Hi,

I am looking into some forum software which can also have an interactive front page - very similar to scoobynet, but not to do with cars.

Anyone got experience of setting one up? I've looked into costs and the software is about £55, then there's hosting (do I need anything special?) and then a domain name. Trying to do it for less than £100 as we are a non-profit making club.... If it goes a little bit over, then not a problem.

Some of the free software gets cluttered up by ads and stuff, so trying to avoid that, but if anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.

Can anyone help?

Cheers
Clare

 

I have a "bit" of experience with VB Software!

VB software is very good and is fairly easy to set-up. Make sure your host supports VB db stuff and you will be ok. Obviously dependant on the traffic, you may get issues, dependant on host facilities and package. The good thing about VB is the support available on-line.

It all depends on how much control you want / features etc. You can certainly sign-up to freebies, but at least doing it right the first time, means you won't need to worry about migration down the line (unless you move hosts, but this is easy).

I may be available as a consultant for £100 an hour.

 

Thanks Shaun

Won't have a tenth the traffic of SNet, so I'm hoping that won't cause issues. Just want somewhere where members can chat, we can make announcements etc. The hosting is the biggest issue, I'm hoping it won't cost loads to find it for vB????

As for your consultancy rate, erm!!!!

 

For vB, and to be honest most other BBS packages you'll need a host that supports php, sql and, I think, perl.

vB is excellent software and is pretty easy to install and configure. If you want free bb software then phpBB is very good.

If you want a free host to have a bit of a mess about on, by that I mean see how easy/difficult things are to configure, then have peek at x10Hosting. They provide a free service, and it supports all the things you'd need to get phpbb and vB installed. It is add supported though, which might put you off. They do have a paid for service too, which removes the ads and I think it's fairly reasonable.

One of the hosts I use here for a couple of sites is HostPapa. They have various packages, the most expensive being CAD $7.95 a month if you take out a 1 year plan, it goes down to 5.95 for two years and 4.95 for three years, that's £4.05, £3.03 and £2.52 per month respectively, which isn't too bad.

The only problem with the mucking about side of things is vB itself, as I don't think they have a free download for a demo version, so you'd have to pay for it before you could install it. I guess one could always obtain a slightly dodgy copy of it for testing purposes, and if it meets the grade, then purchase a copy.

 

I've been using for about 3 years and Markus has pretty much covered it all.

Would I recommend it, definately

Have to admit, I did what was suggested, sourced a non licensed version and then purchased it.

 

Its easy to manage provided you know where your sql is going to be hosted. Most BBS problems are down to locations of sql db.

 

Web Hosting - Cheap Web Hosting, £1/month from UK-Cheapest.co.uk

try that link, they do hosting and domain registration etc and depending on what package you go for I am sure they have the vbulletein software, that should see you all in for less than £100

 

I use fasthosts for hosting our vbulletin forum. Pretty cheap and supports the software so all good

 

Thanks guys, when I get the go ahead to sort this out, I'll be back.

Cheers
Clare

 

BTW that £55 for vbulletin is for leasing it and is a yearly cost.

 

I use Invision Board - very easy to install and manage

 

I've used Invision before and it is good, but wanted something that I can tweak a bit more and not have all those adverts which spoil it I think.

Swiss, I know the £55 is a leased licence, I just wanted to keep costs down

Anyway, the club don't necessarily want a forum at the moment, so may come back to this in the future.......

Cheers for the replies though.
Clare

 

Invision - what adverts?

 

My guess is that Clare is referring to InvisionFree. Which is pretty good, but as said, is supported by adverts, plus you are limited in other ways, for example, I don't think you can add mods (as in add on packs, not as in moderators) to your IB setup.

It looks like a licence for IPB is $149 for a standard one and $299 for a business one, and either of these won't be add supported and you have full control over what you can do.

As cost is an issue here, what you may want to look at is going with the free PHPBB3 and then purchasing vB when funds are available. I am pretty sure it is possible to convert a PHPBB setup to vB. Posts, threads, users and such like should come across, styles and mods would not, and on the style front you may need to tweak things, but if you've purchased a style then most places seem to have them for various board formats. That might be worth looking at before deciding on board software as well.

 

Thanks Markus, I was referring to InvisionFree which has adverts which you can get rid of, but is expensive and depends on how much traffic you get.

Cheers for the replies again