How To Create A Forum

[agent01]

I want to start my own forum (dont worry not for Bh shit) but i want to start a forum for a certain niche, i had a few questions if you guys dont mind answering

How do i make one? ( i know this is general but i want to know where i need to go to make one)

are they free, or do i have to pay to have a forum?

where can i get templates?


thanks

 

[simomura]

Well ... I like Vbulletin and IPB. They are paid forums, but... well... we are members of a Blackhat SEO, maybe you dont want to pay it. You can get a nulled version of both.

 

[Knoxgates]

There is a script by name PHPBB and it's free. Use it instead of using a nulled version. There are lot of free templates for PHPBB.

 

[LiamLC]

Most hosts with CP give you Fantastico which has 2 good free forum softwares:

1) SMF - simplemachines.org
My favorite free forum platform. It's open sources, very expandable, and highly cutomizable.

2) phpBB -phpbb.com
also open source and customizable (and free) and one of the most popular forum platforms.

You can also buy forum softwares:

3) vBulletin - vbulletin.com
Best forum in my opinion (BHW runs on it) It is pretty pricey though. You can get a nulled version but people won't take you as seriously and you don't get updates etc.

4) IPB - invisionpower.com
Very customizable and not so expensive. You should check it out it's a good platform.

You can check out wowbb, yabb, and just google forum platforms. You really can't go wrong with any of the above 4.

Good Luck!

 

[gregstereo]

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/blogging/233010-how-start-forum-guide.html#post2072339

 

[sksugo]

Simple machines forum works okay, PHPBB is a little more confusing to set-up and get cool plugins and stuff but is a little better quality than SMF. I had an SMF forum with 2k members last year (approx 100-150 uniques a day). I ended up deleting the forum because I was bored and didnt want to run it (stupidest mistake I ever made).

I plan on re-creating another forum in the future and this time I would either use PHPBB or upgrade to invisionpower.

The thing with Simple machines forum are the templates weren't very modern. Had to look around quite a bit for a decent looking template & I had approximately 10 bots sign up to my site each day and promote viagara and stuff. that wasn't very fun to deal with.

Either way, both sites are fairly easy to create. If u need help, I may be able to help you out some.

Good luck.

 

[winger]

I've used phpbb and vbulletin in the past.. both are quite good and have their pros and cons. phpbb is very customizable since it's open source, the community is resource-rich already. Vbulletin has a good community too, but you'd have to pay for it.

My 2C: Go with phpbb

http://www.phpbb.com/

 

[JannuBl22t]

I would suggest vB4 (vBulletin 4). I use it in all of my forums.. it's really awesome and has lot's of cool features. Only bad thing is that there aren't many good themes for that program. I have used it for 2-3 years now.