Web help - making a forum

[bertusgeert 1]

So I want to get into building websites - we don't have anyone that knows how to for our growing kayaking club at the university.

Is it hard to set up a forum like this one? Even a simple one? (it would handle no more than 10 posts a day)

Thanks

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As jy dom is moet jy bloei!

[davedlg 0]

The easiest way is to use a prepackaged shareware program to build one. PHPBB http://www.phpbb.com/ seems to be among the most popular. You will need access to a server with php and MySql to do this.

[DJL 232]

http://groups.yahoo.com/ to keep it simple, or ask your university to host it. If all you're trying to do is disperse information to the members then the yahoo groups is the way to go.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[mdrejhon 8]

It's easy but some basics about starting a forum. As a moderator of other forums, I should add some tips:

- Start small. It's better to have 100 people in 1 topic than 10 people in 10 topics. Traffic attracts traffic. Don't succumb to topic categorization BEFORE you attract people to the site. Many forums make the mistake of creating too many categories and they're DOA upon creation. More successful forum sites often start with just 3 to 5 topics or so instead of 20 or 25 topics. Better to start small and grow as the site grows. You don't want your forum to be a ghost town with posts spread too thin.
- Have a trusted willing volunteer or two to become moderators.
- Don't be too quick to split topics too early, wait until there's just about too much traffic, not before that point. You need to attract the traffic in the first place. Traffic attracts traffic, attract a bigger crowd to fewer topics ASAP, to help increase popularity (Related in real life: A popular bar hangout, will often attract additional people just because it's popular, and people will often stay away from a dead dance bar because it's boring. It's an amplifying effect.)
- Be a very willing volunteer yourself to reply to other people's posts. At first, it is normal for between 25 to 50% of posts in the forum to be by the siteowner or moderators. Posts that are replied to with useful answers, attracts attention. As a forum grows, more users will reply to other users, and the percentage of posts made by moderator/admins will go down.
- Treat newbies with royalty. This is difficult for some moderators to do, but this is especially important in the startup of a new forum. Pampered forum users with every post getting detailed replies, will attract attention, and make your forum more popular. Once your forum reaches critical mass, people start helping each other instead, and you no longer have to do as much work replying to posts, in order to maintain the forum's popularity.
- Where possible, try to avoid banning or kicking out problem users. Give them many chances. Edit out bad words instead of deleting the entire post or thread. Send warnings by PM before posting warnings publicly. Otherwise your forum gains a reputation for being a censor-heavy forum before it gains a reputation for being a source of useful information. Later, you can make rules tighter for efficiency's sake, but at first, you need to attract users and be as helpful as possible (even to the stupidest questions), to ramp up the forums' popularity.
- Jumpstart the forum as much as possible by word of mouth, friends, blogs, your existing mailing list, existing website, paid advertising, etc.
- Ask for permission before posting on other forums, such as permitted non-spamming shameless plugs on other forums that allow the pratice. You don't want to be labelled as a spammer by other forums.
- Use a pleasant non-cluttered theme for your board that is easy on the eyes. Choose good software wherever possible (vBulletin, for example) for good performance.

You could also choose to go for a Yahoo Groups or a Google Groups system instead, which is often easier and free when you only have a really small community.

Former Moderator of www.avsforum.com
Current Moderator of www.BlackBerryForums.com

[gravitational 0]

Quote

The easiest way is to use a prepackaged shareware program to build one. PHPBB http://www.phpbb.com/ seems to be among the most popular. You will need access to a server with php and MySql to do this.

PHPBB is also full of holes and pretty easy to get through. they've fixed a bunch of the holes but more keep popping up.

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Michael

[bertusgeert 1]

Thanks a lot, that is very useful information and will get me started.

Here is the current website that was developed by a previous computer science major.

http://www.uky.edu/StudentOrgs/WWCats/links.html

Can I just add one bulletin board/forum on there? If I decide to have categories, it will be trips and gear and gatherings.

Thanks!

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As jy dom is moet jy bloei!

[CrazyIvan 0]

Quote

PHPBB is also full of holes and pretty easy to get through. they've fixed a bunch of the holes but more keep popping up.

The current version has a lot of improvements and fixes. One thing though, if you install forums STAY AWAY FROM MODS, keep it standard.

One alternative could be this site, it's free.

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Blue Skies and May the Force be with you.