View Single Post - How do you create a FORUM? Like this one.

Hellfire · Rated XXX

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.