# Website forum creation.



## Sharker (Jan 29, 2003)

Hi all, I am planning to build a website but Im completely new to website building. Particularly, I would like to know, is it difficult to put a forum on a website? And how should I go about it?

If I create a website without a forum, do I have to do anything to make sure its compatible with the inclusion of a forum in the future? 

Also can you recommend some free general website building software?

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## firestormer (Sep 16, 2005)

I prefere phpbb 3 for a forum:
http://www.phpbb.com/

nice and easy to use and very comprehensive.
You need to make sure you have access to an sql database on your server

Not sure about website building software but you might like to look into a CMS (content management system) which will allow you to edit page easily. I quite like website baker as a nice simple one http://start.websitebaker2.org/en/introduction.html
but there are many other cms's out there. Also there is an unofficial module for wb that allows you to integrate phpbb and wb.
Another popular forum is vbulliten, just do a google seach.


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## TheRobatron (Oct 25, 2007)

I tried PHPBB 2 on my site, but I now use Invision Power Board. If you're looking for a free forum, PHPBB is good, but IPB is definitely worth the money.

You don't need to make your site 'compatible' with the forum software, but if you want to make the forum look the same as your site you can edit the skin.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

SMF is another free PHP-based forum to consider. I'm also a fan of phpBB. :up:

Peace...


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## DotHQ (May 6, 2008)

Any website can have a forum added to it. No design considerations other than using the same or complimenting color schemes. The only drawback to free forum software is once your forum takes off and you decide to upgrade that can be a bit tricky. But for learning the in's and out's of forums free is the way to go.
I prefer VB. All the forums I found that I like to spend time on and were easy to navigate were VB so I became a fan. When I decided to open my own I jumped in with both feet and went straight for VB.
A website totally dedicated to Forum Administration is "The Admin Zone" www.theadminzone.com 
Lots of reviews and pluses and minuses about every kind of forum software out there. You'll also find some new forums and their creator on TAZ. They are there looking for folks to try out their software. You never know which one will be the next VB or IPB (Both are highly successful versions of paid forum software)


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## chiliwormeater45 (Jul 2, 2007)

phpBB3 is a really great forum software that is customizable. I like AEF forum better. Another alternative is SMF 

If you want to make your own forum, you will have to learn about a server side language and a database system.


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

I used Ikonboard for a few years. Wasn't that bad. I don't have anything to compare it too. I hear phpBB is one of the better free ones. I have had some experience with Snitz but wouldn't recommend it if you are going to have a lot of traffic to your website.


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## chiliwormeater45 (Jul 2, 2007)

Is Snitz customizable and why don't you recommend it for high traffic web sites?


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## Squashman (Apr 4, 2003)

chiliwormeater45 said:


> Is Snitz customizable and why don't you recommend it for high traffic web sites?


It just never seemed to be as fast as phpBB. I am apart of a forum that use to use Snitz and we migrated to phpBB because the member base became rather large. Using snitz it became very slow. Once we were on phpBB, it seemed to speed everything up.

It is also ASP based so that limits you to a Windows Server for a webhost.


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## chiliwormeater45 (Jul 2, 2007)

I always found ASP to be slow, so it makes sense that it was very slow. Windows servers must be very slow. I only use PHP forums, which seem to be very fast. I guess windows servers are just slow. Another reason ASP is useless lol it's way too slow


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Not all Windows servers are slow and there are some major websites hosted on Windows servers, like eBay.com.

Peace...


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## chiliwormeater45 (Jul 2, 2007)

However, wouldn't you agree that PHP is easier to learn for making forums? It's a lot more efficient to use and easier to learn. There may be some faster Windows servers but apache servers are easier to use, and a find them a lot faster, but I could be wrong.

It wouldn't be difficult to get a forum on a website, get a decent pre-written script, and change a few things. Even when using prewritten scripts, you would have to know at least a little of the language it was made with, so you could, add in your database details and create the tables for the script.


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

chiliwormeater45 said:


> However, wouldn't you agree that PHP is easier to learn for making forums? It's a lot more efficient to use and easier to learn. There may be some faster Windows servers but apache servers are easier to use, and a find them a lot faster, but I could be wrong.


PHP is arguably more _popular_ than ASP but I don't think that makes it a preferred language for writing online forums. An experienced ASP developer could write an online forum as efficiently as an experienced PHP developer.

There's nothing inherently wrong with developing a forum using ASP but the current trend has been to use PHP for such applications.

Peace...


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

Do you have windows or linux servers?


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## Peepo (Sep 21, 2005)

Im a freelance website designer looking for experience, I will happily build you a small website for free including a forum in return all I ask is my logo on the site somewhere.. All you need to do is get some server space that allows you to have a mysql database on it. Send me a pm if youre interested


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## Sharker (Jan 29, 2003)

Hi all and thanks for all the suggestions. As I mentioned, Im completely new to this, so a few more questions:

If I start building a website with one application, am I stuck with that application? Or is it usually easy to import it into another website building application later on?

Hi Dannyn, as to the Windows/Linux question, Im still in the learning and planning stage and havent got the web space yet. Any suggestions on what web space to get?

Chiliwormeater45 mentioned that I would have to learn some server side language and a database system. Is this involved? (I have programming experience in non-visual languages.)


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## tomdkat (May 6, 2006)

Sharker said:


> If I start building a website with one application, am I stuck with that application? Or is it usually easy to import it into another website building application later on?


It depends on the app you use. Some will store the site in a proprietary format that will be converted to regular HTML when you publish the site or if you export the site. Others will work with the site in HTML all the time so migrating to another app will be easy.

Peace...


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