Starting a forum

[Georges]

Hi all,

As least computer illiterate of our (medical) society I was asked to setup a community discussion forum. I kind of like the one Indigo Rose uses here but also found phpbb to be quite nice. It is also open source and looks very well supported. Any drawbacks here or can I feel confident about it ? All suggestions very welcome.

Sincerely,

Georges

[Corey]

None of them are particulary excellent, but VBulletin does OK for us. Some people have very good luck with PHPBB as well as UBB. If you are able to attract some loyal members they will stick with you regardless and tell you what they need. The main thing is to make sure and really define what atmosphere you want to provide and then focus on that regardless of which software you use. It can be tough at times of course, but well worth it in the end.

[Brett]

phpBB is pretty decent. I have used it on a few sites. It doesn't have the feature richness or tech support of vBulletin, but it certainly does the job. If you can part with the US$170 (I think) for vBulletin, I would reccomend going with it instead. Going with a paid solution will provide you with better support and accountability for the software over a free solution.

That being said, if you are on a tight budget, phpBB is easy to setup and certainly does work well.

[Corey]

The support you receive from most paid forums is zilch. Vbulletin support isn't worth a penny, nor is UBB. Very bad track record for both.

[Georges]

That being said, if you are on a tight budget, phpBB is easy to setup and certainly does work well.

Dear Brett and Corey,


Thanks for sharing Your viewpoint on this. As the board I am talking about is pretty small ( a discussion forum for about 250 experts) and budget provided by our "generous" government ="nil" I will start with phpbb as they provide also good language packs (the board must be in Dutch or French)

Thanks for Your quick and clear comments. I found this really helpfull.

CY,

georges

[Corey]

250 is lots, you should have yourself a nice little board there. In fact 250 active members is a very good number, big enough to generate valuable dialog but small enough to avoid rude visitors...

[Colin]

I'll add my quick comments here. vBulletin 3.0 is a great piece of software. It scales very well to handle a couple hundred users and posts to tens of thousands (like we have here on the discussion forums at indigorose.com) to even hundreds of thousands and millions that are on some popular entertainment message boards.

vBulletin is being continually developed and has many administrative features that other forum software does not.

phpBB is also a nice forum software (compared to most forum software it is awesome) - and you can't beat the price. It is quite well suited to small bulletin boards.

I just went through the same decision for my own "hobby" website at http://www.smallbarrels.com (a discussion of Wine, Food and Travel) which needed some discussion software. I actually had phpBB installed, configured and ready to go, but I missed the power and flexibility that was offered in vBulletin and figured the price tag was worth it. vBulletin is more suited to larger forums and their required maintenance.

I hope that helps you out a bit!

[Georges]

I just went through the same decision for my own "hobby" website at http://www.smallbarrels.com (a discussion of Wine, Food and Travel) which needed some discussion software. I actually had phpBB installed, configured and ready to go, but I missed the power and flexibility that was offered in vBulletin and figured the price tag was worth it. vBulletin is more suited to larger forums and their required maintenance.

I hope that helps you out a bit!

Congrats on Your very nice website ! The integration of the discussion forum with the website itself is amazingly smooth and professionally done. I am impressed. Should You ever start a corner on Single Malt Scotch whisky I' will certainly become a member. I have added Your site to my favorites.

Slainthe

Sincerely,

Georges

[Corey]

I agree. Small Barrels is a top notch site.

[Georges]

vBulletin is more suited to larger forums and their required maintenance.

Dear Colin,

the particularity of the forum that I have to set up is that it is not at all a public forum but closed and stricly expert oriented (max membership 250-500) and number of active members probably not more then 5-15 (what I would already consider a succes). It has to serve as discussion and project set up forum but also repertory of consensus text and guidelines (on a particular disorder/disease) so that the collective thinking of solo working experts can be kept together in an interactive community (for authorities and government to consult). From financial viewpoint I would prefer phpbb but as the task of administration and maintenance will come to rest on "my tiny shoulders" I am sensitive to Your arguments about this concerning the vbulletin advantages. Could You tell me what features in Vbulletin can save You maintainance and admin time or ease the way of doing things ? As You have had the experience I think I will probably go with vbulletin.

Thanks

Georges (new member of small barrrel)