how to create a forum website??

[howren]

I want to help my niece to create a simple forum site, where she can discuss her school work with other students.

How is it done? Is it impossible to develop by a 15 year old kid?

[paulhiles]

I'm sure there are lots of 15 yr olds running forums. Take a look at phpBB (the software used to create the WebProWorld forum!). I've heard people claim it can all be set up in around 30 mins, this might be a slight exaggeration, but it's certainly one of the more user-friendly and well supported of all the various bulletin board software.

A lot may depend on the web hosting you choose. If you end up with a Windows server running IIS, then check out Snitz forums, it's an easy to install ASP discussion forum software (pretty fast and lightweight).

Paul

[howren]

My niece would like to have a forum of her own.

I notice you recommend phpBB or Snitz. I have not done anything yet. Am trying to make sense first, how things are done.

My question is, if I installed this phpBB on the Yahoo hosting server Geocities ($9), will that forum work, I mean operate ok like any forum? Simply install, configure and walla - a ready to use forum.

Anyone? Thanks.

[paulhiles]

I've not heard of anyone using Yahoo! Geocities to host a forum. My previous experience of Geocities is they're reluctant to allow any scripts to run.

The two sites below claim to offer FREE phpBB hosting:
http://www.phpbbweb.com/
http://www.free-phpbb.com/home.php
Although I'm sure most folk would be recommending a more robust hosting solution.

Maybe WPW members can offer their suggestions for budget-priced phpBB hosting?

Paul

[garyrcanuck]

Hi
This is what I use.Excellent,about $10 month ,hosted. check it out

http://www.invisionpower.com/
Bye
Garyrcanuck

[MarkGatESS]

Don't know exactly how involved you want to get into a forum, but the forum/message boards that were mentioned before require you to pay for a hosting service AND said hosting service would have to allow you to install and/or upload server-side applications & scripts to operate. This could end up costing you alot - especially if you're already paying for internet access either through AOL or a broadband service like DSL or Cable (if you're using one of these services, you're already paying alot, why pay more?)

Anyway, if you're just looking for an easy to use/no-brainer board, try one of the free boards offered online. I use ProBoards myself (http://www.proboards.com). It's not too bad. You do have to put up with a banner ad across the top of it, but you can pretty much control just about everything with the setup. You can make it so that people can't post unless they "join" the board (to control those "guests" that like to post advertising on open forums). It also gives you a subdomain off of their domain (i.e.- YOUR-NAME.proboards.com).

This way, they host it and have all the tools you need to run & maintain the forum and it won't cost you a dime.

Although, one bit of advice: be cautious of HyperBoards.com - it's a free message board service like ProBoards.com, but I had problems with them in the past. The advertisers they allowed on their system were pushing spyware and trojans down on users who accessed the board so I quit their service.

I haven't had any incidents of that with ProBoards.com, but you should always keep an eye on your system anyway. Many websites today have advertising that will push down Spyware applications & keyloggers. Make sure that, whatever route you take, your anti-virus software is up to date AND that you have a spyware protection/detection application or two on your system ("AdAware" & "Spybot Search & Destroy" are two highly-recommended anti-spyware applications available free on the Net - search for them on www.download.com)

[paulhiles]

the forum/message boards that were mentioned before require you to pay for a hosting service AND said hosting service would have to allow you to install and/or upload server-side applications & scripts to operate.

Hi Mark, welcome to WebProWorld! The "phpbbweb" link I provided above simply allows a user to set up a forum for free (using a named subdomain of your choice on their site).
There's no catch, no monthly fees, and you can choose from over 250 templates to customise the board's appearance.

And no, I have no affiliation with the site! :o)

Paul

[z06vette]

At $10/mo, I host .com sites for that and it includes PHP, MySQL and PHBB, a lot better use of $10 and you get rid of slow and bandwidth bound Geocities

[MarkGatESS]

Originally Posted by paulhiles

... The "phpbbweb" link I provided above simply allows a user to set up a forum for free (using a named subdomain of your choice on their site).
There's no catch, no monthly fees, and you can choose from over 250 templates to customise the board's appearance.

OK, didn't know that. When I had gone on the phpBB website, it only had a free, downloadable application that you had to install on a webserver yourself. I didn't know that anyone had a free service that uses the phpBB code.

Thanks for the info! :)

To the thread-starter, there's another option for you.

[garyrcanuck]

Hey Paul you just saved me $10 a month at least. I just signed up for PHPPB from the site you mentioned. It took about a minute & I am up & running,hosted forum-Free
Bye
Garyrcanuck