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Setting Up A Forum


Mrs. Muddled

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My husband and I live in a multi building new condo development. Folks are wanting a forum of some kind, beyond those awful strata meetings, where they can communicate with other owners.

 

What are your thoughts on this? My concern is that it would soon turn into a venue for neighbours to start slagging each other about noise, or not cleaning up after their dogs ... or the discrepancies in their condo units that aren't being taken care of by the builder ... if you catch my drift?

 

Obviously there would have to be controls on the forum.

 

Just how simple/difficult is it to set up a forum, like TCH uses?

 

I suppose the other option would be to set up an email address on gmail, something like that. People who want their email addresses visible could communicate that way.

 

Anyhoo, I'd like to hear what y'all have to say about this.

 

MM

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There is a free one included in the hosting packages (SMF).

 

This forum uses Invision Power Board. The only downside is that it costs money ($150). I use IPB for my local RC club and it is VERY easy to use and manage.

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There is a free one included in the hosting packages (SMF).

 

This forum uses Invision Power Board. The only downside is that it costs money ($150). I use IPB for my local RC club and it is VERY easy to use and manage.

 

I shall see just how much interest in this forum idea grows and if there's lots, the money wouldn't likely be an issue.

Edited by Mrs. Muddled
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I too use IPB, but I am running an older version which back in the day was free of charge. It is no longer available (but there are still a few developers who patch it if/when vulnerabilities are found)...

 

SMF is Simple Machines Forum . It is a very simple and easy to use forum. I installed it once as a test, it was pretty straight forward, but having used IPB for like 6 or so years I am far more comfortable with that.

 

You will find loyal customers for all forums, equally you will find disgruntled ones too. There are loads of forums out there, but if you are inexperienced with forums then the best route is probably to go with the SMF install direct from fantastico in your cpanel. It will set everything up for you automatically so you don't need to fuss about.

 

SMF: http://www.simplemachines.org/ (free)

Invision Board: http://www.invisionpower.com/community/board/index.html (charged)

VBulletin: http://www.vbulletin.com/ (charged)

phpBB: http://www.phpbb.com/ (free)

 

 

Those are probably the four most popular forums around. Although there are others. I would have a look at each and the support they all offer and see if they are the right ones for you (if you decide there is indeed interest for a forum with your site)

Edited by OJB
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Thank you.

 

Oops, I should have done a search on that SMF first. Never occurred to me.

 

So, sounds like folks have lots of trouble with SPAM. Hmm.

 

This forum I am considering will only be used by a very small group of people. "If" I decide to set it up everyone will have to use their real names to keep them honest, and there will be no public access. I am assuming here that it's possible for me to set it up this way. I just want a VERY basic forum set up.

 

I looked up Invision and read their details. It is far more than I need.

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Thank you.

 

Oops, I should have done a search on that SMF first. Never occurred to me.

 

So, sounds like folks have lots of trouble with SPAM. Hmm.

 

This forum I am considering will only be used by a very small group of people. "If" I decide to set it up everyone will have to use their real names to keep them honest, and there will be no public access. I am assuming here that it's possible for me to set it up this way. I just want a VERY basic forum set up.

 

I looked up Invision and read their details. It is far more than I need.

 

 

Spam can be a problem. It certainly was (and in a way still is) on my forum but I won't get into that. If you are setting up a forum for a very select few people then spam should not be an issue because you can manually activate accounts yourself. Make sure guests can't post and members cannot post until they have been approved by an administrator. This way all the annoying bots/people who spam all day should not get the opportunity to do so. Spam is more a problem when you have a very public forum with free registration and email account validation (not administrator validation). But each forum has either core elements built in which help tackle the spam problem or add-ons/modifications you can download which will help.

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  • 11 months later...

I use phpBB and quite happy with it. the version 3 it quite powerful too, in comparison to version 2. it's very popular, and they are getting help from professional web security firm to review their code, which is great. every web software, especially popular one, is vulnerable to spam. you'd most likely need install some mods or plugins to fight it off for whatever script you choose.

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