Starting a Forum,please guide me!

Hi people,

I am planning to start a new forum pretty soon. I have my format/sub-forum hierarchy planned.
What I want to know is how should one go about selecting a forum-type. I mean there is vbBullitien (I beleive forums.digitalpoint is an example for that).
What are the other types and what are the parameters to make a selection ?

Thanks

 

I'm a die hard vbulletin fan and have 4 vb sites and love the scripts it runs on as it allows you to easily add-on if need me with other hacks and such. VB allows for endless possibilities and designs as well.

However if you want to go with a free site I like invisionfree and proboards which I use as back up boards. Good luck it's a fun adventure!

 

i personally allways use phpbb for free forums

i never usually got for a sub domain for mine but not certain what effect it makes

 

Try find some forum poster

 

how are you going to get visitors to your forum and want to interact?

 

I use vbulletin for The Advisory Panel, and am extremely happy with it. It costs, but for ease of customization it's has been a joy to work with. I tried using phpbb and had trouble getting it to do what I wanted (more my problem, I'm sure, than phpbb).

One factor you don't want to overlook is the limit your web hosting places on the maximum number of sql connections one database user can have. This will place a limit on how active your forum can get before you'll have to switch hosts. Most hosts use a limit from 15 to 30, a couple I've seen don't place any limit at all. If you're getting hosting specifically for the forum, do your homework first.

Jay

 

Vbulletin is the least likely to get hacked as long as you keep the script updated.

 

Thanks for your replies guys. Does the choice of type of forum depend upon hosting service, or all service providers support all types of forums ?

 

Make sure your host gives you at least 1 mysql database. You can get away with shared hosting for a long time until things pick up then you should be able to afford a vps.

heres a good forum that deal specifically with seo for vbulletin forums.

http://www.vbulletin-faq.com/

try inviting people from other forums, making posts under different accounts to create lots of content to be spidered up, give people reasons to come and to stay, write up articles and FAQ's as posts, post lots of videos, make sections no other forums have, treat your members good

 

i use webhostingpad and phpbb.. offers me a lot of space and bandwith and so far im likin it , i just added the arcade to keep ppl happy, check it out its in my sig

 

Good luck mate! I'm doing a forum also. I use V-bulletin, it's definately worth the 1 off payment for the license.

Check out some of the topics around here for great free ways to get your website out there.

 

yeh this site has endless comments to learn from, when u think ur done reading everything about a topic... refresh the page there is always more

 

Personally I think vbulletin is overpriced. Unless you go vbulletin/vbseo out of the box, I would stick with a free forum like simple machines or phpbb until you know your forums will take off.

but, even more important than than the software is promoting user registration and interaction.

 

I realise this isn't my thread but I run a forum as well. How would you go about promoting user registration? I get the unique hits but no registrations.

 

you can always use a converter later on, I started with one of those free IPB forums, theres plenty of places that offer free forums and hosting, you just have to run their ads

 

If you don't want to pay money you can try mybb which is also great and free. But vbulletin is your best bet, it's the most professional looking and customizable and known forum software.

 

If your after a free version of vbulletin, have a look at mybb im a huge fan of it.