Forum hosting

[Last Hussar]

How does this forum work?  Did you need to pay?  Do you need to host it somewhere yourself?  Is it complicated to start and maintain?

I'm thinking of having another crack at seeing if the TFL yahoo grooup users will use a forum instead of bloody Yahoo Group

[GordonY]

try a visit to www.freeforums.org, ok you have to put up with adverts but it is free.

Gordon

[nikharwood]

This one is powered by: http://www.simplemachines.org/

[Leon]

Matt will be able to explain things better than me, but I believe you pay and download the software from the SMF site (which is the link Nik's put above), and then you need to get hold of a domain to upload the Forum to.  Financially, you'd need to shell out for:

- The forum software
- The domain name (www.tflforum.com is already taken...!)
- The hosting on a 3 monthly basis.

I don't know if there's an ongoing fee for the forum itself though, as there is full support which comes with it, and upgrades become available quite regularly.

If TFL wanted to host it through their site, that would save a lot of the expenses.  Alternatively, there are free forum's on offer, but as Gordon said, you end up with advertising dotted about for them to make their money.

Edited to make me look like I know what I'm talking about... 

[Dazza]

I thought SMF was open source, therefore FREE!

[Leon]

I thought SMF was open source, therefore FREE!

I did say Matt would know better than me...   

[GordonY]

Yeah Dazza, the software is free, the hosting isnt, thats why I suggested the freeforums link, the hosting there is free as well.

you can get an idea of the adverts you have to put up with here : http://anguswargames.freeforums.org/index.php

Gordon

[Megamatman]

Yep SMF is open source and free.

Quite easy to install, when I initially set everything up it took about 30 mins after a few days planning etc!

Took a lot longer to upgrade and get everything how we want it, infact things are upgraded/changed behind the scenes on a v regular basis.

The key is to do your research and know exactly what you're doing, this forum is quite a complex app and I've lost count of the times where my regular backup schedule has come in handy!

Plenty of help out there though but forums are a lot of work.... I'd describe this one as small/medium and we're getting absolutely plagued with spammers.  I'm in the process of modding smf to help with that.

Matt

[lentulus]

You can get an idea of the adverts you have to put up with here : http://anguswargames.freeforums.org/index.php

Had a boo, and had a job finding adds.  Looks like a good site - do you have a sense for how much adminning it takes? Are there approval  mechanisms for subscribers?

[GordonY]

Very little in the way of admin required, since I started it and made the sub-boards I've done almost nothing to it.