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creating a forum
bsjezz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
hi,
i have a little online magazine and in this crazy world of web 2.0 it feels a bit hollow without an outlet for a community to build up around it. so i need to start a forum to go with it, and i'm not sure which way to go. i have three options:
- pay for bbs hosting / use free forum hosting.
neither of these seem like perfect ideas. i can't really afford more than maybe five bucks a month, just because it's only a side project and bills add up. i worry that in paying for hosting that automatically supports a good bulletin board i'll be paying for a lot of stuff i don't need - i have web hosting, mail etc. already, i just need a forum. on the flip-side, free hosting would probably necessitate ads, and i don't want ads - not just to keep it clean, but there's the potential for small-scale sponsorship in the future and i don't want to undermine any sponsor's links
- use my current hosting to install a bulletin board
this is complicated. maybe it only seems complicated because i don't understand forum software. the short story is i'm being hosted by a (very generous) friend, and i don't want to push my luck getting him to do too much on his end. am i able to remotely install and manage a forum through the space he's given me? the only other catch is i think his server runs apache and not php
- install a web server of my own and phpbb
i have a currently unused desktop which i could do it with, but i don't really know where to begin. i'm sure i could do it, but computers and i get on famously and i'm sure after a few hours the romance would be over and i'd hate my life and abandon not just the forum but the whole damned website. still, if it's as easy as lifehacker et. al. make it out to be i could chill out and make a project weekend of it with minimal hair-pulling. is this realistic? what are the key steps?
any suggestions, past experience or clarifications would be most excellent!
thanks guys
i have a little online magazine and in this crazy world of web 2.0 it feels a bit hollow without an outlet for a community to build up around it. so i need to start a forum to go with it, and i'm not sure which way to go. i have three options:
- pay for bbs hosting / use free forum hosting.
neither of these seem like perfect ideas. i can't really afford more than maybe five bucks a month, just because it's only a side project and bills add up. i worry that in paying for hosting that automatically supports a good bulletin board i'll be paying for a lot of stuff i don't need - i have web hosting, mail etc. already, i just need a forum. on the flip-side, free hosting would probably necessitate ads, and i don't want ads - not just to keep it clean, but there's the potential for small-scale sponsorship in the future and i don't want to undermine any sponsor's links
- use my current hosting to install a bulletin board
this is complicated. maybe it only seems complicated because i don't understand forum software. the short story is i'm being hosted by a (very generous) friend, and i don't want to push my luck getting him to do too much on his end. am i able to remotely install and manage a forum through the space he's given me? the only other catch is i think his server runs apache and not php
- install a web server of my own and phpbb
i have a currently unused desktop which i could do it with, but i don't really know where to begin. i'm sure i could do it, but computers and i get on famously and i'm sure after a few hours the romance would be over and i'd hate my life and abandon not just the forum but the whole damned website. still, if it's as easy as lifehacker et. al. make it out to be i could chill out and make a project weekend of it with minimal hair-pulling. is this realistic? what are the key steps?
any suggestions, past experience or clarifications would be most excellent!
thanks guys
bsjezz on
0
Posts
No offense, but you don't sound very sure about what your current hosting actually supports. What you will need for most forum software options are:
1) PHP support
2) A MySQL database
If you have those two things there is probably extremely little he will have to do on his end to accommodate you. If you don't, see above.
Actually installing forum software isn't too bad. Trying to customize it can be, though.
I would highly recommend not pursuing this option. Configuring a webserver for the first time is not for someone who doesn't get along well with computers and wants to be done in a weekend. Let alone a database and forum software on top of it. Sure, you could get a pre-wrapped distribution like WOS and be up and running almost instantly, but then when something goes wrong you won't have any idea what to do because you didn't really set it up in the first place.
Also, patch maintenance is both necessary and irritating. Keep that as someone else's hassle.
On another note, I hope you have a couple people lined up to help you or are willing to spend a lot of time on this idea. Building and maintaining a forum community is harder than you think, and requires active and frequent participation from the people at the top.
Do you actually need discussion forums, or do you need some form of blogging software that lets users comment on posts? You already appear to have wordpress going on a seperate server from your 'main' site - can you not migrate everything over to there?
Would a facebook fan-page and discussion forums there suit you? That's probably the least-effort approach, but comes with all of facebook's baggage.
