[OT] Freebie message board software?

dogscoff · #1 August 2nd, 2005, 06:19 AM

Hey,

Anyone know of a relatively easy to install & use freeware UBB-like package that some friends of mine could use to start a message community on their website?

Thanks,

'scoffo

Ed Kolis · #2 August 2nd, 2005, 10:41 AM

phpBB? Never installed it before but that's what SE.net uses...

Fyron · #3 August 2nd, 2005, 11:21 AM

phpBB is excellent software. Definitely more usable than commercial staples such as Invision Board, UBB (of any form), and vBulletin. With the 1000s of mods out there for it and a good standardized install help file format, it is easy to customize too. Hopefully they get phpBB 3.0 ready for release some time in the next century...

dogscoff · #4 August 3rd, 2005, 04:49 AM

I started reading the docs for that one. Doesn't it need some kind of database behind it? What do you use?

Fyron · #5 August 3rd, 2005, 05:00 AM

Pretty much any forum software these days will require a database. Databases make them a lot more efficient than flat files.

phpBB supports a lot of different database types. I use MySQL because it is free, works fine, is installed by default on web servers, and I am too lazy to bother with anything else, such as PostGreSQL.

dogscoff · #6 August 3rd, 2005, 07:08 AM

Quote:

I use MySQL because it is free, works fine, is installed by default on web servers,

So how does that work then? I'm 90% sure my friends have their site hosted somewhere (ie, they don't have their own webserver box in their garage) so would they have to download/ install/ learn to use MySQL or would their ISP (or whoever is hosting) take care of all that invisibly?

Learning to set up phpBB on their behalf might be possible, but learning about a database as well sounds like a major increase in the gradient of the learning curve.

dogscoff · #7 August 3rd, 2005, 07:10 AM

BTW, I appreciate your replies Fyron, but shouldn't you be in bed? It must be middle of the night where you are.

dogscoff · #8 August 3rd, 2005, 07:39 AM

(Triple-post: ugh)

Another question. How much space does a php bulletin board require? The phpBB dowbload seems really small (less than a meg) but obviously that has to be decompressed, and then you have all the posts and avatars and user information and whatnot to be stored.

I guess it depends on the amount of use that the forum gets, but can anyone give me a ball-park figure? It would probably be a fairly low-traffic board. Assuming I disallowed uploads, how far would (say) ten megs get me?

I've just checked www.plus.net, my own ISP (I might end up hosting it for my friends) and they offer instructions for setting up phpBB and everything. It looks like I might actually make this happen!

Fyron · #9 August 3rd, 2005, 11:35 AM

Quote:

dogscoff said:
So how does that work then? I'm 90% sure my friends have their site hosted somewhere (ie, they don't have their own webserver box in their garage) so would they have to download/ install/ learn to use MySQL or would their ISP (or whoever is hosting) take care of all that invisibly?

If MySQL is not set up for their use already, there is no way they can install it. Stuff like that has to be set up by the server administrator and they have to be granted access to it. Have them check if they have MySQL support.

Quote:

Learning to set up phpBB on their behalf might be possible, but learning about a database as well sounds like a major increase in the gradient of the learning curve.

If they have access to MySQL, the phpBB installation script takes care of all of the database stuff, after you edit config.php to include the MySQL user and password info. Once it is installed, setting up phpBB through the web interface is fairly simple.

Quote:

BTW, I appreciate your replies Fyron, but shouldn't you be in bed? It must be middle of the night where you are.

Nope.

Quote:

How much space does a php bulletin board require?

SEnet Forums currently have about 5000 posts. The MySQL database for this is somewhere around 4.5 MBs. If space becomes an issue, you can set the forums up to auto-prune old posts, thus reducing the space used overall. If you keep avatars to the GIF format, they take up a trivial amount of space. 10 MB should get you quite far for a low traffic board.

If your ISP provides automated install of phpBB through Cpanel or a similar site admin program, I would advise against it. Such installs usually have less than stellar setups, and are not always using the latest version...

dogscoff · #10 August 3rd, 2005, 12:10 PM

Thanks Fyron, I don't know what we'd all do without you.

It's all looking good. It looks like I have the choice of hosting it on my webspace or letting my friends do it for themselves, since both ISPs support php and mySQL. Once my new adsl account kicks in I'll have a hundred megs of webspace to play with, so I'm strongly tempted to do it myself rather than faff about trying to get access to their webspace or install it by-proxy.

For a pound a month I might even register a domain specifically for the bulletin board.

Thanks again for the help F, I may be back later with more questions.