setting up a forum - advice and suggestions wanted

[betauser2]

hi all, a small group of us (friends) are interested in opening a forum (don't sweat guys nothing to rival Wilder's) it won't be pc - security related. i am looking for recommendations for free ones(also preferably add, just by googling i have found three thetopfreeforum.com, mypunbb.com and invisionfree.com. i would greatly appreciate any other suggestions. i am very wary of privacy policies aswell.

any advice and suggestions?

betauser2

[ErikAlbert]

Copy/Paste images directly in the post area would be a good improvement in forum softwares. :)
Another good improvement would be that a string of spaces is allowed in the post area in stead of removing them and replace them by one space. Typing text in columns in a post area is almost impossible or very inconvenient.
Fixed spaces is also a possible solution (i.e. ctrl+space).

[iceni60]

you could look into www.phpbb.com/

if it was me when i decided what to get i'd go to a security board that uses it and ask what to do to keep it secure. i suppose it's the same as your computer. use really strong passwords, keep everything up to date and turn off stuff you don't use. ???

[Nick Rhodes]

I used to use Invision Free (when it was a free download rather than a free-hostsed service) for years (http://forum.205gtidrivers.com), infact we upgraded to the paid version before I stopped running my forum. Stable, scaled nicely to load balanced servers.
Real easy to admin and setup and manage users.

[Nick Rhodes]

-{ Quote: "Copy/Paste images directly in the post area would be a good improvement in forum softwares. :)" }-

Problem with that is automatically uploading the image from your machine to the internet... it would definatly need a clientside plugin.

-{ Quote: "
Another good improvement would be that a string of spaces is allowed in the post area in stead of removing them and replace them by one space. Typing text in columns in a post area is almost impossible or very inconvenient.
Fixed spaces is also a possible solution (i.e. ctrl+space)." }-

I think if you wrap text in code tags it works...

10 spaces
20 spaces
10 spaces
20 spaces

Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4
Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4

Does that help ?

[betauser2]

any opinions on http://www.forumup.com/ ?

i can't seem to find a their TOS or Privacy policy

betauser2

[ErikAlbert]

-{ Quote: "
I think if you wrap text in code tags it works...

10 spaces
20 spaces
10 spaces
20 spaces

Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4
Col 1 Col 2 Col 3 Col 4

Does that help ?" }-
Thanks for the tip, I will try it when I need it again. :)

[DonMartin]

I have used Ikonboard, that is a free and stable product, for more than 2 years now.
If you register you´ll get superb support if you run into any problems.
www.ikonboard.com

Regards/ Don

PS set up a MySQL database in the beginning. Then You don't have to convert later if your forum will be popular.

More information about modifying, skins a.s.o.
http://swarf.net/forums/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi

[betauser2]

ooops forgot about this thread,

thanks for the help guys! I've settled for smf (http://www.simplemachines.org/) in the end (forums been up for a couple of months)

cheers