Starting an Online Forum

ThemeOne

Could anyone advise me of the best way to start an online forum please?

It's intended to be an online community for people in the same line of work, to share experiences, contacts, etc.

Thank you!

bod1467

Step 1: Google the subject matter and check that someone else hasn't already done it

InsideInsurance

Step one, decide what functionality you want your forum to have.

Step two, review the different forum software out there to find which one best works for you. This site and many others run vBulletin but its a paid for solution where as there are many free ones too.

Step three, get a webhost that supports the solution you've chosen.

Step four, set up the forum on your webost

Step five, work out where you are going to actually get visitors from, get them to post and get the community feeling created. Its very easy to setup the forum itself, its exceptionally hard to make it work.


In the real world step 5 would be done first, but online everything is so easy that the planning bit is actually always done last.

chunter

I used https://www.phpbb.com which was one of the cpanel softaculous installations.
Took me ages trying to figure out how to stop the spam.
The moderator's job is not an easy one...

bod1467

InsideInsurance wrote: »

In the real world step 5 would be done first, but online everything is so easy that the planning bit is actually always done last.

Exactly. That's why I only had Step 1.

InsideInsurance

bod1467 wrote: »

Exactly. That's why I only had Step 1.

I wanted to add the other steps to stop the tail wagging the dog as far too many do everything backwards and buy the hosting before deciding on their technology etc