Hi NOTE : Not looking for offers here - only recommendations please. Are there any reliable providers who will set up & administer forums? I'm looking to start a small private forum (< 1000 members), would like to outsource the tech stuff (installing the script & mods, set permissions, approve members (or auto approve based on criteria like number of posts...). Most of the forum activity will be transactions between members; don't expect to have a lot of moderation or administrative requirement on an ongoing basis (10 -20 hours a month??) Would appreciate any recommendations if you have tried out any providers before, or any advice based on your experience... Thanks
My servers are managed by liquidsupport (www.liquidsupport.com) and they have very experienced administrators. I would suggest you to give them a try... I am not sure whether they will post in your forums...but I can guarantee that they will manage your servers very well.
Thanks for the suggestions here. ssrulz1, I'm not planning to have a server - as mentioned, this is expected to be a small private forum, and I don't expect to have high volume posting etc. Does liquid support still provide services even if it's not on a server (say a VPS, or a reseller account?)
I don't know of any companies that do this, but DP (here) is probably the best place to find someone for the job.
They will manage your VPS also. I am not sure about the reseller account support. You can contact them for more info.
Hi, I can provide forum management/administration. Please contact my support staff for a quote on the required work/tasks - Discount since your a D.P member - mention quote ID: dpforumlogqte45 Best Regards, SSANZ - Logan
If you can invest the initial time and set it up yourself, promote from within. Mods, system admin, and webmasters all work for free for the right place... just become that right place and all it will cost you is that initial set up. I admin a forum for free, have worked behind the scenes (set up, upgrades, etc) for free, and now have members doing most of the work, again for free....then again, I'm not in it for the money but for the community, so maybe that helps.
Couldn’t agree more, in fact staff like this at times is more concerned for the welfare of the forum than someone hired from outside.
Another person who just has to agree! Members join a community, because they enjoy what it is about. For example, if it was about a football team, most of the users would support that team. And, Digital Point - all the users either are webmasters or wanabe webmasters.
I'm a wannabe webmaster, lol. I kind of fell into the roll because of a fall out at a forum I was an admin for free at. I still do it for free, on a forum that is 100% member driven (with few if any funds coming from me). I saw a couple of threads here asking for admin & mods and some offered to pay! I was like KEWL! then I thought about it and decided that I had no clue about football, or webmaster, or whatever the forums were about so getting paid would have made it a job.... and honestly who wants to work? I think that if someone needed to pay, then go on & pay... but only pay for things like set up & maybe upgrades. After that, let the community take control. The community will be a better place for it! Regardless of whether or not it's a paid admin or a free one though, be sure that regular backups are in place, or heh... all could be lost. Owning a forum/site is not all that much work, and if one is not willing to put at least the basics into it, maybe a new avenue should be looked at.