How to set up a "massive" forum using vBulletin

Hi,

i am planning to use 1 vBulletin license for a big site that has a general overall theme but will have many sub-sections.

i want an entry page that will point visitors to the various forums based on their needs.

for example if it is www.all-you-need-to-know-about-sports-mega-forum.com
i want to have a landing page to have clickable icons such as basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, etc that will take the visitor to the clicked section (ie tennis forms, or baseball forums), but it all will be on one forum/license. the other forums will be collapsed, but available if chosen but the clicked/intended forum will open up in full.

how do i get this done? is it doable?
please provide any examples, if you know; or general concepts


thanks
siteseer

 

Don't give yourself too many boards on your site, you'll find that it's too server intensive and not recommended by the vB team.

Though, if you want to have various skins based upon category, these can be set via your Admin Control Panel. Just load any desired themes, then under your Forum Manager click on the main category and select the desired theme.

However, all must keep yoru main site logo, and all must be under the same domain. If you plan on tweaking beyond that you may need to contact vB, as you could be infringing on the license agreement.

I am not sure how to minimize the other categories via a link though, in fact I'm not even sure if that is possible. You can however, just link to the given Category, which would give the custom skin, and show only the sub-forums of that section... like: Design & Development or more specific: Site & Server Administration

 

thanks Qryztufre for your input. appreciated.

anyone else have experience with this?

will i need a dedicated server?

thanks
-siteseer

 

You could create a separate domain that is just full of graphics and each link will take them to the proper forum that is shown. That would make your landing page interesting, as opposed to a forum.

 

thanks, PJK
but how do i get the link/hperlinked image to open the right forum category.
i mean once the linked is clicked, i would only want the appropriate category to open.
it is a function of the skin/theme or of vBulletin ?

 

You would just do it manually with HTML

 

Check out joomla if you want point and click or you will have to design the site from scratch using software such as Adobe Dreamweaver