Start up a forum

[nasorpc]

hi guys,

a friend has asked me how she can start a forum. The honest answer is that i don't know. She wants to start some sort of a parent forum, for anyone with kids to discuss. Since a lot of forum names have already been taken, how do you go about:-

1. Setting up a forum?
2. Getting one which like hexus, starts with "forums.xxxxx" rather than "xxxxxforum"
3. How do you build a community?

Thanks for your help

[scaryjim]

Not really a straightforward answer to that.

first, you need a domain name and a way to handle the DNS for it - handling your own DNS is the easiest way to get subdomains like forum.example.com, although some domain / hosting providers will set up subdomains for you. Then you need hosting that either already includes, or allows you to add, forum software (there's a wide range of free software available for all hosting types). That means Linux or Windows Server, with databases and scripting languages installed, and probably a reasonable amount of storage. Then you need to set up the forum software, rig up the basic outline of the forum, and - possible the hardest bit - get people to start using it. If she's got a few friends who are interested it's probably worth getting them to help out as mods to start with, and they can advertise by word of mouth, but she'll also need to think about a marketing strategy to drive traffic to the forum. And it will be a lot of hard work for no return - even if she takes paying ads on the forum (and then you've got the technical issue of setting that up to deal with) they're only likely to cover the cost of the hosting etc.

The other option is to find a friend who's already into web development and see if they'll take the project on as a portfolio item (I've done one or two sites on the side for exactly that reason, soaking up the majority of the cost myself because it gives me something to show prospective clients / employers).

Either way, it's going to cost some money and some time, and be hard work, and that's before you start having to deal with spammers, 'bots, trolls, and plain bad members.

[Saracen]

hi guys,

a friend has asked me how she can start a forum. The honest answer is that i don't know. She wants to start some sort of a parent forum, for anyone with kids to discuss. Since a lot of forum names have already been taken, how do you go about:-

1. Setting up a forum?
2. Getting one which like hexus, starts with "forums.xxxxx" rather than "xxxxxforum"
3. How do you build a community?

Thanks for your help

Starting with the last. 3), .... lots of hard work over a very long time. And, of course, have an idea that isn't already adequately catered for, because if it is, you're going to find it very hard work getting a membership built up.

As for setting one up .... first you need somewhere to host it. It's technically possible to do it on your own PC, but it's fraught with problems, not least that most broadband services aren't ideal for it, some prohibit that kind of activity in their terms and conditions, and the nature of dynamic IPs makes it undesirable anyway.

So, step 1) find a hosting company and buy some sort of hosting. You need an account with :-

- support for whatever language the forum software you choose will use, probably PHP
- support for whatever database system it uses, probably MySQL.
- support for any necessary add-ons, like ImageMagic

All that's pretty conventional. Then ....

- adequate disk space and monthly bandwidth
- a stable enough server with sufficiently low contention with other users to ensure decent performance

That's doable, but depending on how busy your forum gets, can be quite expensive.

Then, choose you forum software. vBulletin is probably the optimum choice, but it's nearly US$200 for the licence. Then, upgrades to new releases will involve an upgrade fee.

Server costs could be anything from £20-£30 a year for a very low-end offering, to, well, hundreds of pounds for a decent dedicated server, support contract, and so on.

As for question 2), well, another thing you need to buy is a domain name. They vary quite a bit in price, but are anythiong from about £3 a year for a .co.uk upwards. So if you buy nasorpc.co.uk, you then control that domain.

You could set up the software so that anyone going to nasorpc.co.uk will get straight to the forums. If you have bought a hosting option that supports sub-domains, you can put the forum in what is effectively a sub-directory on the disk called "forum" and anyone going to forum.nasorpc.co.uk will get the forum.



All in all, what you've asked is quite a big question, with lots of options and alternatives, including free alternatives to vBulletin. Also, if you have nobody with the relevant experience, getting a forum up and running can involve quite a learning curve, since the first thing you'll have to learn is how to do what you need to do with the hosting account to install and configure it. It's not hard, but it's strange the first time.

