Setting up an internet forum

[Sho'Nuff]

Hi Mods!

First things first, I apologize if this post is in the wrong forum. The other subforums on this site did not seem appropriate, and since you guys run the place I thought my question was best asked here.

Put simply, I am looking to establish my own internet forum. Now before you get all up in arms, let me state that the forum would not in any way compete with Anandtech. Rather, my proposed forum is intended to replace the forums on www.intelproplaw.com, which went largely dark on March 28 due to a database error. The administrator of that site is not fixing the issue, and I want to give the rather active intellectual property community on that site an alternative place to post.

That being said, would any of you be willing to explain to me exactly how to set up an internet forum? I know little to nothing about creating a website, much less creating and maintaining a forum. Thus, I expect that I will need quite a bit of handholding. But you would be rewarded with the satisfaction of giving a bunch of geeks the means to discuss technology law in a place where the posts will not be inundated with "lawyers suck!" posts.

Seriously, any assistance you can provide would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

With best regards,

Soxfan

 

[Gillbot]

i'm sure the VB Forums or PHPbb forums would be better suited to answer and assist with these questions. They are the makers of forum software and can give you better details and instructions.

That said, just hop over there and look at the FAQ pages. It's pretty damn easy once you read through it all.

 

[MotF Bane]

Simple Machines Forum, it's another software for forums, but it's free.

 

[olds]

1. Buy a domain name
2. Buy some hosting
3. Set name server
4. Download forum software and install
5. Wonder why no one is using site

Check this site out.

 

[gorcorps]

If you absolutely can't visit another forum, then the software area may be better for this. In fact I remember reading a thread there recently about somebody looking for the best free forum software.

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10



also, Sox are 0-4

 

[Sho'Nuff]

If you absolutely can't visit another forum, then the software area may be better for this. In fact I remember reading a thread there recently about somebody looking for the best free forum software.

http://forums.anandtech.com/forumdisplay.php?f=10


also, Sox are 0-4

I basically followed oldsmoboats steps, and set up an SMF forum last night. I used justhost.com as the webhost. All in all not too difficult considering that I have never "created" anything on the internet before.

As for not having a community, well, I hope that won;t be an issue. The intelproplaw.com forums were quite active (15 million pages served last year) before the site went kaput on March 28, so there is a strong community there. All I am doing is trying to recreate the tool used by the community so that the old users have somewhere they can post.

Finally, enjoy your gloating re: the sox. They always come out of the gate a little slow, but end up in the running in September.

 

[olds]

I basically followed oldsmoboats steps, and set up an SMF forum last night. I used justhost.com as the webhost. All in all not too difficult considering that I have never "created" anything on the internet before.

As for not having a community, well, I hope that won;t be an issue. The intelproplaw.com forums were quite active (15 million pages served last year) before the site went kaput on March 28, so there is a strong community there. All I am doing is trying to recreate the tool used by the community so that the old users have somewhere they can post.

Finally, enjoy your gloating re: the sox. They always come out of the gate a little slow, but end up in the running in September.

Building a community is the difficult part.
Also, see this.