This autumn I started studying business administration at a new school. Something I missed from the beginning was some sort of online forum to discuss various things such as courses, assignments, litterature, parties ect.

I later found out that there already was a forum for the school, however, it is of the simplest possible kind. It has only one forum section (with section I mean a part like "General Banter" on Snarkpit). There also is no way of logging in, so when making a new thread or answering to an existing one you have to type in name, e-mail and password (if you want to be able to edit the post afterwards). You can also quote previous posts. And that's about it.

Because of the lack of a real, more advanced online forum I'm thinking about starting a forum for the school myself, with its own domain and host which I plan to pay for. I also see this as an opportunity to make some money on advertising on the forum, using google ads or something. The university has about 8400 registered students, according to its website, of which quite a few are international students. A forum would not only be useful for registered students, but also for future students and teachers as well as companies and others that want to come in contact with the students.

I hope to be able to use the schools mail service, school papers, the school website and advertising on notice boards to inform the students about the forum.

However, there are a few things I need to sort out:

<UL type=disc>
<LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: white; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">What forum software should I use?
I've googled around a bit to find out the general opinion, and it seems like vBulletin (not free) is the best one, followed by phpBB (free). Other forum software such as SMF (free), ProBoards (free) and http://www.invisionpower.com/<A href="http://SPAN class=postbody A href=" target=_blank color='#0000ffhttp://www.invisionboard.com/FONT/U/A"' ?UFONT A HREF="http://www.invisionboard.com" TARGET="_blank"www.invisionboard.com/A http: A>Invision Power Board</A></A> (link doesn't want to work it seems... not free) are also mentioned. I'm leaning towards phpBB, mainly because its free and I'm used to using phpBB forums. It also seems like a decent forum software. </SPAN>
<LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: white; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Which host should I choose?
<SPAN class=postbody>This is the first time ever I'm choosing a host, and basically I'm clueless. </SPAN>How much bandwidth/month would I need?<SPAN class=postbody> I expect to have not that many users in the beginning (probably <50), but the number will hopefully increase over time (who knows, might reach >1000 regular visitors). I would like the ability to upgrade when needed. </SPAN>How much storage would I need, <SPAN class=postbody>considering the possible number of users mentioned above?</SPAN> <SPAN class=postbody>Again, ability to upgrade if needed would be great. Does it matter where the server is located? Most users will probably be in </SPAN><SPAN class=postbody>Sweden</SPAN><SPAN class=postbody>.</SPAN>
<LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: white; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">What should I advertise for?
<SPAN class=postbody>I'm thinking about google ads as they're somewhat relevant most of the time, not sticking out to much. I also feel google can be fully trusted when it comes to payments ect.</SPAN>
<LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; COLOR: white; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in">Would someone be willing to help me when needed?
<SPAN class=postbody>Truth is, I only know the very most basic things when it comes to html, and nothing when it comes to other parts of webdesign, such as css, php ect. I've never set up a forum of any kind before, so if someone would like to help me when needed I'd greatly appreciate it! The help I'll need is probably setting up the forum and somehow implementing the ads. I really don't know if anything else has to be done to maintain the forum technically after that. I'm afraid I won't be able to pay you anything from the start, but I might be able to share some of what I earn from ads during the first months.</SPAN></LI></UL>
What do you think of my idea? Does it sound like I have any chance of making any money on this? Do I have too little technical knowledge to take care of the forum after I've been helped setting it up?

<SPAN class=postbody>All thoughts, ideas and suggestions are welcome and very much appreciated. :smile: </SPAN>

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I ususaly go with one of those free ones like proboards, you can customize it quite a bit and you won't need to code anything, just signing in is enough. :razz:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

BioPulse, could you post the url(s) of your forum(s) so I could have a look. :smile:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

sorry, I have no idea how to set up a forum but I always found it interesting to know about this kind of things. Otzman, if you could post some kind of diary here as you find out more, this would be very cool. Like how much bandwith you needed and wheter you found it difficult to set up the php stuff. :smile:

(all I can say is that you shouldn't expect to make any real money [not more than the hosting costs... if any])

Sure, I'll post what happens (or doesn't happen!) along the way. :smile:

If someone has used google ads on his/her website and could give some estimates on how many users I'd need to cover server costs or make a certain profit that would be great.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

phpBB/Invision PB (free/not free) is what I would choose, though mainly because I've used and administrated phpBB more than anything else, and I think vBulletin is icky and dumb. phpBB is relatively easy to use, and very customizable and extensible.

I don't know any hosts in Europe. As for bandwidth, the small handful of people (probably around 6 at the most) that frequented my phpBB forum used about 100MB/mo at the most, usually closer to 50-60MB/mo. So anything from 10GB/mo up should be more than enough for forums and some light file hosting on the side. One thing to note when choosing a host, is that forum software requires other stuff on the server to run, like mySQL and PHP for phpBB, be sure to check the requirements for the forum software you choose.

I'd go with Google ads.

I'd offer to help but I'd probably just waste your time because I'm not really that knowledgable.

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o

Baron von Snickers, thanks for your advice. How much web space does your forum use? Approximately how much does you forum increas in size every month with your current user base? Also, could I have the url for you site so I can get an idea of the number of threads and posts.
I'm thinking about allowing the users to upload pictures ect to make it easier for them.

And thanks for offering your help. :smile: I'm sure you'd be able to help me. I think what I will need help with is installing the forum and placing ads at different locations. I tried installing phpBB using a free host, but I ran into some problems with the database. I suppose this could be because the host was free and crappy.