But what you'll get after all that is a bog-standard forum with a bog-standard appearance. Next, you need to learn the forum software, wahtever it is, and how to use the Admin panel, the meaning of user-groups, and what happens whewn you set them up this way rather than that way, and of forum creation, the permissions system and what can be inherited and what over-ridden, and so forth. You then have a forum system where you can create the individual sections you want. But it still looks bog-standard.

Getting a forum to look non-standard starts with changing colour values, and that's easy. But then you can apply whole "skins" and templates to make it appear completely different. Lots are available, or you can develop your own. Those available run from cheap and nasty to quite good, and from free to fairly expensive. And that's just the appearance. If you want to make it do things in a different way, you can apply all sorts of patches, and again, many are free but if you want real customisation, you're either going to be hiring a programmer or doing the programming yourself.


If you're talking about a small hobby site, then a cheap hosting account and one of the "free" forums will get you going, and give you a taste of what's involved, both in terms of installing, configuring and running. If you have a more serious, long-term project in mind, then I'd suggest that the best way, somehow or other, is to get someone involved that has some idea what they're doing before you start.



EDIT .....

....

....., and be hard work, and that's before you start having to deal with spammers, 'bots, trolls, and plain bad members.

Oh yeah, and that too.

[nasorpc]

thanks for the informative advice guys. Its got me thinking if i should tell her its more headache that its worth...

[[GSV]Trig]

Depends how much time is willing to be spent on it, a website doesn't just revolve around forums its the website as a whole.

[Saracen]

Oh, and one more thing.

The biggest single secret to forum success is activity, and that requires content. Constantly updated, constantly new content. You need to provide the things for people to discuss, and you need to keep doing it. After a while, it;s like a snowball rolling downhill - it gains a momentum of it's own. But you need quite a few active, regular users before that happens, and even once it's started, you'll need to give it a push when it slows down, and that can go on for a very long time.

I don't mean to put you off, but it's not a simple exercise, and can get very time-consuming. Most forums start, get a lot of hard word, grow a bit, and then somehow stutter, stagger and die off. If you want to start one that doesn't die off, then (IMHO, of course) then you either need a very good and original idea, or to put in a lot of damned hard work, over quite a long period.

[[GSV]Trig]

Or an existing user base

[nasorpc]

what if she can join forces with another forum that does a similar topic? For example if a forum did a topic about health, then could she branch off with a specific topic?

[scaryjim]

Possible, but then it wouldn't be "her" forum, it'd be a subtopic within that forum, a bit like the support forums here at Hexus. She;d have to talk to the owners / managers of the existing forum and present her idea, but really there'd then be nothing to stop them just nicking the idea and adding their own specific sub-forum for that topic.

What I'm not clear on is why she wants to start a forum in the first place? Is it simply because she's not found one she's comfortable joining & participating in, or does she have other motivations (commercial exploitation being the most obvious one that springs to mind!)?

[nasorpc]

nah its not commercial..at least not at the moment...its more of a hobby.

[[GSV]Trig]

Just because its not commercial doesnt mean it cant make money, not sure if they still do it but ebay have a click through system where they would give you say 1p per click thru, so you could define your search terms and then add it as a redirected link on the forums, or theres the affiliate link in ads at the top option, might not generate a wage for someone like but would be enough to make the site free essentially..

[nasorpc]

Your right mate. But to be honest she wants to do it, because she has a lot more time on her hands.

[[GSV]Trig]

Well if shes got a lot of time on her hands then theres no reason you cant set up the initial thing for her, then she can have a local copy on her machine and mess with the layout and stuff and then upload new versions of stuff as she goes.

Wordpress and phpBB would be the places to start imo..

[nasorpc]

wordpress is more for blogging. I think phpbb might be ok. Can anyone recommend:-

1. Any other forum software?
2. ISP/Hosting site?

[Saracen]

.... Can anyone recommend:-

1. Any other forum software?
2. ISP/Hosting site?

1) Not really. Tried several, years ago. Only use VB these days.

2) What sort of budget?

[b0redom]

2. ISP/Hosting site?

Host it yourself in Amazon EC2/VPC?