Flare Sci-Fi Forums: Starting your own Easyboard...

This is topic Starting your own Easyboard... in forum Officers' Lounge at Flare Sci-Fi Forums.

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Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

I was wondering - maybe this is aimed more at Chuckles, but how hard is it to set up one of these forums?

I'm not THAT comp-tech savvy although I did spend one year building a web-page (i.e. learning html) from scratch instead of studying for exams! [Big Grin]

can anyone spell procrastination!?! [Big Grin]

Are these boards 'free' to use?

You need your own web-space - are there limitations? Clones of this type of board have seemed to crop up every now-a-days.

I want to create an online-meeting place for Australians/New Zealanders (people in that generatl area) to talk about Tori Amos. The only forums out there are inhabited by obnoxious American Tori fans who have seen her perform like 100 times, while she HASN'T been back here in 10 years. Apart from that - I want to make it a regional/Australasian web-board.

Anyone provide me with some answers/info?

Thanks.

Andrew

P.S. Do they require CONSTANT vigilance - or is it only when you get a board with like 1000+ people posting to it?

Andrew

Posted by Captain Boh (Member # 1282) on :

I've run both wbb and phpbb forums on my site before. There isn't too much to it if you just want a simple setup, though they generally require support for PHP and MySQL databases.

Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :

I'm sorry, the implication of non-obnoxious Tori Amos fans has thrown me for a loop.

Setting up an "ezboard" appears to be as simple as going to their website and filling out some forms. And maybe paying; I'm not sure if their "Gold" thing is. . . well, I'm not sure what it is.

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Captain Boh:
I've run both wbb and phpbb forums on my site before. There isn't too much to it if you just want a simple setup, though they generally require support for PHP and MySQL databases.

OK thanks but - wbb, phpbb and MySQL?

WBB = web bulletin board?

"Can I have some money now?"

quote:
Originally posted by Sol System:
I'm sorry, the implication of non-obnoxious Tori Amos fans has thrown me for a loop.

Yes, they are generally found outside the United States. [Smile]

Posted by Cartman (Member # 256) on :

To set up a bulletin board yourself, you need two (and sometimes three) things, basically:

1) A forum software package, free or commercial (Flare, for instance, is built around Infopop's UBB.classic, which is based on Perl, as opposed to UBB.threads, which is based on ordinary PHP), which does the work behind the scenes and allows you to create threads, post replies, etcetera.

2) A server, wether your own or a webhost, that can interpret the programming language your forum scripts are written in (meaning, if you choose a PHP-based package like phpBB or vBulletin, the server has to be able to parse PHP code, which, if it's your own, simply requires installing the PHP binaries on it, or if it's not, searching for one that already has them installed and uploading the scripts manually), and has enough space to last you a few thousand members and threads.

3) A database (MySQL is a package with which you can manage such a database) on that server that your board can access to read from or write to topic files and other data. Wether you need one is dependent on the forum software you use, though. UBB.classic has its own storage and retrieval methods.

(OK, so registering an EZboard account would be, erh, easier, I guess. And cheaper. B))

[ October 30, 2004, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: Cartman ]

Posted by Charles Capps (Member # 9) on :

Order an Eve - hosting and the board all in one, without you needing to lift a finger or set up software... and you don't need to deal with the absolute suckitude that is ezBoard.

SCN uses it, so should you. [Wink]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Besides, Charles has to earn his commission...

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

I like what Charles says - about not having to lift a finger cause - I mean - THANKS a lot Cartman for explaining the ins and outs of web-board hosting - but most of that went over my head! [Smile]

So there IS a way for the 'layman' to run a board for some people with out having to know computer languages etc. Cool.

Thanks.

Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :

Shut yer Fan-Hole, Andrew! [Big Grin]

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

"So there IS a way for the 'layman' to run a board for some people with out having to know computer languages etc."

They can, yes. But should they, is the question...

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Jason Abbadon:
Shut yer Fan-Hole, Andrew!

*guffaw*

Posted by Toadkiller (Member # 425) on :

Oh man - I thought you meant www.scn.org ...

Don't know why...