Support Forums

So you wish to start a forum? Please read below:

To begin, I must ask this of you: Will you be dedicated? Will you spend atleast 1 hour on it a day to better it? If you said no, I recommend not starting. If you said yes, here's where to begin:

• Find a nichè that suites you. An example of this would be: A forum dedicated to the history of the Roman way of life. It has to be something that appeases you, and you want to stick to. If you don't agree with the subject, you won't stick with it.
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• Next, I would find a software you wish to run your forum off of. Some examples would be: Simple Machines Forums (SMF), MyBulletinBoard (MyBB), Invision Power Board, (IPB), etcetera. Some may cost money, but those are most of the time worth the extra cash. They have alot of cool features.
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• Pick a domain relating to your nichè. Let's use the example above about Roman history. We could get two types of domains: A free domain, or a paid one. Free ones are usually stuck with those who don't want to put out the money to pay. They may also relate those to who don't have the money to put out. Which is fine too. But a paid domain shows you're ready to put some effort into the site. So, most likely find a paid one. Back to our example: romanhistory.com would be a good one, wouldn't it? Yes. It fits your nichè perfectly. But if it's taken, you should go with something like.. romanhistory.net. Same thing, just different ending.
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• Find a good host. Most good hosts are paid, but there are some good free ones out there. I recommend you choose wisely because you don't want a host that goes offline often. That would destroy traffic you'd get to your site.
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• Setting up the forums: this is the easy part. You create forums, and sub-forums to fit your sites purpose. You could also add plugins to better your forums as well - such as the Awards plugin on this site. It gives a feature to the posters of your forums, to keep them coming back.
  

If you have any questions / concerns, please Private Message me.

-LS

Well really to start a forum you need to be on for more than 1 hour a day to begin with. You have to market the heck out of it lol. Other than that it is a nice little write up

That's a good guide for starters, thanks.

Thank you for the guide.

It's always good to see other members contributing and helping out others.

I would rep him because he's been making good contributions but I've already repped 2 people today 1 was to skill for a good transaction we had.

I also wanted to give him +rep as he deserved it but sadly, I have exceeded my daily limit.

Hello Grizzely;

I agree that a new based forum should have put work into of more than an hour a day, and that's why I specified atleast

-LS

Yes, as the forum starts getting a lot of members it should be ok to start cutting down to about an hour a day, depending on what you want your forum to do. But, if you did that I would think you should get a very trusted member and give him some limited Admin CP access (depending on your forum software, many forum software give you the ability to limit what certain admin groups can do)

One thing I would add, is if you are going to set up a forum with a group of people/friends, that someone be declared as the main person and in charge. Most forums that are started by a group eventually fail, or the group splits, because of bickering and arguing and dumb ideas being implemented for the forum. There needs to be someone there that can stand up and take charge and just say "No, this idea is stupid, we're not doing it. Period."

And the sad thing about writing tutorials here is that very few members will actually stop and post a reply thanking you for the tut. I have one that has had 67 or so views and only about 4 people have responded.

it can be alot of work running a forum

Hello;

Thank you for your feedback Grizzely, but I'm going to keep this tutorial basic for members who are just beginning a forum. I understand your point, and I agree with it 100%. I may in the near future write a very detailed way of beginning a forum, with references to a "Forum" book I've purchased.

And a thank you isn't necessary as long as others read and learn.

-LS