Creating a Forum Like This?

[max]

I know you should have traffic and content before you start trying to attract visitors to a forum but I just want more information on how to create a forum like this. I know I can't do it with sbi until content 2.0 comes out, but if I was just using a regular host, what's the process?

[lisa]

Hey Max,

First of all, you need a standard host that allows MYSQL (almost all standard hosts provide that these days). You also need to create a database at your web host. It sounds complicated but it's really easy. I just logged into my hosting account and followed the instructions (and I am no techy!). Took about 2 minutes.

Once that is all done, you simply edit the control panel file that is provided when you buy the vbulletin forum script. There are about 10-15 variables you need to complete/edit (you can ask your host if you're not sure of some).

Then you just use an FTP program to upload the files to your web server, and your forum is ready to go. It sounds complicated but if you have a basic understanding of FTP-ing then it's no biggie. At worst you'll need to ask your host about some of the variables this script asks for but they are usually familiar with vbulletin since this is such a popular forum script.

Plus vbulletin has a forum for customers and anything I had questions on I got answered by searching their forums. I will admit I've installed other boards before so that helped but it's really not too difficult. It's amazing at what PHP can do and the customization options for this forum are amazing. I haven't even explored most of them yet. Hope that helps!

[webdev]

Lisa, you pretty much answered everything. I like to add that if you are looking for a free forum which is almost equivalent to vbulliten in features check out http://www.phpbb.com. But vbulliten is the preferred choice for everyone since it offers support. I think you get a licensee for ~$85. check it out here http://www.vbulletin.com/order/.

In order to set up phpbb.com, you need to download the lasted phpbb. 3.0 version, ftp it to directory where you want to install the forum (for example if you want the to forum to link to www.yourdomain.com/forums., then make a directory called "forums" on your plublic_html folder and ftp the files there) and follow the install instruction on your hosting server.

http://www.phpbb.com/support/documen...stallation.php

I think most hosting companies have tools or guides which can auto install third party tools like forums on your website. You will have to search your control panel to dig out all those features.

[lisa]

Good point, webdev. I forgot about phpbb. I actually used them once before and they were even easier to install than vbulletin if I remember correctly.

[ppcFanatic]

Lisa, did you program the URLs to be search engine friendly? I notice the thread paths are static. Is that an option with vBulletin?

[lisa]

Hey ppcFanatic,

Yes, I just bought a plug-in that turns the dynamically generated (PHP) links into static HTML pages so the SE's can finally spider it. Me program?? Heck no! LOL Thank goodness for plugins!!

[webdev]

That's a good point you made lisa. SE don't sipider page with uri made of query strings so its good turn the uri into a proper readable uri.

For example:
a url www.example.com/?article=12345 could be turned into www.example.com/article/12345.html which is easier for the SE spider to index, otherwwise it will get missed.

Well, if any one intersted to know how that is done. You could do that in the .htaccess file (sititng on your root directory) using a mod_rewite rules to turn any query string uris to proper URIs, given that you are running your application an apache web server.

[lisa]

Yep you got it, webdev! And from my limited understanding of mod_rewrites that's exactly what this script does (I actually understood what you wrote about mod_rewrites... SCARY! ) And I could even choose the formatting of the URLs through the control panel. It was pretty easy to use for a non techy like myself.

I'm glad you're here, webdev 'cause I may have some more php questions for you down the line.

[webdev]

It will be exciting answering php questions

I'm just gonan post the mod_rewrite rule that can be used to change url. i haven't tested this thou.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^\article\(*)\.html$ /?article=$1 [L]

so basically a url http://www.example.com/?article=123456 will be converted to http://www.example.com/article/123456.html by apache before it shows up on the browser address bar.

hmmm. wouldn't be nice if write tutorials on mod_rewrite as well on my website

[webdev]

Yes, I just bought a plug-in that turns the dynamically generated (PHP) links into static HTML pages so the SE's can finally spider it. Me program?? Heck no! LOL Thank goodness for plugins!!

I didn't relaize you had to buy the plugin. I think it would be cool, if i make a free vbulletin plugin for converting URIs. I'm gonna add this to my to-do list for my new tutorial site. php plugins.

[lisa]

Yep...this board wasn't cheap. LOL The standard vbulletin script is not SEO friendly. I had to buy vbseo (the plugin) and I just installed it yesterday. It has a ton of cool features like as the Admin I can see what external sites are linking to each individual thread and a ton of other cool things.

You would clean up if you could come up with some kind of script and offered much cheaper than vbseo. A lot of webmasters complain about the price of vbseo but then again no one has really come out with anything that can compete as far as I'm concerned. There was a free script out there, but I just felt more comfortable with vbseo after talking with some other webmasters that use it.

And the cool thing is it merges very nicely into the vbulletin Admin panel and you can tell a lot of work went into it.

[Mary]

I am trying to find out the main differences between these two types of forums. I am familiar with vbulletin from using it, but am looking for a way to create a forum that is very secure. I want to determine who can visit it and keep the content from being available to the public. I also need to make it look like the site that it will be attached to. Any advice is helpful.

Also, i see vbulletin used in a lot of places and they all look the same. I'm wondering if this is because users don't have much control over what the site looks like??

Mary

[lisa]

Hi and welcome, Mary

I believe you can do all of what you want with vbulletin. It's secure and I believe there is an option to manually approve new registrations to control who becomes a member. And if you don't want it visible to the public then there is a feature to only allow members to view the threads/discussions.

As far as design, you have complete control. Most people either don't want to go through the steps to incorporate it into their design or don't know how. It does take some tweaking and adding HTML/CSS to the footer/header templates of the forum but it is completely do-able and the "Admin panel" tells you where to edit the code to edit the header, body and footer of the forum. You can also change the colors of the forums if you'd like.

Vbulletin also has a nice members forum you can use if you want help with customization and other options. It's a very powerful piece of software and I bet I haven't used half of its features.

[Mary]

Great. Thanks Lisa!

[GreenThumb]

Hey Lisa, just curious. We may be buying one of these for our church site for various groups to discuss different events. We have someone to install/setup the board but he will not be able to administer it for us all the time, someone else who is non technical will be maintaining it. Would you say you need to have programming experience to maintain the board? Like when you added the new forums, etc? Is that complicated?