How to Build a Forum Web Page
Forums or message boards can be a great way to kick-start discussion and build an online community--either connected to a larger website or on its own. Because of the popularity of forums on the Internet, you can find plenty of forum software out there for all range of prices, and some totally free. And if you already have your own website in place, setting one up can usually be done within an hour.
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Instructions
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Buy a domain name and hosting plan for your website if you don't already have one up and running. Reputable web hosting companies and domain registrars include BlueHost, HostGator and FreeHostia. Make sure to get a hosting plan that supplies you with at least one MySQL database.
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Choose your forum software. The most popular paid option is vBulletin, a full-featured forum system with customer support. The open source program phpBB is one of the most popular free alternatives. bbPress, free forum software from the makers of the blogging software WordPress, doesn't have as many features as the others but is probably the easiest to install.
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Download the forum software and upload it to your site in the desired directory. For example, if you want the forum to appear in yoursite.com/discuss, create a "discuss" folder and upload all of the files there.
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Log onto your website's control panel (provided by your web host) and locate the "Databases" or "MySQL" section. Within this section, select the "create new database" option. You'll be prompted for a database name, username and password. (On a few systems, the database name and username are one and the same.) Keep this information handy.
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Follow your forum software's installation instructions. For example, on both phpBB and bbPress, simply navigate to the location where you uploaded the forum (yoursite.com/discuss in the above example) and you'll be redirected to an installation screen. Follow the onscreen instructions and insert your database information when it's requested.
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