Forum Software....

I'm looking to start a forum on a hobby I have.... Any advice on what is needed... Software, etc...

Thanks...
Pappy

Pappy,

Do you have your own website? If so, and if you have C-Panel, you'll find several forum options available to you.

If you don't have the above, first thing you might consider is getting your own domain which reflects your interest as best possible, sign up for web hosting, and go the route listed above.

Pete

http://www.proboards.com/index.html

SowPubs is Powered by vBulletin Version 3.6.0 which many feel is one of the best...

But a few other options to review...
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Progra...cripts/Forums/

Google individual Forum software names and ask for reviews and opinions...

As Pete mentioned C-Panel hosting...

Phil

[MMacGillivray]

One great free software is http://www.usebb.net - you can set it up so that it requires new registrants to answer a random maths question, so that keeps out the hordes of spammers who target some of the other softwares. It's a fairly simple installation, needing 1 mysql database ....

I do like the vbulletin that this forum uses; but you either purchase a license or lease it on an annual basis

Hope that helps
Margaret

[Ankesh]

Hi Pappy,

I personally would recommend:

Vanilla (because it allows you to add a lot of plugins of some very cool features)
http://getvanilla.com/

VBulletin is pretty powerful too. SowPub runs on it. But I think it costs $150. And its admin panel is not the easiest to use out there.

Simple Machines Forum is awesome.
http://www.simplemachines.org/

It's free and there's tons of plug-ins
ie. Adsense, Buy A Beer, Video enabled
and so on.

Very secure. Been using it a couple years now.

Thanks again...
Pappy