How do I create a Forum?

You could either setup a forum on a group website like Ning/Yahoo/Eons etc. or you can install forum software on your own domain.

The first solution is the easiest but not ideal because you are depending on third party services that usually advertise on your forum, one way or another.

The second solution is by far the best but it takes a bit more work. If you already have a (suitable) domain name and hosting account you can start install and setup your forum. If not you should get those first.

As for the forum software; I favor phpbb but there are many other good solutions out there like vBulletin e.o.

I guess it depends on how simple or complex do you want to make it. How many visitors you have to cater, how safe it has to be (hackers, moderating, limiting posts/attachments .. things like that).

Note that a forum per se is nothing more than a clipboard on steroids. you might also want to possibilty to place articles, blogs, events, a shop, accept payments etc. If so you're actually talking about a 'portal' or 'cms' and this is a different story altogether.

Cheers,

Rembo

phpBB is free and easy to set up and there are some pretty large forums using it, vbulletin is a very widely used paid option,

have fun,
Neil

Hey,

If you have webhosting with cpanel, in there you will see Fantastico in cpanel it is a big smiley face icon, click that then in there you will find 1 click install for message boards.

If you dont want to invest money into a board i would go with phpbb, or alternativley go with vbulliten,

Just click the forum name in fantastico fill in your info and click install and you should have a forum all installed, as for configuring it etc check out the manual for the board you choose, but its usually pretty easy pm me if you have any probs

Mikey

I always stick with Vbulletin.. it's a bit pricey but it's very good software.

Like lilmikey suggests, test out the ones in Fantastico first.