Forums

[- Nightmare -]

I was wondering how many of you guys have your own forums.

And as I was thinking I became interested in starting my own and I'd like to know how to go about doing so. What software (if any) do I need to get started? I use boards that are either vBulletin or Invision so I'm familiar with the features of both.

I don't have my own site so I guess that's my first hurdle. Do I even need to have my own site in order to start a forum?

Oh and most importantly is there any money involved in this process? Are there any free services that I can use? :D

[TRshady]

I have my own Forum (http://www.rileysresource.net/forums/index.php?act=idx) :D

Always active, well unless its night time for the uk, and the perfect place if you'd want any kind of support for Invision, seeing as my mate whos also an admin on site owns Ibextreme.net, an official invision resource site coming soon B)

You do not need a site to have a forum, many popular forums are just that, and have no site to lean on, which I find helps. You do not get money, but have a popular forum, add adverts and the money will roll. :)

[NightStalker]

I don't have my own site so I guess that's my first hurdle. Do I even need to have my own site in order to start a forum?

Not at all! There are many successful forums out there without "website content" :)


Oh and most importantly is there any money involved in this process? Are there any free services that I can use?

The only costs involved is buying web hosting. There are many free services to host forums like Invision Power Board, such as Invision Free (http://invisionfree.com/). ;)

[- Nightmare -]

Thanks for the replies guys. You've been quite helpful. :)

Well I won't be able to buy any web hosting services so I guess I'll go with the free services. :D

Invision Free seems very well structured and offers alot features for being a free service. Are there any others like it?

[TRshady]

Well http://forumer.com/ is known to be great, and is bannerless which you'll like. Free as you want and in my opinion better then invisionfree. If wanted, I could host a forum for you, its not a service or anything I provide. But have more then enough hosting for my needs and if I can help when possible I will. Pm me on my forum if wanted, would say here but I really an not here much and as you can imagine forum members at RR get higher prioirity. Enough of talking bout me, go with forumer.com and be aware that if any invision help is needed, we'll be here to help out. :)

[Mr. Blunt]

Clic!Dev (http://www.clicdev.com) is also great for hosting boards. It only places a regular google ad on the top of the page, but that's it. The owner has added mods such as IBStore and IBrpg. It offers the full administrator control panel, unlike InvisionFree which hides a lot of options from their users.

[- Nightmare -]

Originally posted by TRshady@3 May 2004 - 20:35
Well http://forumer.com/ is known to be great, and is bannerless which you'll like. Free as you want and in my opinion better then invisionfree. If wanted, I could host a forum for you, its not a service or anything I provide. But have more then enough hosting for my needs and if I can help when possible I will. Pm me on my forum if wanted, would say here but I really an not here much and as you can imagine forum members at RR get higher prioirity. Enough of talking bout me, go with forumer.com and be aware that if any invision help is needed, we'll be here to help out. :)
Thanks for the info TR. :D

I'll give forumer.com a whirl. I also appreciate your offer to host mine as well. :D

However, would I have to know certain things to run the forum if you host it? What are the advantages that it would have over the free ones? I haven't thought about what it would be just yet....I was thinking along the lines of maybe something like Final Fantasy (I'm a huge fan of the series you see) or Xenogears/Xenosaga or something or maybe just a regular ol' forum. I'd also like to put up images that I make like this:

Image Resized
[img]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9961/utopiasig.gif' width='200' height='120' border='0' alt='click for full size view'> ('http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/9961/utopiasig.gif')

Yeah it's nothing fancy but hopefully I'll learn more as I go along.

I am interested in your offer though. :D

Again thanks because I think very few people would make such a generous offer as you did. :):D

[TRshady]

More often then not, you'll find companies which offer free forum hosting will have some kind of drawback, whether it be to slap on a load of ads, limit what you can do, or have set specs (webspace, bandwidth - ultimatly limiting your forum growth). So having me host it, or a decent free host like forumer.com would have the following advantages:

* Full ftp access, you get complete access to all forum files if you wish to make changes
* Unlimited space/bandwidth, well hosting. Am of course fully aware that no such thing as 'unlimited' exsists when it comes to web hosting, but I mean that you wont get to a stage where you outdo the specs set, and (with me at least), its something you wont need to worry about.
* Can install skins, thousands available, but most complex cannot be used on invisionfree as you dont have acess to file or directories.
* Being hosted on a web hosting server and not shared with a load of other forums, it'll be fast and secure, as it has the latest backbone technology to limit effect of ddos attacks.

Theres more advantages, but its 2:57am for me, gotta be up at 6am so you can imagine how tired I am, lol. Anyway, as for your question, the only knowledge you will need is how to use an invision board (the admin cp), which is very simple and of course theres the forum if you need help. There are many things which would need to be considered mind, one being the domain for example. If you are to be serious about having and building a community, it really would be best purchasing a top level domain (.com, .net etc). All are under £10 and if you want to be taken seriously, and have a real chance at becoming sucessful, its best to get one, though this can be done at any time.

[Manny Roscoe]

Originally posted by TRshady@3 May 2004 - 20:44
I have my own Forum (http://www.rileysresource.net/forums/index.php?act=idx) :D

Always active, well unless its night time for the uk, and the perfect place if you'd want any kind of support for Invision, seeing as my mate whos also an admin on site owns Ibextreme.net, an official invision resource site coming soon B)

You do not need a site to have a forum, many popular forums are just that, and have no site to lean on, which I find helps. You do not get money, but have a popular forum, add adverts and the money will roll. :)
Welcome Back! ;)

[- Nightmare -]

Originally posted by TRshady@3 May 2004 - 21:53
More often then not, you'll find companies which offer free forum hosting will have some kind of drawback, whether it be to slap on a load of ads, limit what you can do, or have set specs (webspace, bandwidth - ultimatly limiting your forum growth). So having me host it, or a decent free host like forumer.com would have the following advantages:

* Full ftp access, you get complete access to all forum files if you wish to make changes
* Unlimited space/bandwidth, well hosting. Am of course fully aware that no such thing as 'unlimited' exsists when it comes to web hosting, but I mean that you wont get to a stage where you outdo the specs set, and (with me at least), its something you wont need to worry about.
* Can install skins, thousands available, but most complex cannot be used on invisionfree as you dont have acess to file or directories.
* Being hosted on a web hosting server and not shared with a load of other forums, it'll be fast and secure, as it has the latest backbone technology to limit effect of ddos attacks.

Theres more advantages, but its 2:57am for me, gotta be up at 6am so you can imagine how tired I am, lol. Anyway, as for your question, the only knowledge you will need is how to use an invision board (the admin cp), which is very simple and of course theres the forum if you need help. There are many things which would need to be considered mind, one being the domain for example. If you are to be serious about having and building a community, it really would be best purchasing a top level domain (.com, .net etc). All are under £10 and if you want to be taken seriously, and have a real chance at becoming sucessful, its best to get one, though this can be done at any time.
Thanks for the info again. You've definitely given me something to think about.

I think I'll try out the free sites for now I guess. I'm gonna have to choose between forumer.com and clicdev.com because both seem really good. :D

[TRshady]

Originally posted by Manny Roscoe@4 May 2004 - 03:43
Welcome Back! ;)
Cheers Manny :)

I haven't tried forumer.co myself, just heard lots positive about it but good luck with it and I'm sure it'll go great. Tell me when you have a forum, I'll be sure to check it out. :D Of course, my offer will always stand for ya so feel free to ask at any time, let us know how you get on with forumer.com or any other site you try, will help with recommendations to the next person who comes along in your shoes. :)