Acorns...I need your help

[Django]

Acorns, I'm hoping to ask for a little help here (and apologies if this is in the wrong section)...

I'm thinking about starting a forum as part of a new project, and this is something I have never done before. Does anyone here have experience of hosting/maintaining a forum, and if so, would you be willing to field any of my amateurish questions via a DM? maybe even here a bit about the project...

I'll understand if this falls on deaf ears, but if you don't ask then you don't get

 

[webwrappedup]

Hey,

Are you looking to code this yourself as a project or looking more for a prebuilt package?

The hosting at the start of the forum won't be an issue, just go with someone based in England (with a non 0845 telephone number should you need to get hold of them).

A basic hosting package with only a few gigs of bandwith would be plenty for now so I doubt it would cost much for hosting. Just ensure your host offers an easy to use upgrade service for your hosting package.

Spam is the biggest pain of running a forum I've found, if you go with a prebuilt software package then there will be plugins and tweaks which can help stop a lot of it.

What sort of forum was you thinking of doing?

 

[Django]

Hey, thanks for your reply. I'm not a big coder, so it's going to be largely a prebuilt package, maybe with my own embellishments where necessary. It's most likely to be through vBulletin as well as I understand this is the most reliable, secure and SEO-friendly forum software on the market.

As you say, I think spam/moderation will be the most difficult side, and also having the patience to stick with it. The forum side of things is really new to me, so this whole thing will be a learning curve - and really, thanks for hosting advice.

I don't want to give too much away about the forum itself, but it's in a health & fitness niche that I'm particularly passionate about, and I've found a gap in the market to create a community of like minded people. A forum just seemed the best way to go!

If you'd like to know more I'd be happy to DM you some details. I just don't like putting these things in the public domain! (Yes, I am wearing a tin-foil hat!)

 

[scooter]

Have you looked at SMF forum?
It's free, stable and lots of mods available.
http://www.simplemachines.org/

You can also import and convert the whole forum to vbulletin later on should you wish.





.

 

[Monster_Sam]

There's also phpBB which has a great community and lots of mods etc.

It can be awkward to work with at times, but the community on the main site and other forums are really helpful!

Just another one to consider! There are loads of platforms out there!

There is a big list and comparison wizard here that might help.

 

[Django]

Thanks Monster Sam, I've U-turned on the vB side of things as I guess it's best to get things started on a free software, then develop that is things take off. At the moment I'm kind of torn between phpBB and myBB...

I was actually ready to get set up on myBB, but there site was recently hacked, so I'm just waiting for that to come back online before deciding.