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A forum for your business? |
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Written by Jema
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Do you think your business or group could do with a discussion forum?
Here some of the issues involved are discussed, and a new free forum service that might fit the bill is offered.
Forums are fun to run and show a human side to your business if people can see what you have to say to your customers, but setting up your own forum has pitfalls and so do most of the free forums on offer on the net.
If you decide you want a forum for your business or group, then there are a number of choices:
- You can create a "mailing list" forum.using Yahoo groups.
- You can create a forum of your own on your own web site using one of the free forum packages available. For example the downsizer forurm here is done using PhpBB2. The most popular of the free bulletin board software packages.
- You can create a free forum using one of the free forum services available on the web.
Lets discuss each of these in turn.
Mailing lists
Mailings lists are the oldest form of forum. You subscribe to a list and post and receive topics by email. For business use this type of forum is totally unacceptable, as your members would almost certainly come to consider it annoying spam, even if they did opt into the mailing list in the first place.
You should consider certain types of forum as suitable for a mailing though. A good example is one of mine freely hosted by Yahoo Groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/swindon_freecycle/
This group allows people to post items for free collection, this is the sort of fairly low volume forum where people will appreciate receiving the message in their inbox, rather than actively having to look at the forum.
You can search and find a lot of free mail list systems on the web. But I do think Yahoo Groups are about as good as they get, there are adverts but they are not intrusive.
Creating a forum of your own
For this you will need hosting on a web site that typically must have the power to run php and mysql, if at this point you are lost, then maybe this option is not for you. Some hosts though such as f5hosting do offer a simple click to install option for phpbb2, the forum that we use at downsizer. This sort of button will even allow automatic security updates so long as the forum has not been modified.
If you have your very own forum, then you also have all the pros and cons involved in the ability to totally customise a forum to your own needs. At downsizer we have very extensively customised phpbb. We have:
- Created our own unique look by creating a special forum template.
- Added many freely available phpbb "hacks" to allow for example, file attachments to be posted.
- Added our own hacks to deter forum spammers.
- Integrated our forum with our main site.
The big downsizer to customisation is that when a security exploit is found in phpbb, and a fix is available, it means a considerable amount of work to update the board. You have to consider whether you have the time and ability to do this yourself, and to get it done quickly.
There are many players in the forum market. From free forums like phpbb to well repespected commercial players like VBulletin. There is even a free forum especially for the Mambo Content Management system used at downsizer.
If you are considering a forum, it is best to try and use a lot of the available forums first, and also to consider you users needed. For example VBullettin is undoubtably more advanced in many ways than phpbb, but for the average user of downsizer it may be over complicated. If you are not aiming a forum at an I.T savvy audience, you must consider how they will view it.
Free Forums The final option is to use a free forum service like proboards or a large number of others. These types of forums host you in exchange for hosting adverts on your site.
At downsizer we have previously posted links like this one, pointing to the pitfalls of free hosting:
http://www.upperhost.com/freecheaphosting.htm
In essence:
- Advertising that you don't control and which can overwhelm the usability of your site.
- Once you have a successful forum, one that is making them money, they will not allow you to move.
- You have only limited control over the configuration of your site.
- They can suddenly decide to start charging.
These drawbacks have made it impossible to recommend free forums as a serious solution for a business or community.
I think I can say that this has now changed. I have launched myfreeforum.org with a number of commitments:
- Limited advertising.
- For a fee of £80, we will not only export your forum, but actively help you set up elsewhere.
- We will not start charging you.
This commitment is backed by the original ethos of advertising on downsizer, that the people behind an advert should have a repution to protect.
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