When googling around to find a good hosting deal I came across this site: http://www.siteground.com . What do you think? Perhaps the free SiteBuilder would allow me to create what I need by myself. With 40,000 MB Space<SPAN class=New> and 900 GB Traffic I might be able to let others have their own, private forum sections with possibility to have a password. This could be useful for a club or a larger group doing some sort of project together. Furthermore I could give others subdomains with a space and bandwidth limit, with some sort of forced ads as the only requirement.</SPAN>

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

That's the best hosting deal I've ever seen, I don't think you'll ever even get close to approaching the ceiling of 900GB of transfer in a month. Unlimited domains, SQL DBs, email and FTP accounts is damn attractive. Be aware that the pricing displayed on hosting websites usually requires long-term commitments (2 years in this case). One potential problem is that your site will be hosted in Texas, USA, and every time anyone in Sweden accesses it the request will have to travel from Sweden, to GB, across the atlantic ocean to the eastern US, down to Texas, and the requested data will have to travel back. Granted this will usually take place in less than 300ms on today's internet, but the more hops a connection makes the higher the risk packets will get dropped somewhere along the line.

I would recommend doing a tracert to siteground.com to see if the ping and number of hops is acceptable. (Start > Run; type cmd, press enter; type "tracert siteground.com" press enter)

And my website lost funding, so-to-speak, a couple months ago and was eventually shut down a few weeks ago. I don't remember exactly, but I know the whole forum including databases took less than 10MB with about a dozen registered users and 30-40 posts. phpBB doesn't take much space, 5GB of storage would probably be more than enough for what you'll need.

Also, I don't think I've ever seen a free host with PHP and mySQL, that's probably why phpBB wouldn't install on your free host.

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o

I severely doubt you'd make any money, just to start off.

I'd approach the school themselves and see if they can host it for you on their intranet.

This is the result I got when I used the tracert command:

<DIV class=code>Code:<PRE>Tracing route to siteground.com [67.15.187.4]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 12 ms 2 ms <1 ms jsix-gw4.junet.se [193.11.108.1]
2 12 ms <1 ms <1 ms jsix-core2.junet.se [193.11.104.254]
3 17 ms 2 ms 1 ms jonkoping2-SRP2.sunet.se [130.242.83.66]
4 <1 ms 1 ms <1 ms jonkoping1-POS1.sunet.se [130.242.81.97]
5 7 ms 5 ms 5 ms stockholm1-POS3.sunet.se [130.242.81.102]
6 8 ms 5 ms 5 ms stockholm2-POS1.sunet.se [130.242.82.14]
7 6 ms 5 ms 7 ms se-kth.nordu.net [193.10.252.177]
8 14 ms 5 ms 5 ms s-b4-link.telia.net [213.248.97.93]
9 39 ms 38 ms 7 ms s-bb1-pos7-1-0.telia.net [213.248.66.5]
10 27 ms 38 ms 28 ms hbg-bb1-pos6-0-0.telia.net [213.248.64.30]
11 32 ms 32 ms 32 ms ffm-bb1-pos7-0-0.telia.net [213.248.64.42]
12 37 ms 35 ms 59 ms ffm-b3-link.telia.net [80.91.249.137]
13 59 ms 33 ms 38 ms verio-116678-ffm-b3.telia.net [213.248.69.50]
14 49 ms 32 ms 32 ms p16-3-0-0.r00.frnkge02.de.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.38]
15 32 ms 87 ms 45 ms p16-2-0-0.r01.frnkge02.de.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.195]
16 52 ms 66 ms 58 ms p16-0-0-2.r23.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.6]
17 126 ms 132 ms 126 ms p64-0-2-0.r21.asbnva01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.26]
18 178 ms 188 ms 157 ms p64-1-1-0.r20.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.24]
19 217 ms 194 ms 194 ms p64-1-0-0.r20.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.4.71]
20 210 ms 325 ms 213 ms xe-4-1.r03.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.2.229]
21 157 ms 159 ms 191 ms ge-2.ev1.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.10.106]
22 182 ms 187 ms 162 ms 66.98.241.109
23 156 ms 163 ms 167 ms ns1.sgsrv1.com [67.15.187.4]

Trace complete.

[/pre]
Does this look good? (I hope there's no risk in posting all these ips!)

Perhaps you're right Gwil, I'm going to ask the school first and see if they possibly could host it. Then I can see how well it goes for free.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far!

[edit]
I mailed the siteground support to ask if I possibly could choose .se (the same extension as my schools website uses) as extension when registering a domain through them, but apparently this wasn't possible. The only way around this would be to register the domain separately and then just host it with siteground, but then I'd lose the free domain benefit of their hosting.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I think www.proboards.com

I don't know the direct url to invision boards ,but I bet google does. :smile:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I was thinking about the urls to the proboard forums you had created :razz: , but I suppose I can just as well look at the proboards support forum, but it'd be fun to see what you forums looks like in case they are customized differently.

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Uhm, well i had a forum there, about 5 years ago? :smile:

I haven't got any forums myself anymore, sicne i disbanded my cs clan, and ditched my level design website because i couldn't upkeep it anymore (maybe it'll re-open sometime in the near future, something i'd really love to do heheehhe)

But if you just 'sign up' you can fidle aroudn with your won forusm to your hearts content and see what it's all about ,since it's free anyway.

Used to have like 4 or 5 proboards forums for game communities at one time i think, so you can always ditch or re-create or create an entireley new one if you liek / dislike the one you make.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Ok, I see.

Didn't know proboards provided a free subdomain. Pretty useful for testing purpose. :smile:

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What the Snarkpitters listen to!

I was thinking of getting a domain from these guys too, so tell us how it goes

although snickers, I would like to know what you think about http://www.dreamhost.com/hosting.html

That's a spicey-a meatball!

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o

meaning that they are awesome for the price? (I was planning on getting the lvl 3 plan, $15/m if I prepay for 2 years, and my friend gets payed for recomending me)