Making a Discussion Board/Forum

[Elwyn]

Hi Everyone!

Can anyone give me any suggestions about how to actually make a discussion board/forum? How do you moderate it? Etc, etc, etc. I am thinking about starting one (of course on a completely different topic than this one) but I have no idea how to go about it. Also, how much time does it take to maintain/moderate a discussion board? There's a lot of things I need to think about, but first I need some info. I was hoping someone here could help me out.

I appreciate any help or suggestions you guys can give me!!!

[danlo]

There are a number of companies you can contact to set up a board--It all depends on what you want out of your board. If you want a simple, no frills discussion board Vain could prob help you set up a phpBB like this or one of his, relatively free, antnet/theland boards. If you want guaranteed advertizing, potential for great graphics and a zillion other features companies like Bravenet and EZBoard are what you're looking for, but they can cost up to 60 dollars per year.

If you keep it simple it's relatively easy to run and moderate a board, depends on the subject matter and the # of members--if you have 50+ members it's always a good idea to ask for active members to help moderate. If you set up a complex and varied board and are AR, like I am at my board, it can take up a good chunk of time...

[Lord Mhoram]

If you make a board, get yourself on Google! Gets you tons more members. Don't make the board's subject too specefic--make it accessible to a large group of people. And most of all, just have fun with your board.

[danlo]

Ads of any sort it xactly what you don't want on your board it will drive folks away in hoards.

[Landwaster]

My board is on EZBoards, its free if you can put up with ads, and $30 (Aust) to become an EZSupporter per 3 months, which takes adds off that board and also if you go to any other EZBoards you get no ads whether they are paid up or not.

VBulletin is another, I dunno their costs. It looks like the one used for KevinsWatch is the niftiest, quickest server type, dunno if it costs anything.

Moderation is actually pretty easy, though there's extra hints that are handy, eg you might want to make a hidden forum where you put any deleted stuff (instead of deleting, move it to a hidden board, that way if anyone complains about what's deleted, you've still got it as evidence).

[danlo]

Wow! I didn't even know you had a board! That's a damm nice looking and well organized one. Didn't know we could expect something like that from the likes of you! Too bad I know nothing about Footy-but it looks very cool all the same.

[Landwaster]

LOL the secret life of ... yeah I run that site, also mod one board on a very popular footy forum, and used to be TalkCity moderator in the heady days of my youth

[Elwyn]

Thanks guys for all your help and tips. I appreciate it! I'm trying a few options and I'll see how it goes. If you have any more ideas to share, web sites I should visit, etc., be sure to let me know!

[I'm Murrin]

I'm looking to set up (another) board myself. The last one vanished in what I think is the seventh time a site/forum run by me has been deleted during a server change. Somebody doesn't want me to run a website.
Anyway, anyone know of a good place I could set up a phpBB (got sick of iB pretty fast, so its back to the good ol' phpBB2)?

BTW, any idea of a good name for discussion board about WoT, aSoIaF, SoT, TCTC etc?

[Landwaster]

I dunno even what all 'arf dem dere letters mean!

(I know the first one and the last one)

[[Syl]]

There are a lot of sites dedicated to epic fantasy, saga (www.saga.com is actually some kind of oil/petrolium company's site) type stuff, but I did a google search for "sword opera" (as opposed to space opera) appearing in either the title or the url of any sites and had no results. So, if you wanted to go for something along the lines of www.swordopera.com/phpbb...