Online Forums

Simple basic question

[Blelisa]

I am new to all of this, I have website basics down, however for the site I am required to build I will need to put a forum such as this in my site for technical support. I just need to know what is used to create this becuase I will then know where to start doing research, for instance, are you using databases, forms, etc..?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[Nick_W]

Hi

I wouldn't advise trying to build forum software unless you're a very skilled programmer. It's really alot more involved than you may think.

The good news is ;) that lot's of people have already done it and you can download some of them for free. This one in particular is rather good (and free) though there are many more...

http://www.phpbb.com

Nick

[rogerd]

Ditto Nick's recommendation - don't even think about building your own forum software when you can get fully functional software like phpBB for free or commercial software like vBulletin for under $200. You'll appreciate the many features of real forum software when you get into moderation issues, dealing with spammers, etc.

[Blelisa]

Thank you, that looks like just what I need!

[BwanaZulia]

I built my own... (for a web application server) and while I don't have all of the wizbang features of most boards, I can control what it will do in the future which is real nice.

BZ

[webboy1]

I sort of have reasons for building your own and downloading someone elses:

Build your own:
You have complete control over what it does and doesn't do. You have 100% control over how it looks. Because you have built it....should anything go wrong, you should be able to find exactly what is wrong.

Downloading someone elses:
You get a bit mroe security built in. You get smiley faces and many other little features.
It takes less time and probably less stress to get working than your own.

I have actually just started building my own. I know in a week or so i will be sursing my desicion to go it alone, but i personally don't like the way you are so restricted with downloadable forums.

For instance: my forum will be within an area that users will have already logged into, but most forum scripts i have come across all have registration as a must.......but i don't need it. Makes sense?

I think if you have coding experience you should build your own....then build on it to make it better. If not, go with a downloadable one.

You mention you only have the basics of the web, so you should probabkly download one for now. You don't mention which language you will be using, so to give you some other examples, try hotscripts.com, asp101.com and aspin.com.......they are all huge ASP/SQL script sources.

good luck!

[rogerd]

>>most forum scripts i have come across all have registration as a must<<

Many, if not most, forum scripts allow you to make posting possible without registration. Of course, people might use different names to post if you don't pass some kind of a username variable to the forum script.

[BwanaZulia]

Webboy1: That is exactly why I wrote my own. Most forums are treated as eternal parts of the site. There is the "site" and there is the "forum". I wanted to have my forums be part of the site with all the security, structure, interface, navigation, all in one.

By writing my own my site can be:

domian.com/area/subarea/forum_name/

or

domain.com/topic/forum_name

Most sites either do:

forum.domain.com or domain.com/forum (sub forums there).

BZ

[woop01]

If you already have enought knowledge to create your own forum why not download a descent free one and modify the heck out of it until it fits in with your site? I learned most of what I know about programming by purchasing a $200 forum and modifying the heck out of it until it looked like it was part of the site.

[rogerd]

I'd go that route, too, Woop01. A homegrown forum is either going to be very feature-limited (OK for private forums) or is going to take a lot of programming time. The number of hours that have gone into forum software like vBulletin, phpBB, or BestBBS (right, Brett?;)) is huge. What you get for that time are sophisticated admin and moderation features, control-panel management of forums and permissions, style controls, and a lot more.

Major products like phpBB and vBB have a ton of hacks available as well as a very active user community, so there's a good chance someone has already addressed the special feature you absolutely can't live without.

[TheDoctor]

If you already have enought knowledge to create your own forum why not download a descent free one and modify the heck out of it until it

This would be the best solution. There is open-source forum software out there, both freeware and shareware.

Sticky me if you'd like to know which one I use (n commercial link with it).