Please Help with Creating Forum

A

asusxp1900

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 25, 2002
Messages
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I would like to add a "forum" or "message board" section to my website. I am mostly going to be using dreamweaver mx to create the site or possible flash. My main question is what is the best way to go about designing the forum and what things should I consider before I start (i.e. regulating, rules, etc.). I was also wondering what size space I should buy for the site if I was planning on having a forum. Does a forum take up excessively more or not? Thanks for any advice!
-newbie WebDesigner : p
 
You're a 'newbie web designer' and you're going to make your own forum from scratch.

Good luck unto you.

What's wrong with all the free forums out there? Phpbb? Invision?
 
Theres different sorts of forums, old 'code yourself' ones arent nearly as good or as nice to use as their php / asp counterparts

I sudjest you take a look at phpbb etc, you just whack in it its own directory and give it a database and it sits their playing out you commands :) - forums take up a few meg with thier files and then will grow slowly as the database is added to

Good luck
 
I agree with the consensus so far. This is not a project for a newbie web designer. Dreamweaver is not an appropriate tool for developing a data driven site featuring user/role management and layers of business logic.

If you're on a hosted solution (ie: not your hardware and internet connection), then contact your webhost to see what options you have about adding a forum to your site. Evaluate, pick a solution, then learn how to create/edit templates in that solution.
 
I swear we had this exact same question just last week. Yes, the bottom line is that designing your own forum requires a lot more than just having a copy of Dreamweaver. It requires a pretty deep understanding of web scripting, database design, security, etc.. Far smarter people than us have dedicated years of their time and effort to making some wonderful, intuitive, secure and free forum software for us to use. I suggest you take advantage of those instead of attempting this on your own.
 
If you want it as easy as possible, you can add something like ZetaBoards to your site under a subdomain. It is actually hosted remotely, but they let you set up a CNAME to their servers so it looks just like part of your site.

http://zetaboards.com
 
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