How to start a forum

[hrishi]

I had a good Experience working and Administrating with Simple Machine Forums.They are pretty easy and well styled for Editing and modifications and get installed easily.

You will get enough of required plugins , themes and addons for the forum.

Its fast and simple , yet features lots of qualities and is more like what a Forum /Bulletin Board should be. i.e. Focus on posts and Threads.

Plus its free of cost.

The only problem I had was with initial 2.x version of it , while creating a new thread.But it seems to have resolved by now.

Compared to SMF , PhpBB3 seemed a little complex and heavy to me.

VBulletin is the best one out there , when it comes to premium BBoards , and its worth it.!

 

[Rahul++]

Get a hosting (with cpanel) + domain. You can install phpBB and other community board applications via CPanel. If you are going for a free board then go for MyBB, pretty easy to manage.

 

[ivhere]

I am also thinking about starting a forum. But confused between VB and IPB. Which one should I buy?

I have heard that VB is going downhill after v4 and also worried about IPB server uses.

Can't decide anything, suggestions needed!

 

[avi]

^IPB !

 

[ivhere]

^IPB !

Is IPB a resource hog as compared to VB? Since I am currently on sheared hosting.

 

[JuGGa]

IPB and VB has benefits of their own.But VB's best version is 3.8.

 

[hrishi]

TO Ivhere - ^I would not give a second thought for VB , if I were on Shared hosting and if it was the first time I was starting a Community.

I have not used IPB communities a lot , since most of the forums I browse or Log in except TE , are powered by VB. So I guess , it has more plugins and bigger support group.

THe most important thing I would be looking forward while starting a new Forum would be the SEO capabilities the BB software has to offer. Since I need more and more users , as Forum is nothing w/out members.

So choose wisely.!!

Hrishi.

 

[ranjan2001]

All you need is available here, they earn from ads but give you free service.

They have many features & offer IPB & phpBB based forums ready to roll in mins.

http://www.forumer.com/

 

[neojjjk]

If you want a free one choose mybb .

 

[major9]

MyBB is much better than phpBB.

 

[jyotsna]

for a forum posting all u need to ve is a domain name..
sign up on top ten forum sites and start posting threads and more..
happy posting...

 

[Gannu]

for a forum posting all u need to ve is a domain name..
sign up on top ten forum sites and start posting threads and more..
happy posting...

Avoid SMS lingo on the forums please! All your posts seem to have them.