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it's a literary site, so there'd be feedback threads for fiction, technical advice, general chat, links to competitions, publishers and zines
because it's dealing a lot with fiction, it's quite difficult to format prose adequately in something like, say, facebook. i've always thought forum environments are immensely useful for burgeoning writers and i want to provide one, whether it takes off or not. the design side is also quite important to me and even the most basic forum is customizable to a degree, at the very least enough to fit in with a colour scheme
you're not wrong there. when i originally had a discussion about php (in regards to wordpress at that stage, i think) my mate said that he didn't have php installed, only apache. i suppose that apache is a basic webserver tool and doesn't really have the capacity to run anything like a forum. mysql i'm not sure about, i'd have to check with him.
i'm not opposed to using free forum hosting, but i'd really prefer not to have ads. when i say 'sponsorship' i don't mean 'cash money for me and the site' - i mean something to pass on to contributors, without whom the website can't exist. a donated prize for a competition, say. as such i really don't want to get tied up with generic and intrusive advertising. to me it's unprofessional, and i'd rather either nut out my own hosting and spend whatever time i need doing it, pay something reasonable, or leave the idea behind
and it's not that i don't get on well with computers. i derive great pleasure from working things out and learning about processes, but i also tend to get very frustrated. but maybe that's something that just makes the ultimate satisfaction so much better. if it is really something that is beyond the scope of an amatuer, then i'll probably leave it, but i'm not afraid of late, late nights in front of a config file or a linux terminal
Typically you'll use mod_php with apache (basically mod_php is a plugin for apache to let it "run" php, but that's simplifying a bit). Apache is extremely typical. It's also one of the easier setups*, imo, and with the sort of access you'd probably have, there's not a lot you can mess up.
Still, you'll have to find out what your friend has available in terms of installed software. If he really doesn't have php installed, you might be screwed on that option. Edit: If you're using wordpress though, you have php installed somewhere...or are you using something like wordpress.com? What's hosting the stuff you have already?
Also, how big is your audience?
* Compared to setting up other stuff at least ;-)
That said, I would look into cheap (but paid) hosting. I pay something like $5/month and am very happy with my hosting. As long as the site doesn't see ridiculous traffic, there's nothing wrong with it. A few community donations would easily cover it, and then you'd have full control.
the audience is very small right now. the forum is something i'm hoping will drive people to come back, because the mag started out with a pretty good response but because the content is stagnant between issues there's nothing to encourage return hits. i've actually got the sydney writer's festival zine fair coming up very shortly, where i've got a shot to potentially get a lot of people to visit the site. but converting those into people who get on board with the mag for future issues will rely on something to maintain interest beyond the initial content. i'm hoping a forum will act as that lure. in any event i've probably got a dozen or so people who would be immediately interested in posting on the forum and that would grow
i don't think it's a hugely misdirected idea. there is always the thought that it should really be a more integrated format if i want to maintain readers with communication. but i'm not sure what solutions there are. i've never been impressed with blog comments as a means of discussion - it always feels like the responses are always going to be directed towards the original article, rather than part of a fluid discussion
i think at this stage my best options are:
- talk to my friend about his server and/or trick him with beers or pizza or whatever to install php for me. if php is installed, can i maintain the forum software from my side?
- if that's a no-goer work out a reliable free or not too expensive online discussion tool... any other specific suggestions?
edit: smug duckling: that sounds good too. where do you get your hosting? technically i'm in australia but in this web wide world i don't imagine that will serve a problem
I kind of lied - a month to month plan is $9.50 / month. It looks like it's $5.50 if you prepurchase a bunch of time, which obviously wouldn't be right for you.
They allow pretty much full access to everything, which most hosts don't do, and make it really easy to install a bunch of stuff. In fact, they may have a way to easily install forum software.
edit: hang on. i've done something drastic
Edit: I would also recommend PunBB if you need any help setting it up I can lend a hand.
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it seems reasonable so far. customization is going to be limited, but it was online immediately. i feel like a bit of a sucker for paying that much when i could have the same with actual webhosting as well, but i have hosting covered and i'm hoping that because this is specifically a phpbbs service, the support in that realm will be dedicated
i'm still having a tinker at this stage.
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