Forum

[Legends]

Hi

Is anyone running a forum in conjunction with an actinic site, if so can you post me a link so I can have a look.

Any one who is can you recomend software etc.

how easy is it to set up and all those type questions.

Any info would be helpful.

Thanks

[Hatticus]

Does your webhost have PHP and MYSQL ? 'cos if so.. then this is top stuff....

phpbb2

http://www.phpbb.com/

Unzip download install.. ftp up, change permissions on couple of directories (instructions within.. and help forums)... enter passwords etc... then click install...and follow instructions

Then spend many a happy hour messing around with colour schemes, naming forums etc.

From looking at your site...You'll manage it just fine .. as long as your host offers necessities

I would probably install as separate stand.. then link to it from your actinic site

...

edit:

Many themes out there too .. e.g. http://lotronline.decipher.com/forum/

[wjcampbe]

If you want an open source solution, have a look at Yabb (Yet another bulletin board). Very easy to set up and maintain.

I'm still running v1.4 and talking to myself - v 2.0 is now available.

[added]No database required!![/added]

[Jim Riley]

We use Snitz; SQL server or Access DB; free; superby developer community.

www.tutor2u.net/forum/

Excellent way of building relevant community and prompting sales

www.snitz.com

Jim

[george]

http://www.footballheaven.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl

The above is proof that the Yabb board is not too difficult to set up. An unfinished project.

There are a good number of free boards that would allow you to set up asap, no webspace needed either. Like this one...

http://footballheaven.proboards3.com/

[Jan]

We use Snitz as well, it is just lovely, easy to use, it just works ... however, our version is only available for ASP so you need hosting that supports this.

Cheers,

[Legends]

Thanks all

Certainly some major food for thought here - I wonder - has any one been able to quantify the benefits to their site from running a forum.

I can see the major advantage of promoting your site to all forum visitors - but how do you stop others promoting their similar sites on your forum?

Thanks again for your suggestions- most helpful

Cheers

[Jim Riley]

We block/ban anyone who misuses our forum for commercial purposes - after a gentle warning of course.

Difficult to quantify the direct commercial benefit. However, I'm convinced that a well-run and relevant forum certainly helps build search engine recognition.

Jim

[Hatticus]

as the forum owner/admionistrator.. you have rights to edit/delte/block/ban etc etc.

If you have other community members who you can trust (after a while), you can give them rights to do the same (or some of the same) for you. Promote people to administrators and/or moderators,.

phpbb2 is open source and free, with an excellent support community. Use it for every site I install where they want a forum. I love it.

However, you will need to ensure that your webhost has both php and mysql on your server.

[Hatticus]

here's an example of an acatalog site with forum.

Rather succesful too... started off as just a little community of people interested in enhancing their computers by "overclocking" them and adding flashy lights here and there...

Now.. well... it still is, except that..... well.. they have 14,500 forum members...... plus I should imagine their turnover is a little higher now

www.overclockers.co.uk

They use Vbulletein forums (same as we are using here, which is a commercial option bulletin board)

www.vbulletin.com

[dysonco]

Another vote here for phpbb, I'veset several of these up, very straight forward and a very robust and feature filled final forum.

[GrahamL]

Certainly some major food for thought here - I wonder - has any one been able to quantify the benefits to their site from running a forum.

I asked a similar question a while back and got a different take on the pro's & con's... this thread might be worth a read on possible negatives - it certainly put me off the idea for now

Though I'm still tempted to try it soon maybe!

Graham