what do you need to do to set up a forum like this one? I'm interested in starting one up (not related to this sort of stuff, so no direct competition to digital point), but am unsure whats involved or where to start. I like it to sit on my page somewhere: www.swollenpickles.com the site is put together with wordpress. I'm learning the basics of programming, but please be kind, I'm still a noob!
The best advice I can give you is to just spend the $130 for a vB license and start playing around with it. You'll really want to familiarize yourself with how the back end control panel works before you start inviting people to your new forum. A basic understanding of HTML, PHP, and MySql would also be helpful. Lastly really hit the vB sites. There is a ton of good stuff here (DP), but also check out vbulletin.com and vbulletin.org. Hope this helps.
So you need to pay for a vB license? Is this software that I would need to run from my PC or something I would have the hosting company run on their server?
1. Yes. Included in that is free updates and tech support. Their support is through their forums and very good. They are very efficiant in answering your questions. After the first year you have to pay a $30 annual fee to keep getting updates and access to the support forums. 2. You will probably want to find a hosting company to run it. They will have to have Linux based servers that have PHP loaded and access to MySQL databases. The setup of the vB software is pretty easy. When I did it I knew nothing about forums, MySQL or PHP (I learned all that stuff later). Once you FTP the vB files up to your server (exact same process as posting HTML files for a web page); you have to create a MySQLdatabase. This is pretty straight forward with any host and the ones with phone support can even walk you through it. You then have to configure one file in the vB software and start the installation. If you did the previous steps correctly the install is nothing more than you hitting the "next" button about 15 times. Then you're done.
I didn't want to invest any money in forums because I have no clue whether if it is going to be a success or not, so I chose Simple Machines. www.simplemachines.org
you wil have to buy a copy of vbulletin. thats all. for the free versions go for phpbb which is right in ur fantastico thingy!
I'll make one more point regarding paying for vB. If you look through this forum (DP) you will see it LOADED with people who wished they had started with vB instead of going with a free BB software or service. I'm not trying to knock anyone who is using a free service; but if you think you are serious about a forum you may just want to take the $130 plunge up front. It's a pain to move everything over from a free board to vB once you have a bunch of members.
now, more than just the software, you most of all need users if you don't already have a steady return visitor/user base, it'll be tough!
Thats what puts me off the paying to set one up idea. it would be primarily used by myself and mates, ideally id like to set up some revenue sharing thing so they may benefit as well. it's not really an idea to make money (more just for our personal amusement).
I have 9 forums now and 1 VB ONLY. And that's just for my webmaster forums. Otherwise I have 2 free ipbs (1.2 version) and 6 phpBB. I don't like VB, I don't like the price and I don't like anything about it. Just needed to install it because other webmasters were too snobbish to join my forums (even if I had one of the best looking phpBBs ever with all the features they would need). phpBB is free and customizable. If you know what you are doing, then you'll be amazed to see how many things you can accomplish with it. Just installing a paid script WON'T make your forums: unique theme modding and hack installion will. Too many people think that just by shedding 160 USD on VB is enough to make a forum a hit. And many of them come after few months in webmaster sites to sell their license and try to get some of the money. I'd advice you to play a bit with some scripts and see which you like. I have 4 years of experince on phpBB and I can do a lot of things. I don't like SMF, but do check it out. It's not a bad script at all. No matter what you chose: learn to work the theme and install the hacks. I have VB and installed other features, since the "nice" awarded script still misses some features I find important and features I had on my modded phpBB. Don't stop at the script. if you have the money and are sure you'll be able to manage, then get VB. don't get me wrong, the script is OK, but you need to understand that the script is just 1 step to make a forum. I own, as I said, 9 forums. The scripts are 2 % of it. The rest is: hard work on modding the scripts and themes and thousands of work hours into creating content, promoting and creating even more content
My advice to you would be to start with mybb. Its free and has a lot of features. Others say that it is similar to vbulletin but free. Anyway you can check it out at mybboard.com. As for lack of visitors just do a search for "forum promotion" and you'll find a number of helpful tips. Sitepoint has a forum about it.
don't buy a VB license. Go with Invision Power board. 2.1.7 is incredible and you can get so many modifications and skins for it. For free.
I've been looking into a few of the options around, and phpBB is starting to look like the preferred option at this stage. I have 2 questions though: 1. In the installation it says you need a MySQL dbase. I have one set up when I installed wordpress, do I use the same dbase for the forum or do I need to have another set up? 2. I like the idea of revenue sharing, especially for something like a forum (mine will most likely get frequented by friends/family etc so it'd be good if they could get a little out of it if they wanted). Can that be set up under a phpBB forum? and if so, anyone know of instructions etc?
1. You could use the same DB with other table extension. It would be better to have another one installed though .. 2. Revenue sharing is cool, but I doubt too many peolpe will actually be interested in this. I had an active webmaster community and no one would care about this. I am active in some big revenue sharing forums and never cared to put my code and get those cents (don't expect to have huge revenues). I would stay out ot this .. although it's a nice promotion trick. Yes. You can have this on PhpBB. SHould you need help, let me know and I'll give you some more advice