Costs of running a forum

[Mooseyb 10]

Originally posted by JoePritchard

Not quite - PHP is a server-side development scripting language that is used to write software such as phpBB and vBulletin.

 

I have to be technical...I'm a geek...

 

Joe

 

Im saying nothing.

[owdlad 10]

Originally posted by JoePritchard

Not quite - PHP is a server-side development scripting language that is used to write software such as phpBB and vBulletin.

 

I have to be technical...I'm a geek...

 

Joe

 

I thought you were from Warsop?........OH Geek, not Greek

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by JoePritchard

Not quite - PHP is a server-side development scripting language that is used to write software such as phpBB and vBulletin.

 

I have to be technical...I'm a geek...

 

Joe

 

I was thinking the same thing, does that make me a geek too

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by JoePritchard

Then you have monthly hosting - let's be generous and say £50.00 / month to give you lots of bandwidth and space and backups.

 

Surely Shef forum does not pay that much monthly. I don't believe it can consume that much bandwidth, after all there are no pictures/avatars being uploaded. If it is I presume it isn't on a shared hosting package.

 

 

Originally posted by MooseyB

Webspace that I use is £2.50 a month with lots of free space and bandwidth - http://www.dataflame.co.uk.

 

Sounds far too cheap too me. Do you host a forum using that, as it wasn't clear from your post.

 

Also remember with the current exchange rate, US hosts can offer a better deal than the UK hosts. It all depends on what you want, and if you will be needed support over the telephone or are happy with a ticket system.

 

PhPBB is a good forum to start with it is free, it isn't as advanced as VB but their are many hacks out there for it.

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by owdlad

Thanks guys. The one I am interested in only has around 30 messages per day tops, there is a chat room attached to it, and only around 2000 members.

 

Have a look at

 

http://www.kualo.co.uk and

http://www.xilo.net

 

Avoid hosts like this http://www.streamline.net. There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth (you always suffer on the instantaneous data transfer/bandwidth as a result), also they are resellers.

[JoeP 11]

They threw the Geeks out of Warsop, owdlad! I was on the last bus out!

 

Skatiechik, you're only a geek if you want to be. I have chosen to embrace my inner geek!

[Mooseyb 10]

Originally posted by Skatiechik

Sounds far too cheap too me. Do you host a forum using that, as it wasn't clear from your post.

 

I do indeed. Its 500mb webspace and 20gb traffic per month, with database access, and everything else I needed. They even installed the phpBB for me in one click of a button. It is very cheap I agree. Ive been very happy with them.

[Moon Maiden 10]

costs of a forum really depend on your hosting company and what software you want to use. I use PNphpBB and PHPBB for forums I run and they handle the numbers quite easily.

 

Postnuke is a good community system to use and fairly easy to install as is the PHPbb boards on both systems.

 

I have two different hosts - valuehost which charges something like £100 for two years hosting with large amounts of space and bandwidth and numerous database and greenmanhosting which is a pagan friend of mine, they have packages between £1.99 and £5.99 for a few gig of bandwidth and decent amount of space too.

 

Then you have you domain names if you can get one or want one.

 

As for how much time you put into it, obviously there are the setting up bits and then you can choose to have a moderated one like SF or like the one I run which has no moderators and allows the users to police themselves or face moi...they usually decide to police themselves BTW

 

Moon

[Martin_s 10]

Originally posted by JoePritchard

And then there's the time taken to moderate and maintain the system - if people are volunteering then it's not an actual 'cash' cost but it can be if you take time off of work to do teh modding and maintainence when needed.

This is ultimately going to be your biggest cost... Above all else you have to factor in things like...

 

Getting the word out will factor heavily initially and your costs will be pretty minimal...

 

What will cost you is when it gets bigger...

 

You will spend literally weeks working out what your policy will be regarding users actions on your forum. What's acceptable, what's not... And you will quite literally be villified by around a third of your community who are quite happy to freeload on your efforts and tell you how biased, cr*p and awful your forum is.

 

In short you'll not get a heck of a lot of thanks for it... so don't expect any...

 

This extends to your moderating team also... You have to be sure that they will follow your lead and direction on what is and isn't acceptable... that they are impartial and honest... and that you won't lose control of your system.

 

I could scare the bejezus out of you with some of the stories regardingly rogue volunteers and the sorts of people you will find making your life very difficult indeed. The worst ones being those who play within the rules.... just... play games with you the whole time and make you look like a fool.

 

 

Yes... I know, pretty picture isn't it... but that's based on running 3 seperate forums with far smaller numbers of members than you see on this one.

[cgksheff 44]

Originally posted by Martin_s

and tell you how biased, cr*p and awful your forum is.

 

you mean like this?

[Martin_s 10]

Originally posted by cgksheff

you mean like this?

Heh heh... yes, that's just for starters... Chances are that's someone who is already on this forum registered as someone else and who just wants to troll...

 

Oh yes... "Trolls"... look that one up... They're everywhere.

[Skatiechik 10]

Originally posted by cgksheff

you mean like this?

 

Thats minor, there is a lot worse.