Set up a forum for a website to allow visitors to post comments on various topics.
If you own or want to start a social website, you can do so by starting an online forum. Online forums allow visitors to post comments on websites and discuss a variety of topics. Establish a single topic or broaden your website's focus to include general discussions on different topics. A forum website allows you to assign moderators to approve posts and monitor discussions or answer questions. Starting a forum might seem difficult, but it requires only about two hours to set up.
Instructions
1. Select a forum domain name. Most forums center around one general topic. For instance, some forums might focus on recipes or pets. Within the forum, include several subtopics, but the domain name should identify the overall topic. If you want to host a forum about hobbies, select something such as Jack's Hobbies Discussions.com
2. Select a webhost. Choose one that offers plenty of bandwidth and storage space. Most webhosts such as IPower Web and Start Host offer unlimited space and bandwidth. Webhosts such as Powweb also offer load-balanced services that ensure clogged Internet connections get quickly re-routed to open lines.
3. Choose a forum script, which provides the framework allowing users to login and post comments. The forum script has an administration panel that allows administrators the ability to approve comments, create more forum topics and delete old or inappropriate posts. Two popular, open-source forum scripts are PHP Bulletin Board and Simple Machines. To locate the webhosts forum scripts, check the Fantastico or Elephanta software packages in the administration panel in the webhost account.
4. Install the forum from within the administration panel by selecting the forum script to use. Click "install." Select a username and a password, and the online installation program installs the forum.
5. Customize your forum by adding discussion topics and creating rules for user registration. Follow the link provided by the install program, and log in to the administration panel. Select "administration" in the upper menu. Once the administration panel opens, select commands such as "add forum" and "set thread rules." Add forum allows you to create a topic of conversation. Setting thread rules allows you to establish settings for things such as who can post comments, who can rate comments and who can view comments.
6. Customize your header. Most forums come with a standard header graphic image. Replace this image with a personalized graphic file. Then upload the new header image using your FTP program. Make sure the graphic file matches the name of the original file. Usually the header has a name like 'header.jpg' or 'header.png.'
7. Create a test user to test the forum. Post test comments and see if the average user has the ability to read and post comments. Make sure they can login and register for the site.
Tags: administration panel, post comments, forum script, allow visitors, allow visitors post, Customize your, domain name