Setting up a forum

[Thanatos]

I was waiting for 'priceless' somewhere in there

[valkyre]

If you can afford it somehow, vBulletin is the best, at least for me.

The next best thing is Invision Board.

[dancity]

If you can afford it somehow, vBulletin is the best, at least for me.

The next best thing is Invision Board.

Agreed, Invision is the best boards. I eveen have it on my work's network Everyone says that its way easy to use and send private messages and post topics.

[eXPerience-XP]

I was waiting for 'priceless' somewhere in there

u must be blind......... u have to acutally read the posts for ur host u would use Tripod UK and for ur forum u would use invision or phpBB

[Jacky]

It's easy to say but HARD to do!!

PHP --- this thing --- Hmmm --- spent me lots of time to understand and install.

MySQL --- this thing --- --- the same result!!!

But, if you have made it, you will feel much happy, of course!

Since I have installed IPB, it's easy for me to install others such as "vBulletin" and "phpBB".

I find IPB really good, really. In my opinion, IPB is better than "vBulletin" and "phpBB". So I suggest you install IPB instead of others.

[EchoNoise]

Try Vanilla forum

[Daemonforce]

Am I the only one here that uses ASP.NET?

[-I-]

thats not That odd, most people get hosted on a linux server, and ASP.NET isn't offered on most *nix servers..

[Dels]

how about phpnuke + phpbb? or maybe mambo?

[WBHoenig]

Personally, I'd run phpBB myself first.

Edited August 30, 2006 by WBHoenig

[nmX.Memnoch]

Another up and coming free forum is Simple Machines Forum.

http://www.simplemachines.org/

vBulletin is the best IMO, but SMF is pretty good for a free forum.

phpBB is the most common, but after having used vBulletin for years phpBB just lacks too many features.

[WBHoenig]

http://www.invisionboard.com/ is very easy and free. This is what MSFN uses. You will need access to mysql database and know a little about php, of course if you have a host they can and should help you to install it.

Invision ain't free anymore...

It costs $70 for a yearly license and $185 for a perminate license.

As far as installation of PHP and MySQL, you can host it yourself (I don't recommend, however, you doing this for any reason other than testing... ) You can use Xampp. It is preconfigured Apache server w/ php5 or 4 (you choose) and MySQL (to configure it, you press one button and load phpMyAdmin).

Are there any good ASP/ASP.Net forum solutions out there? I don't want this to turn into a PHP -vs- ASP debate, but it kinda shows how people (devs) like php better than asp(.net)

[atomizer]

it sounds to me like your pretty inexpierenced. if you don't need PHP/SQL for anything else, then i would highly suggest you bypass any forum s/w that uses a database. do a search for forum s/w that uses a "flat file", as you won't need PHP/SQL. there are plenty of free ones.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Are there any good ASP/ASP.Net forum solutions out there?

There are a few. Snitz is the most common one I see on forums that use ASP though.

http://forum.snitz.com/

it kinda shows how people (devs) like php better than asp(.net)

It's not that they like it better. It's not even that one is easier to code for than the other, or that help is more readily available for either one...it's about the same for both. It's just that PHP/MySQL are more readily available to people. Developing for ASP.NET will require that you have a Windows Server at your disposal...and it'll require your customers have the same. When you go looking for a hosting company their servers are usually running either some flavor or Linux or FreeBSD. While it's true that there are .NET binaries for BSD (not sure about Linux), most hosting providers don't have them installed.

i would highly suggest you bypass any forum s/w that uses a database. do a search for forum s/w that uses a "flat file", as you won't need PHP/SQL. there are plenty of free ones.

That would be a big NEGATIVE. Always, always, always use a forum that uses a database. It'll run MUCH faster, be indexed for searching, be easier to backup, easier to recover, etc, etc.

Flat Files = Bad

[ClauSoft]

I think you should go on PHPBB...it has a lot of support and mods. Maybe you can download directly a "modified PHPBB".