setting up a forum

kneal6

I'm trying to help a writer/artist set up a message board. I've created one with https://www.proboards.com, but I'm not sure if that's the best option. She's mentioned paying to remove the ads from the proboards one, so she obviously doesn't mind spending a bit of money. It doesn't need to be anything fancy. It's for a project she's doing, and there's already ~2000 people signed up. Most of them probably won't be using it much, but it might end up getting quite heavy use.

Anyone got any advice/recommendations of cheap/free/good message board hosts? Also, she's in the US, so it doesn't have to be over here (although I'll probably be doing most/all of the moderation/admin).

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Quincy_3

Maybe worth a shot http://www.phpbb.com/

tomd84

I would recommend hosting your own, you could use something like https://www.phpbb.com, and get hosting from dkhosting.co.uk for £12 a year.
You can also install it automaticlly from the cpanel control you will get with the webhosting :-)


Thanks Tom :-)

T4i

try before you buy.

http://www.phpbber.com/

You can set your own FREE php forum up, admin it and see if you like. No strings, all I would say about this is if the comapny goes bust or gets bored your forum could dissapear anytime.

My m8 uses this though, its never down, been using it for 2months now. Its really easy to setup!

IvanOpinion

There are a couple of freeware and opens ource bulleting boards available but as others say you would have to host them yourself. This one comes to mind (from the team that built YABB. There is also ASP.Net Forums

Ivan

tigermatt

There are plenty forum packages around, ranging from light-weight, cheap installations such as phpBB or punBB, heading up towards the other range of the market which has to be topped by vBulletin.

If the forum isn't going to get much use when it starts and you don't think this will increase dramatically over the next 6 - 12 months, then one of the free packages will be the sort of thing you need, although it will be best to pay for hosting as free options are prone to errors, server failures, downtime etc. However, the free installations are usually less customisable and have no or dodgy templating systems etc.

If you expect the usage to increase quickly once you go live - and that will be a risk you will have to take, but look at factors such as are there similar, more popular projects, is this project unique, are the users who register going to be "one-time" users who don't visit again etc. - then vBulletin might be a good option. Even though it is quite expensive for an owned license, it is the way to go if you want to fully customise the layout whilst maintaining a fully featured, fully function forum at the core of it all. Importing from other forums to vBulletin can be done, but it is difficult and requires a special tool. It would be easier to start fresh with rather than upgrade to vBulletin at a later date.

Sorry about the length of this post but I hope it helps you make your decision!

ukbill69

The best and only one Id ever use would be https://www.vbulletin.com, same as used for this forums.