Experience with Forum?

[Jodi]

I was trying to find a forum to put on my website. I've been looking at www.simplemachines.com and it is free to add. I guess if you want their help, you pay $49.00 a year. Has anyone added a forum on their website?

Is their alot involved in it? Like this forum, I guess hostgator does it. What exactly do THEY do? make sure it goes smoothly? Stays to the rules?
Just wondering which way to go.

Thanks,
Jodi

[Jodi]

Is there anyone out there who can answer my question about the forum?

Please?

[boysbach]

If you are hosted by hostgator you can add a forum from there. I did a forum a long time ago using invision free which you can link to your website, but I don't really have the answer sorry

[kayceee]

I've used the SMF (Simplemachines) forum - it's good and very easy to use, or at least it was for me...

If you're hosted on a Cpanel account (with Hostgator or elsewhere) you can install SMF (or PHPbb) through Cpanel, making it even easier.

I chose SMF over PHPbb because it had a better track record for security. It isn't necessarily a more robost product, but PHPbb has been around forever and it's everywhere, making it a target for exploits. OTOH, there are more "skins" and other features available for PHPbb...

Whichever you install, you should routinely check for and install updates - most forum packages notify the administrator when updates are available and make the process very easy to do.

For me, moderating the forum is the hardest part - you'll (hopefully) have some great people join your board, but you'll also get your share of trolls, spammers and other People Who Don't Play Nice With Others. Managing the last 3 groups can get awfully labor-intensive, which is why I rarely do forums .