Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[spurno]

basically this is a question for the admins.how did you go about starting the forum? who do you approach,where do you get the software,what was the first thing you had to do to get the forum up and running?.

[Crazydad]

basically this is a question for the admins.how did you go about starting the forum? who do you approach,where do you get the software,what was the first thing you had to do to get the forum up and running?.

[/highlight]


Ask questions like these

[spurno]

did i put the questions incorrectly?

[hotel21]

OOF was created around a year ago when a number of like minded people decided to group together to produce a place where other Omega owners could get correct information, at no cost, to allow them to keep their cars running correctly without paying dealer prices and have a laugh and a bit of mature banter at the same time.  The exact ins and outs of its origins and history has no relevance to where we are today.  Suffice to say the forum has grown significantly into a community due to the strength and quality of its members.

Personally, I have no knowledge of how to create such a forum.  I simply assist where I can to keep it going, as do others.  A web search may provide a ready answer to your questions on forum creation if you need it on the hurry up!!

[Entwood]

Have a read here ....   http://www.yabbforum.com/information.php

or here.....   http://www.phpbb.com

or here ...    http://www.howtostartaforum.com

or .....  http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=how+to+start+a+forum&btnG=Search&meta=

HTH  

[matt]

To get an empty forum up and running is quite straight forward:

1. Register a domain
2. Set up a server (Your own Linux box running over broadband), or arrange for web hosting
    Dreamhost http://www.dreamhost.com/r.cgi?92176 are pretty good at the cheaper end of the scale, and have a one button install of some forum software.   yabbforum is the one they use here, phpbb seems to be one of the most popular, and there are dozens of others.

3. Spend an evening setting up and configuring the forum.

Job done!

[TheBoy]

3. Spend an evening setting up and configuring the forum.

And the rest of your life nursing the bloody thing into continuous running  


In all seriousness, the first thing to do is check is that there is not already a suitable forum already out there for the subject you wish to cover.  No point setting up a new forum if there is already somethign suitable.

Once you decide that you do need to start one, then the next step depends on your IT skills.  If you want to stick with Windows, something like Community Server works well, and is initially free for non profit organisations.  More choice with Linux based forum software, but a few extra complications.  Many shared hosting companies do not like forum software due to the resources it uses.

phpbb in particular needs constant fixes applied due to flaws, but remember that it does need security patches applied - you are holding people's personal details (such as email addresses), you have a responsibility to do all you can to keep it as secure as possible.

[STMO123]

Dont even think about starting a forum unless you are prepared to put in the hours. The admin team on here in general, and The Boy in particular, work very hard to keep things together. Think of it as say......buying a dog.  'A forum is for life, not just till you get fed up with it'

Did I just say something nice about Jaime? Yuk!

[TheBoy]

Dont even think about starting a forum unless you are prepared to put in the hours. The admin team on here in general, and The Boy in particular, work very hard to keep things together. Think of it as say......buying a dog.  'A forum is for life, not just till you get fed up with it'

Did I just say something nice about Jaime? Yuk!

I think you just called me a dog...  :-?

[cem_devecioglu]

 'A forum is for life, not just till you get fed up with it'
!

Agreed ...No escape from that...also must be kept legal everytime..

[holey head]

 

[omegalord]

I have my own forum , and went with www.lunarpages.com , got a very good deal and with it being american i get a hell of alot more speed/space for less money than a uk company. Plus it has fantastico software which has SMF as an easy install (which in my opinion is better than yabb as it isnt written in perl , which is an ancient code ) ANd it comes with coffecup software free which includes a very good ftp server and other tools

From there its very easy to customize it all.

HTH

Matt

[TheBoy]

I have my own forum , and went with www.lunarpages.com , got a very good deal and with it being american i get a hell of alot more speed/space for less money than a uk company. Plus it has fantastico software which has SMF as an easy install (which in my opinion is better than yabb as it isnt written in perl , which is an ancient code ) ANd it comes with coffecup software free which includes a very good ftp server and other tools

From there its very easy to customize it all.

HTH

Matt

Urgh! Someone said Fantastico

YaBB, for what it does, is pretty reasonable code. Perl isn't my favourite (but then if I was coding from scratch, I'd probably go asp or aspx), but servicable. And fast.  YaBB's deficencies are its feature set, but is coded in such as way that it is easy to modify...

I have said a number of times that I wouldn't have picked YaBB myself, but its actually a very good product - and the more you dig around in its guts, the more you realise its strengths (and weaknesses).

[omegalord]

I do think yabb is good. And yabb 2.2 should be amazing. I do prefer smf, hate vbulletin.

Its the same with anything, there is good and bad in everything and one persons good point is another persons bad point.

Matt

[TheBoy]

I do think yabb is good. And yabb 2.2 should be amazing. I do prefer smf, hate vbulletin.

Its the same with anything, there is good and bad in everything and one persons good point is another persons bad point.

Matt

I agree, it needs research into what your requirements are.  No one forum is better than others, just some are more suitable.

Yes, I think YaBB is pretty good, though somewhat limited feature wise.  2.2 has been due 'in a week' for about 2 months now.  Not sure if we will rush to implement - the code I've tested doesn't offer us anything significant...