BL

A group of us want to start a messgeboard for traders.

As we do not have a clue about creating one. Can someone point us in the right direction with regards to creating one.

Ie Software, hosting etc etc.

As much help would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Bob

wayne9t9

This ones popular and free http://www.proboards.com/index.html

IanW

Bob,

IT all depends what you want to do with it, hosting wise you dont need much, something that supports PHP and MYSQL (this can cost below £5 a month).

THen you just need a forum script, e.g. http://www.phpbb.com which is actually free!

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Caroline wants to create a messageboard, and I've been told to do the technical part!

Where do I start? I've had a quick look on www.phpbb.com and I'll probably need to spend a bit more time reading through the basics.

I'm currently using Titan, but to start a new domain, with hosting packing incorporating php and mySQL, it will cost me over £100 a year!
Are there any recommendations on a cheaper option? Please PM me if necessary.

Cheers
Andy

jowl

Despends on what you want, how big, professional etc but

Invision

Do a free (ad-supported?) board all the way up to a full version that requires hosting etc

mark.coleman

I used to use the Invisionfree service. Invision were very good until one of their servers went down and left us without anything for a week or so. The software is easy and flexble to use, but does have it limitations.

I now use vBulletin, on a hosted service www.34sp.com and have found them ok. I can't fault the Vbulletin software, better than anything I've seen out there, but you pay for it.

PHP is ok, but very limited.

I'd really look first at what you want to acheive and how much control you want over it. Also take into consideration forum backups.

Markus

Andy,
As others have said, InvisionFree (Ad Supported) might be worth a look. It depends on what Caroline wants the board for and how busy it might become. Invision does allow you to switch to a subscriber mode and have your own domain as well.

Unless she does not want your domain appearing in the URL for her board, there is nothing to stop you adding in SQL support on your existing Titan account. I did exactly that to mine, got Titan to create me an SQL database, which could be used for phpbb.

You could also host it yourself on a machine. Use DynDNS or something similar to give a slightly more meaningfull DNS name to an IP Address (maybe to the router, then port forward to a PC you have running as a server). You could then have a Windows/*nix/Mac server sitting there running PHP, SQL, Apache (rather use that than IIS on Windows) and phpbb, or, whatever other forum software you want (SMF - Small Machine Forum is quite nice).
This would use your existng bandwidth though, and the management would be totally under your control, but that can be a good thing.

Andy Tang

iTrader: (3)

Cheers Markus! Hope you are keeping well BTW!

I think Caroline would like her own domain name, and I guess it would be easier for Caroline to have her own domain space as mine is full!

Sounds like IanW is doing a masterclass on creating messageboards!

Markus

Andy,
Doing well here, hope all three of you are doing well too

Ian knows a thing or two about message boards.

BL

Andy

Ive subscribed to 34sp. Prettu cheap for what it is. Ive selected a basic package whilst in development stages and will upgrade once completed.