my site, using perseverence and the excellent forum they have at phpbb.com. It is listed on the main site's menu. I haven't had any problems at all with it, and have a lovely community of friendly crafters there now. My point is you don't have to be technically minded to set it up! www.timeforcrafting.co.uk
     
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    O

    ozbon

  • #32
    Personally, I tend to find that clients prefer phpBB - although I do do installs of others, including SMF, vBulletin and bbPress, it just depends on client preferences.

    They're all much of a muchness really - phpBB is the one most used (although as others have said, that also makes it the biggest target for hacks/attacks - but on the flip side with the larger user community, fixes tend to come out pretty quickly as well) but vBulletin is catching up rapidly.

    I'm not a great fan of bbPress - but it's still not on a 1.0 release, so there's still some room for improvement.

    All told though, they're all pretty easy to install and set up. It just comes down to personal preference in the end.
     
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    dan_moore

    dan_moore

    Free Member
    Mar 21, 2006
    278
    3
    Hampshire
  • #33
    I've tried several of the free products out there like phpbb. I don't know if it is better now, but it was a real magnet for automatic tools signing up for accounts and posting rubbish.

    In the end I got our own forum software written. In terms of combatting rubbish I've found it useful to ask a simple question on sign up, e.g. what is the capital of France or similar... ok there might be a few people who don't know the answer but it saves hundreds of auto sign-ups.

    It is a bit of a catch 22 though - you work really hard to get people to post on your forum, and then when you do the reward is it suddenly becomes attractive to those who just want to fill your site with useless promotional posts that add no value, so moderation is definitely a consideration.

    You need to give a forum about 18 months hard work to get it flowing of its own accord and running smoothly (well, unless you get lucky... I guess some forums are an instant hit but not many).

    Good luck... hopefully it will be worth it in the long run :)

    Dan
     
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    L

    limes_04

    Free Member
    May 28, 2008
    9
    2
  • #34
    Actually the vulnerabilities of the free forums you are using will depend on how you configure it. There are lot of free mods for each forum like phpbb, smf, vbulettin that will maximize its strength. I been maintaining 2 types of forum for the past 2 years.

    If you want to get rid of rubbish and crap posting from your forum try to security mods to prevent BOTS from signing up and posting. Set banned words and and user limitation. PHPBB and SMF are all the way, will work at its best with the best selection of mods and customization of codes.
     
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    P

    PWoper

  • #36
    Forumotion.com is the best if you haven't ever used a forum system before. it is easy to style (you just copy and paste CSS skins from various websites) I would go with it if i were you.
     
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    C

    cheaputils

  • #38
    Hi all, my first post. I run a forum (4 years old now) and it's based on SMF (Simple Machines Forum). It's available for free and it's installed on my hosting account at Vidahost which provide all the PHP, space, servers etc as part of my subscription. It's pretty cool
     
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    I

    iTopz

    Free Member
    Feb 3, 2009
    170
    8
  • #40
    Maybe my advice is a bit amateur but you could create a free forum first on one of many free forum sites, that way you learn how it technically works, and more importantly if your forum has a large enough following? If it does, months down the line then move it to a proper forum for profits.
    Just a thought.
     
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