Forums for Dummies

Hi Shane,

There are a lot of free options out there: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...forum+software

Some of them are so simple that you could probably do it yourself

Di

Thanks Di, I will take a look at these. As with everything I am keen to hear other warriors tips on what they have used as I know that free is not always the best way to go.

Here is a poll taken from forum owners, about which free software they preferred. MyBB won by an enormous margin.

Vote for the Best Forum Software of 2012 | Forum Software Reviews

For paid software, the usual response to topics like this is 'vBulletin, what do you think this forum uses?' But there is a problem with it.

The latest versions haven't been great and people have been switching from it to xenforo.com. There is a reason this forum is stuck on version 3.8.7. (It's in the source code.) The 4.xx versions have been out for about 2 years now.

I'm a member of one of the 4.xx versions of vb, and is it ever clunky compared to this forum. Not moving up to them seems to be a sign of intelligence.

The only other vb forum I'm active on stuck with 3.8.7 too. That's at webhostingtalk.com. You could expect them to be web savvy enough to wait for comments about the new versions before switching over.

Last time I was at xenforo.com, they had a long list of VB users who had switched enormous forums over to them. It included testimonials from them, the type that are from real people and easy to verify. Both the admin and the users preferred xenforo according to the testimonials.

Haven't used it myself except for a single visit, but it was slick.

Using free forum software such as SMF is fine to start off with. You can always upgrade to a paid option like vBulletin later on. Running a forum will make your site more sticky but will need moderating which can be time consuming.

If you are selling a product or service you may also get complaints on the forum so you need to be prepared to handle these without creating a public relations disaster. If that is going to be a problem for you, you might want to consider a blog section instead, where comments can be controlled/moderated a bit more effectively.

thank you for the advise

Hi ROJ,

I have run/am running busy forums and have used both vBulletin and IP Board.

The verdict on those?

vBulletin: technical nightmare to be avoided unless you have plenty of tech skills and patience.

IP Board: pretty simple and straightforward for non-tecchies and well supported by software modders.

My sig link forum is on IP Board latest version, for example.

If you have no experience I'd start with forumotion, just to get used to operating a forum. You can always change later and host yourself.

Thanks for all the responses. You guys are the best!

I really want to host it myself rather than elsewhere so I can ensure I have all the content.

Will mull this over and let you know who I pick.

Forums are tough to launch and be successful, but if you already have people asking you the same questions over and over again... a forum may be a good idea.

An easy way to start a forum without all the coding is by going to:

websitetoolbox .com.

For a free alternative, I would also second the SMF forum / small machines forum suggestion. We have had good results with it, not missing anything really, at least not yet

SMF & phpBB owe their popularity in part to inclusion on list of programs Fantastico installs.

I would recommend MyBB for your forum if you want to keep the cost down. As pointed out above it gets more votes.

See this comparison

If you don't want to mess with the installation just hire someone to install for you for a small sum, after it's installed it's pretty easy to manage it.

I want to suggest you that you need to open forum for your site. After that you need to moderate the forum by yourself or by someone who has enough knowledge about your site. Your customers can submit their question in the forum and get the answer easily.

"Building" is a bit of an exaggeration, for my forum.

I'm technophobic, incompetent and live in fear of such things.

My forum is phpBB version 3. I just got someone to install it for me on my hosting, since when it's been entirely problem-free. I found (to my great surprise, and relief) that I could be a "forum administrator" and can do everything I need to be able to do, just by reading the "instruction manual". I recommend it.

My recommendation means little, because there are countless other alternatives for the 99.9% of people who are more technically minded and competent than I am, and I barely even know what they are. But phpBB is free, easy to use, "does the job" and seems remarkably flexible. I haven't yet found anything that I wanted to do that "you can't do with phpBB".

(Mine is only a "niche forum", run under a pen-name - it has nothing to do with internet marketing at all. In case anyone was wondering).