Starting an online forum

Hi,

I am looking into starting an online forum (like DigitalPoint but in a different topic area).

Where can I get free or cheap software to help me? I have so far found
http://www.MyBB.com
https://www.webwiz.co.uk
http://www.phorum.org
http://www.instantasp.co.uk/products/instantforum/

Any ideas?

Matt.

 

Use the software this forum is using: https://xenforo.com/

 

You can try this Matt and I hope it works. http://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/5-best-forum-plugins-for-wordpress/

 

Or you can also have this : http://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/best-5-wordpress-forum-plugins-and-themes/ but I think they are already in your list.

 

Thanks qwikad.com,

I like the idea... do you know how much MySQL work is required to install and operate the forum with https://xenforo.com/?

I presume members accounts are managed automatically using a MySQL database but how much coding do I need to do to make it possible? Plus I presume peoples' posts are stored within a MySQL database. Is this easy to code up?

I have briefly looked at the Xenforo website and it looks pretty good. $140 per annum for their licence sounds very reasonable too!

I look forward to your reply,

Matt.

 

I presume you can find all the answers in their manual: https://xenforo.com/help/manual/

and/or on their community forum: https://xenforo.com/community/#xenforo-community-support.22

 

Qwikad.com,

Do you know (and if so, can you tell me?) where DigitalPoint is hosted?

I have written in a the forum at xenforo.com and they tell me GoDaddy, which I currently use, may not be great for using their forum.

Has DigitalPoint ever had a crash and lost posts in the forum? I am looking for a reliable host.

Matt.

 

Digitalpoint own all of their own servers and hardware.

 

Do you know how much it would cost to have my own server and hardware??

 

The prices will range dramatically. You can search them on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...C1.A0.H0.Xweb+server&_nkw=web+server&_sacat=0

Before you go that route, consider a good web hosting provider. Owning your own server can be time consuming. You will need to be able to do maintenance and tech support and have a decent understanding of the software you will be running. Of course all those things can be learned over time.

 

Yep, xenforo is great to stert with. My first was forumotion.com. Maybe you'd like it too, depends on your tastes.

 

Do you have any experience with ranking a new forum? To begin with there will be no content in the forum so how should I go about promoting the new forum?

 

Mybb is easy to set up as well and its free. just so you know though, forums are the hardest to make it busy. maybe you will be interested to buy an existing one.

 

if i used Mybb and the website forum did well, is it easy to then move to another forum? Or would I have to start the forum posts from scratch all over again?


Matt.

 

I have used xenforo and I must tell you that vbulletin is still the best out there.

 

Yes. There is a plugin they call merge. and you can shift to xenforo/vb later.

 

MyBB isn't bad. With a forum though, you're gonna have to take visitors and members from other similar forums. This is the difficult part of running a forum. You'll need to offer something unique and original

 

I would use any of the following solid free ones:
1) SMF: http://www.simplemachines.org/
2) Vanilla: http://vanillaforums.org/
3) PHPbb: https://www.phpbb.com/

That's all you need! They have a large community with lots of plugins!
All the best!

 

Vanilla if you want to go for something free.

vB or Xenforo if you want to invest in something substantial.

 

I would love to hear your reasoning behind this claim.
What is it that makes vbulletin better then xf or ipb, and what version of vbulletin?

Thanks