I want to add a forum to my site

[Ladyaseret]

I have downloaded all of the info from phpBB but I do not know how to do this. Is there anyone out there that could help me with this? Is it easy to do?

Thanks in Advance

Ladyaseret

[siguie]

Yes it is "easy" and someone did write up a extremely detailed "how to" thread BUT it sounds like you are relatively new to forum installations and you should keep in mind that phpBB is very close to releasing it's formal version 3 (I believe it's at the RC3 stage now). What this means is that version 3 is not quite ready and version 2 will soon need to be updated.

Personally I think phpBB is the best forum system available BUT right now and especially on BlueHost with it's CPU Load issues you should consider another forum ... like SMF ... it's more resource friendly and easier to update :)

[charlesgan]

find this phpbb setup manual useful
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/build-a-phpbb-forum

[tea base]

yes,phpBB is easy to setup.:)
BTW vBulletin(this bluehost forum system) is nice,but it is not free.

[charlesgan]

vbulletin is per year license..
if not mistaken is 85/yr.. and if you divide it... will just $7 per month. :rolleyes:

[Ahlawi]

Among free and open source software, phpBB tops my list. Fairly good product, huge MOD database, and pretty good support.

If you haven't got much time, and want to see what the new phpbb3 can offer, just try it out on this host : create forum (http://www.forumotion.com)

Hope this can help!

[fwerginz]

I agree that phpbb is about the best. I did a lot of research into the various free ones and it was, at least for my purpose, the most feature rich and still easy enough to deal with.

The downside is that there are so many extensions and I've installed several. I'm really not looking forward to upgrading to version 3 since each one has to be added manually (i.e. line by line). That's going to be a lot of work.

Another problem I had was a lot of spammers creating bogus accounts. It took a while to get control of that.

Overall, it's very easy to maintain and manage.

[anandsoft]

Being very popular, phpBB is also prone to hacking. It needs to be updated with patches, revisions, etc. from time to time. It may be worthwhile to go for a less known (or even paid) forum software even if the features are less compared to phpBB. It would save lot of headache.

[happy2007]

my vote goes for SMF (simplemachines.org)
They have a great forum software, and its free.

[sidhudes]

I use simplemachines.org , mybboard.net , and sonicbb.

[WHJunkie]

Hello newbie, you need to learn some basic knowledge about phpBB at official phpBB website. Or you can try SMF, it have most features that you do not need to do any mods and hacks.