How do you create a FORUM? Like this one.

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

This is for everybody but Big Bruin himself may be the best person to answer it. How does one go about creating and operatign a fourm on the internet such as this one.

I would liek to start my own fourm for pet keeping with most of the topics being about aquariums (both salt water and fresh water).

I knwo there are lots of other fourms out there. But some are crappy and some are pay only boards. I jsut want to have one that is open to everybody and where I can have a little power in what is discussed and talked about.

I assuem that it is not easy to setup sush a board btu at the same time I also realize it is not impossiabel either. So if you guys and girls could help get me started I would greatly appreciate it. Give me direction, provide me information or point me to the location where I can read things for myself and I will do my part to get it going.

Thanks

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:50:08 Post Subject:

It's actually not that hard. It just may cost you a little time and money (more time than money).

The forum software that BB is using is open source ("free", in lay man's terms). You can download the phpBB forum software from www.phpbb.com.

The part that may cost you money is the webhosting. You obviously will need a server to put your forum on; and more than that - you need one with the software to support it. The base software that you need to look for in a webhost is PHP and MySQL. If you want to go with the current Beta version of phpBB (phpBB-3.0-beta1), it's advanced features require a little more underlying software, but most of which is optional.

Hosts with this kind of software are generally not free, and if they are, they're slow and will give you TONS of problems. Hosting for a forum can be pretty cheap as you need only minimal space (if you disable features such as file/avatar uploads). All of the text in these posts are not stored in files, but in a database (which may or may not be included in your account quota limit, depending on your host).

I do, offer hosting and have used phpBB for years. If you want to contact me about hosting or setting up the software (even elsewhere) feel free to contact me on AIM or any other form.

EDIT: I should also mention that there are many different options for forum software, too, not just phpBB. Invision Power Board (IPB) is a common one, however requires you to purchase a license. vBulletin, too, requires a license. There are more open source forums, too, but personally, phpBB is my favorite, even above the paid ones - it just works!

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:03:06 Post Subject:

Yup to everything Blue|Fusion said... Grin

If you were serious, I might be able to help you out with hosting... Wink

All you would need is a domain name, and to be nice to me... Laughing

The control panel software on this server makes it even easier, as it will automatically install phpBB or another forum program (YA BB) which I am not all that familiar with.

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Recently I've been playing with SMF (SimpleMachine Forums) http://www.simplemachines.org/ I found this one to be one of the easiest to configure and get up and running. Think I had the basic package up and running in under 10 minutes (including creating the database, and uploading the files).

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:33:59 Post Subject:

From my experiences hosting myself and others...using cPanel or Fantastico to install software such as phpBB is a bad idea. It complicates upgrades, it removes any modifications you may ever do to your code, it's usually a month or two behind updates (even critical security updates). It's much easier to download the changed files or patch file (if you modified alot of code) and just run the update script to update the database. It keeps things cleaner and working better, as well as preventing bad habits if you do things manually and learn from it.

BeerCheeze · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:52:40 Post Subject:

What they said, except I don't really like phpBB. The forums part is fine, but the admin stuff SUCKS!

VBulletin is mucho better in my opinion. Well worth the few $$$.

Blue|Fusion · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:02:25 Post Subject:

phpBB 3.0 ACP owns vB ACP, hands down.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 12:08:52 Post Subject:

In my opinion the cPanel phpBB install is good for an initial install, and must be maintained manually beyond that (unless you do not customize it at all).

I have used the auto install to set things up and never had a problem down the road... If you haven;t noticed, the BB forum is fairly customized from stock... Laughing

Presently cPanel is a bit behind (at version 2.0.20 while 2.0.21 is current and several weeks old).

jasno999 · Rated NC-17 Joined: 17 May 2006 Posts: 122 Location: PA

Interesting. Well part of my problem is that I am in no way as technoglically advanced as all of you. I don't have the background or the knowadge base. I realyl do want to creat my own board. I want to start small but if it did work out then heck I would liek to eventually have links to larger pet stores and the such and maybe make some money from them (Advertising or via linked sales). But to start that is not my 1st goal. I jsut want to make a fun but simple borad for pet people and pet owners to talk about their pets. A place where peopel can go to get information and share information.

I understand you need a domain name and I realize you need a hosting site to put your board on. But how to find a good hosting site and how to get what you need on that site as well as gettin the board to look the way you want (I how most of it is boiler plate) is what I don't have the capability to eaisly do.

I don't mind learning but need to really figure out everyhting that is involved before I make a decision on what to do.

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

As for choosing a host, find one with a good amount of storage space and traffic (yes, you could be shut off if you go over your monthly allowed traffic/bandwith).

Next, for a forum you'll need some form of a database. MySQL is the most common, and VERY easy to setup.

For the forum software, once you get a host, get a few of the forum software that's been listed here and try each one of them out.

Some of the forum companies have demos where you can try out their admin panels to see which you like the best and how it works.

Customizing the look/feel of them is simple to a point. Many of them use Skins to change the look, and you simply load in a theme to change it. If you know Photoshop, you can usually pretty easily learn how to make your own theme (it can be timeconsuming though), or pay somebody to make one for you.

For me, personally I found SMF to be the easiest to set up and use. Only familiar with with a couple of them though.