require a forum on site need help!

would like to add a forum to my site but....

[youngkeen]

would like to add a forum to my site but i am not at all familiar with php etc. i am completly new to the internet game and am starting to get to terms with html.
I was wondering is it worth adding a bravenet forum to my site or similar(am open to suggestions)
The site i have built has a small amount of members at the moment but i am hoping to grow as time comes.
I was also wondering can you add adsense to bravenet forums, i have seen a forum on a site that has an adsense add on each post just posted by the admin in the middle is this possible with bravenet etc any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Youngkeen

[rogerd]

Quite a few of the PHP packages are very easy to install. You probably have to create a MySQL database (trivially simple from your host's control panel), upload, maybe edit a config file, & go...

I'm not familiar with bravenet, sorry...

[encyclo]

I would also recommend going with a pre-built forum package like vBulletin or phpBB. Most of them come with detailed instructions, and you don't need to know about PHP or databases. There are significant disadvantages with hosted forums (this is not a criticism or Bravenet in particular, just a general issue). As the overheads are often large (especially bandwidth) and revenue possibilities are small (eg. click-through rates on forum advertizing are poor) then a free forum provider must pack as many forums as possible onto the server: which means slow sites and uncertain availability.

The other very significant problem is to do with control over your forum content. If you run your own forum on your site, you have control over the posts database and can move hosts easily if not satisfied. Many hosted forum services make it difficult to move on and take your content with you.

[Tomness]

Bravenet forums are a waste of time, they really are. A couple of years back I registered one, and I may as well just registered a guestbook.

I then joined proboards, and built a successful forum community, that ran brilliantly for 2 years.

However, when I made a change from a free-hosted one to my own installed one, I lost all my posts, members, topoics, ect.

Which brings me to the first downside, you wont be able to backup, and/or save your database unless you fork out a pricey fee.

Next, there's the problem with not fully being able to customize it - where as if you install one, you have access to all the files, which gives you full control over your forums look.

I agree with enclyro though, if you're not to swift with php then it would prove pointless installing your own forum - because usually you have to edit things manually - not to mention setting up databases.

However, things like PhpBB and vBullitin are like checkbox's, and drop down menus - like a questionnaire really, and when you've done, so is your forum.

[wasproject]

Hi youngkeen.

As a phpnewbie, I would like to share the following with you just to give you an indication of the learning curve for php in general and for a php forum in particular.

Instigated by Full Member caspita's reaction to my query regarding a simple asp forum (see the first 2 (from the bottom) 'recent messages' in my user profile on the left), I have recently started to learn php which is possibly the best move for my IT skills so far.
After studying various outstanding online tutorials, I have successfully installed and re-configured easyphp (so far, only for testing purposes), next created and implemented a registration, activate registration, login and forum from scratch using functions like mysql_escape_string(), session_start(), mail() etc., while storing the user defined functions in 2 wrapperclasses.

Most of the above will serve as an intro to my next query on webmasterworld's PHP Server Side Scripting Forum later today.

Regards

[Gargen]

i personally recomend phpbb my webhost came with it but i have helped others set it up it is very easy and so is updating and modding it