Questions on making a forum

Shateiel Kruess · Post by **Shateiel Kruess** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 10:22 am

Hey all, just wanted to know a few things about making a forum for a site I'm making.

First off, which of the two would be better? PHPBB or vBulletin? Or is it just a preferance? How about for a person who's fairly new to php?

Secondly, how much space would a forum take? Or how much space can a forum take? And would there be a way of keeping the amount of space it takes to a low amount without sacrificing much of the posts and such?

Also, I'd like to know any words of advice for maintaining and running a forum. I know that if one can master a horde of rabid monkies, one can definitly run a forum, but is there anything else I should know?

Esvoiel · Post by **Esvoiel** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 10:46 am

I find the easist thing to do Is to forget about making my own forum, and just let all the Mods and Admins do the hard work.

Mav · Post by **Mav** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 11:55 am

My suggestion for making a forum? Don't make it based on some stupid role playing game, and then come back here and tell us to go visit and how we're welcome to "start playing." Just don't.

Actually, what Esvoiel said. Don't make one at all.

I mean seriously, whose going to want to talk to you anyways?

Post by **Martin Blank** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 4:38 pm

[quote="Shateiel Kruess";p="113958"]First off, which of the two would be better? PHPBB or vBulletin? Or is it just a preferance? How about for a person who's fairly new to php?[/quote]
Both of them are fairly easy to run for someone who is new at such things. We went with phpBB for reasons of flexibility, but it's really up to you.

Secondly, how much space would a forum take? Or how much space can a forum take? And would there be a way of keeping the amount of space it takes to a low amount without sacrificing much of the posts and such?

The biggest part of the forums here is the database, which right now is a little more than 88MB for 112,000 posts and about 2000 users. Most software allows auto-pruning, which we have disabled for reasons of keeping our history intact. The forum itself takes up probably about 10MB, including the multiple themes and the graphics.

Also, I'd like to know any words of advice for maintaining and running a forum. I know that if one can master a horde of rabid monkies, one can definitly run a forum, but is there anything else I should know?

Yeah, it's harder than it looks. There's a lot you have to deal with behind the scenes, from server issues to complaints about users, and you have to figure out how best to treat the issues so they don't become chronic. If you have a small forum, this isn't so much of a problem, but if you're going to make one that is fairly popular, you may run into more than a few snags along the way keeping things balanced.

billf · Post by **billf** » Sun Jul 13, 2003 8:14 pm

Recently I had been working with a friend on a board powered by Invision Boards. It was similar to PHPBB and was quite easy to work with. I liked it, although I never got to mess with it or PHPBB enough to tell you which one is better.

Newgy · Post by **Newgy** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 12:33 am

I just created a forum resently. (two months or sommin) I used PHPBB. curently the files take up around 5 megs and the database takes up around 900 KB. this is with 13 or so users. It was really easy to set up, and it requires NO PHP knowlage, even doing hacks. (assuming the hacks are writen corectly)

check it out here.

Shateiel Kruess · Post by **Shateiel Kruess** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 2:32 am

Hmm, thanks Martian Blank, for the info I was looking for. Now I can decide if I'll be able to setup a forum or not.

And a little note to Mav; AHAHAHA! That is quite a laugh.

Well, eitherway, with all the helpful and none helpful info I've now gotten here, I can see about whether or not to make a forum for my comic site. Although I doubt it'll really fly though.

Skorpion · Post by **Skorpion** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 8:16 am

Try making an EZBoard, first. That gives you an idea of the basics, and just how much code is needed to make a pretty site.

Webphisher · Post by **Webphisher** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 8:27 am

Ive never used PHPbb, but YaBB has always worked well for me. If your hosting off a Windows box, it takes a small amount of work to get to run, but to me theres something funny about running as much *nix based stuff off a windows box, as I do.

billf · Post by **billf** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 9:12 am

EzBoards is hte d3vil!!!shift111oneoneonewonwonwon

EvilElf · Post by **EvilElf** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 9:14 am

[quote="billf Evil pantless one";p="115512"]EzBoards is hte d3vil!!!shift111oneoneonewonwonwon[/quote]

I agree it is SATAN!

GI Joe · Post by **GI Joe** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 4:45 pm

you may also want to try: http://suddenlaunch.com or http://www.proboards.com

speaking of which, didnt the first new "beta" RLF run on Proboards? I remember it was fun for a while until only 3 of us kept posting....

Post by **Martin Blank** » Wed Jul 16, 2003 5:12 pm

Yeah, Greg tried that out, but a few of us didn't care for it much and it provided some of the impetus to do other things -- like this.

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