How to start a forum

Ye' old general discussion board. Basically, for everything that isn't covered elsewhere. Come here to shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, or whatever suits your fancy.
This forum is not for asking programming related questions.

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Luke
The Ninja Space Mod
Posts: 6424
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:53 pm
Location: Paradise, CA

How to start a forum

Post by Luke »

I'm thinking of starting a forum for cakephp because it has such horrible documentation and I don't like google groups. I'm just looking for some advice on starting up a forum and recruiting members.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

First, promote it here! OK ok, I'll quiet down about that. But put one up and start posting in it. Make sure there are links in your posts. It won't take long for it to fill up googles results. Hell, have you ever search for your PHPDN handle on google to see what comes up? How many results are forum posts from here?
User avatar
daedalus__
DevNet Resident
Posts: 1925
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:52 pm

Post by daedalus__ »

I searched for 'daedalus camicus' on google and while my website does not rank, my posts here do.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Here are the google results for my handle 'Everah'. Please note, MY WEB SITE IS NUMBER 1 BABY, YEAH, WHO'S THE MAN, YEAH!

/ small cough, uh, yeah, sorry about that.

Notice how many of those are forum related links? In fact, I just signed up four a useBB account last week. It is at number 9.
User avatar
Burrito
Spockulator
Posts: 4715
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 8:15 pm
Location: Eden, Utah

Post by Burrito »

funny...'burrito' doesn't bring up anything in here.
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

But it does bring up my appetite. Hmmm, burritos...
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Burrito wrote:funny...'burrito' doesn't bring up anything in here.
On DevNet? 1193 results for 'burrito' as author. 259 when used as the search term. On google, well heck, forget about that. Unless you are looking for a burrito recipe or burrito restaurant.
User avatar
Burrito
Spockulator
Posts: 4715
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2004 8:15 pm
Location: Eden, Utah

Post by Burrito »

Everah wrote: On DevNet? 1193 results for 'burrito' as author. 259 when used as the search term....
well at least that's comforting.
User avatar
Luke
The Ninja Space Mod
Posts: 6424
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:53 pm
Location: Paradise, CA

Post by Luke »

How about software? I don't have the time to develop forum software, but I am happy to spend a little $$ to get one if it is worth it. What are your suggestions on forum software? The only ones I know of are phpBB and vBulletin, but I know nothing about either (other than posting on them).
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Someone posted about useBB. There is also fudForum and YABB. In fact, if you go to the phpBB web site and look into their converters, they list a number of other forum packages that they can convert from. That might not be a bad place to 'go shopping' for a software package.

phpBB is nice, but is has had some security issues in the past. It is also a little tough to maintain at times, when it comes to the skins and templates that are applied. MODs are a little difficult at times also. I haven't used the others, but useBB seems like a fast alternative to phpBB.
User avatar
Luke
The Ninja Space Mod
Posts: 6424
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:53 pm
Location: Paradise, CA

Post by Luke »

UseBB looks like it will be perfect for my project. Thanks!

I just need to find out if I am going to be able to use their login system on the rest of the site I am building for other functionality. It shouldn't be too difficult, but if it is... I bet phpBB would probably have a lot more resources on how to do so, huh?
User avatar
RobertGonzalez
Site Administrator
Posts: 14293
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2003 6:04 pm
Location: Fremont, CA, USA

Post by RobertGonzalez »

Surpisingly, no. There answer to using their login system is to build your site around their app. Sounds silly, but when I looked in their docs earlier this year that is what was posted.

I have forked their login system before, but the very next upgrade absolutely got porked by my changes, so I did away with my changes in favor of being to update their software.
User avatar
MrPotatoes
Forum Regular
Posts: 617
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 6:42 am

Post by MrPotatoes »

if i'm not writing my own forum (like the one i'm doing now) i'd prefer to use phorum

http://www.phorum.org/
this is what the forum looks like:
http://www.phorum.org/phorum5/

the instal is a little annoying, they could fix that...
Post Reply