Forum Advice - Setting Up

chrisjones · 22-07-2008, 20:05

Hi - I'm looking at setting up a 'Members only' forum for my students via my site www.knaresboroughmartialarts.co.uk and would like advice on the best free forum services available.

Im not too fussed about making it look all 'flash' and 'pretty', but I would like to have 100% moderation/control over things as I require it to be strictly for members only. I would need for new users to have to register and for me to have to give the yes/no on applications.

Any and all suggestions would be great.

Damien · 22-07-2008, 20:23

Do you have PHP on there? I would recommend:

http://www.phpbb.com/

DaiNasty · 22-07-2008, 22:17

I'd second that. If you can't do vBulletin then from the free offerings that's the best.

Angua · 22-07-2008, 22:42

These seem to be pretty good for phpbb

They don't upgrade to the latest phpbb very quickly though.

cimt · 22-07-2008, 23:13

http://www.mybboard.net/ isa great equivalent to vBulletin.

Enuff · 22-07-2008, 23:32

SMF is free and easy to use.

chrisjones · 23-07-2008, 07:38

Thanks one and all - Will have a good nosey around these.

One thing though, im currently using a moonfruit based site, not sure it will allow PHP - Know of any decent 'web' based forums?

**Kymmy** · 23-07-2008, 07:44

It depends on what you want...

There's forums and there's CMS (content management systems)

CMS's have not only the forum but other things like a blog, news, articles, calender and gallery built in (depends which CMS you get depends which options/modules you have)

If you want just a forum then VB is the best, but it's not free, for free then phpBB3 though because it's new there's not a lot of add-ons and the add-ons tend to be difficult to install.

Quite a few CMS's and some forums are modular where add-ons are easier to installl/remove

In the end there's lots out there and if you explain more if you just want a forum or if more what you want I'm sure that we can specify better option

Kymmy

chrisjones · 23-07-2008, 08:26

Ok here goes.

Basically I want something my gym members can access, but anyone else cant. So in effect it would have to have a registration system. I only need it to have basic forum type functions and it would have to be easy to set-up as im no expert in such things :-P

**Kymmy** · 23-07-2008, 08:37

OK, just one more question....

Does it have to be hosted on your own system/website.....

If not then go for PROBOARDS or similar, It can be totally private, easy to configure and you don;t need any technical experience.

If you do need it on your website then you need to know basic PHP/MYSQL/FTP as most systems require you to Upload the files, set file permissions, create a MYSQL database and user and then configure the system. Some can be handled easier if your system has Cpanel installed (found on most webhost acoounts)

The only other way is for someone to do it for you but that does imply trust as they'll need passwords/usernames for an account with the required permissions on the server.

Kymmy

chrisjones · 23-07-2008, 09:10

Thanks very much for you help :-)

LSainsbury · 23-07-2008, 09:14

PHP-Fusion is great...I use it for my site - have a look at the link in my sig!

**Kymmy** · 23-07-2008, 09:21

I used fusion for years, it's got everything in it and is quite modular, but I find the fonts restrictive and you really do need to find a good style for it

Kymmy

LSainsbury · 23-07-2008, 09:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

I used fusion for years, it's got everything in it and is quite modular, but I find the fonts restrictive and you really do need to find a good style for it

Kymmy

Have you used v7 yet? Well v7 (currently RC2)

**Kymmy** · 23-07-2008, 09:48

Nah, never bothered as in the end the only forum I had running with Fusion was that modified that V7 would have been a mess to migrate too.

These days I stick with seperates (like VB/phpbb3) then intergrate my own add-ons

Kymmy