How do I start a forum?

[Jazzy]

One of the forums I'm on is switching some things up, and a member has hinted that perhaps I could start one. This may be an opportunity for me to get some ready made traffic.

What is the cheapest/easiest way to get one going? What issues do I need to consider?

[lisa]

Hey Jazzy

I'm a bit confused. What do you mean by ready-made traffic? Is the person going to turn the forum and its traffic over to you along with the hosting account, etc?

[Jazzy]

Well, the owner of the forum is switching it from a format like this one to more of a my space type thing where you have personal pages and join groups, etc.

Some of the members aren't happy about it and want an alternate place to go. That is what I meant by ready made traffic. That I may already have some active posters to keep it going. But I would have to get the software, hosting, etc. on my own. (I honestly have no idea what is needed.)

I am still trying to determine if there is enough interest, but I want to be ready just in case there is. I have a forum in the plans down the line, but without a boost such as this one, I don't yet have enough traffic to support it.

[lisa]

Ahhh, I see. Well, the first thing you'd need is a domain name and hosting. I'd recommend getting the domain from godaddy.com and hosting at hostgator.com.

Once you have that, if you want a board like this one you need to buy a vbulletin.com license ($160). After you buy the license you will download the files that create the board and you'll need to setup a database with your web host (Hostgator's support can help you with this). After your database is setup then you need to upload the vbulletin files to your hosting account and configure a few things.

The vbulletin forum will have instructions but you still need a basic understanding of uploading files, etc. Which is not very difficult once you get the hang of it.

The reason I suggest Hostgator is their support is very good and you can call a toll free number to speak with someone and they usually answer on the first or second ring and no crazy phone trees!

And if you don't want to pay for vbulletin you can use a free board like phpbb.com. The same rules apply when it comes to installing it. You still need to upload and configure the forum files.

[Jazzy]

Wow! As a non techie person can I do all of this?

What are the advantages of vbulliten over phpbb? What about ubbthreads?

You are with hostgator and godaddy, aren't you? Let me know so I can go through your affiliate links.

I HATE phone trees. That alone sold me right there.

Do I still need a new domain name if I tie it back to my SBI site using infin it?

[lisa]

LOL, yeah I hate phone trees too.

I wasn't a technical person either when I launched my first forum, but I just had to fumble through until I learned. You can do it!

I haven't read up much on infinit but I would do this completely separate from SBI! because I believe infinit just redirects to the domain and doesn't provide the hosting platform you need to actually install and host the forum on your account. That could get messy and confusing.

You need a regular host that allows MySQL, PHP, etc. SBI! doesn't allow all that as of yet. I am actually not an affiliate with godaddy but thanks for asking. My hostgator link is www.2createawebsite.com/hostgator

Maybe someone else can speak about UBBthreads. I don't know much about them compared to vbulletin but it looks pretty similar. But I do know that vbulletin is much more robust than phpbb (free). With vbulletin you have so many customization and admin features. The admin panel at vbulletin allows you to do soooo much. You can create groups, private forums, mass delete users, create new usergroups, modify numerous permissions for your members, etc. The options are endless and I haven't used hardly any of them.

The vbulletin forum that you see here at websitebabble is pretty much "out of the box." I haven't done much to customize it other than my logo, background color, etc. All the customizations are done from the Admin panel that you'll have access to. This is where you change the colors, set permissions, etc.

[Jazzy]

Thanks Lisa!

Since I plan on having a forum eventually, I think I'm going to get the forum up and running, and then just announce it when the time seems right. Even if it's not until down the road when I have more traffic.

[lisa]

Sounds like a plan. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Jazzy]

Lisa, for hostgator am I looking at webhosting? Is this a hard drive that will be at my house? How do I know what package I need?

I am sorry to ask all these questions, but I looked at the website and it is like reading a foreign language. What exactly IS hostgator?

[lisa]

LOL, no problem.

Hostgator is your host. It's sort of like SBI! but no domain included and you don't get all the marketing help and website building (templates, etc.).

No hard drive needed. Everything is located on Hostgator's servers. Basically you are paying them to house your web files and provide your email accounts (email@yourdomain.com). Start out with the smallest/cheapest package for now. You can always upgrade later and it's hassle free.

Remember, this is nothing like SBI! so you are pretty much given the space a welcome email and you're pretty much on your own. That's why I always suggest that people who do not use SBI! have some kind of web publishing software like Dreamweaver, CoffeCup, Nvu (free). Because in order to publish your content having software helps.

Now for the forum, you won't need software. You'll just have to upload/save the forum files to your hosting account. But if you plan on building a regular web site in addition to the forum, then you definitely would want to look into some web software.

[Jazzy]

So I buy the domain first and then the hosting? Or the other way around?

My website is www.successful-homeschooling.com and my blog is www.successful-homeschooling.blogspot.com.

What domain name should I use for the forum?

[Jazzy]

Lisa, did you customize the colors of website babble on your own?

[Alan]

IIs there no way one of your long term regular users could be given the means to at least hide this crap from view until you have time to deal with it?

This place is too good to have to suffer the likes of that...

If there's something I can do such as search the vBulletin board for you for a way to stop it, say the word and I'll give it some time.

[lisa]

Originally Posted by Jazzy

Lisa, did you customize the colors of website babble on your own?

Jazzy, I just noticed this never got answered. Yes, I customized the colors of the forum through the vbulletin admin panel. I also customized my own buttons "Reply to Thread", etc. in PhotoShop to match the color scheme.

Originally Posted by Alan

IIs there no way one of your long term regular users could be given the means to at least hide this crap from view until you have time to deal with it?

This place is too good to have to suffer the likes of that...

There is an option to put all posts in a moderation queue before they are displayed but due to the increased activity of this forum, that would be a disadvantage to legit members and create more work in the end. I just need to appoint moderators. That will at least get rid of this garbage faster. I am continuing to research plugins/hacks. So far, all the ones I've tried are buggy or don't do exactly what I want/need. I know it's very annoying and I appreciate your concern. I am working on it though.

[Alan]

Yep, I see your point about the queue thing causing problems for legitimate users. You'd think the developers would give this problem a higher priority than they seem to be doing.

Anyway, I wish you luck sorting that out. For now we'll just have to be careful when the kids are around...