Urgent help required. Adding forums to website?

pfpf

hello.

i am looking for some advice/help regarding adding a forums to my website.

actually i only need my webspace to be used as a forums for the time being.

i like the MSE format that you hit on the forums landing page so that would do

i know nothing - very little about web site stuff. but i have manged to get myself some hosting/domain and a basic website up and running.

up to now i have only used frontpage.

is forum software free? how can i get it/add it? any and all help and advice to get started will be greatly appreciated.

MercilessKiller

forums are usually php based. I think this forum is run using PHPBB though I may be mistaken!

Either way you need to be able to program in PHP (not advanced programming but at least being able to follow PHPBB tutorials!)

Definitely can't do them in front page I'm afraid! You download all the php files of the skin, and then basically install it! You need php available on your web hosting too.

EDIT: This might help:
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/phpbb/index.htm

lotto-dreamer

You can create your own forum for free on

http://www.proboards.com/index.html

This is the one my son used for venting his frustration with a Mac computer in 2002 (http://www.electric-chicken.co.uk/itoilet.html) This was in 2002 - before he had any knowledge of PHP etc. He has since got rid of his forum/guestbook because it ended up being a forum for spammers - but initially it held some lively debates and worked quite well.

If you don't want to go down the PHP route this could be the answer

MercilessKiller

YUp lotto-dreamer is right

PHP is also good though due to the fact that you can literally do absolutely anything with it as the code is on your computer lol! But the option from lotto is good as well for ease of use!

richt71

pfpf wrote:

hello.

i am looking for some advice/help regarding adding a forums to my website.

actually i only need my webspace to be used as a forums for the time being.

i like the MSE format that you hit on the forums landing page so that would do

i know nothing - very little about web site stuff. but i have manged to get myself some hosting/domain and a basic website up and running.

up to now i have only used frontpage.

is forum software free? how can i get it/add it? any and all help and advice to get started will be greatly appreciated.

You've got 3 choices really...get someone design a forum within your website (costly), use forum software you can purchase (theres lots - google it) or link from your website to one of the free forums you can set up for your members.

colin79666

MercilessKiller wrote:

forums are usually php based. I think this forum is run using PHPBB though I may be mistaken!

actually its running VB - but that's not free unlike PHPBB :doh:

once you get past the initial uploading (usually via ftp) and install then running a php powered forum is really easy due to the admin panels available on all the top forums systems

Keldin

PHPBB is free and fairly easy to set up and use.
Who hosts your website? Some host have phpbb or other forums available for automatic installation. All the ones I've used have it available
If they don't its still free all you need is MySql which hopefully your host provides as well (they usually provide at least 1 MySql database.
Basically the MySql database hold everything specific to your forum - all the posts, private messages, topics, user accounts etc. PHPBB is the framework that puts it all together and make it display as a webpage. If you have the database you can take it to any other website and restore it to a forum there (it sounds like you may be using it elsewhere later)

Installing PHPBB youself involves uploading a bunch of files and folders to a folder on your website via ftp. You then go to a specific web address that takes you to a page that you just uploaded and shows you a form that you fill out. Filling these out creates the database in MySql and sets the basics up. Everything else is done via webpages so its pretty easy to learn and PHPBB have some helpful forums them selves.

PM me or post here if you want some more info or help.

K