Tips to build and run a Forum

Monday, 26 July 2010

Forums have become a major part of the online community today, gathering people from across the globe to talk about basically any topic you can think of. They basically stand for a new age of digital communication, where the different time zones and cultural differences completely disappear. Discussions amongst numerous people spread over days instead of minutes and a huge amount of information is being transferred and shared in an open and free environment. The web hosting industry is a key factor for the success of these online forums, because it offers an environment through which the information is stored and transmitted. Therefore, it is essential to choose the proper web hosting plan when you are creating your very own online forum.

Choosing a good forum software

Most forums are run in specific format, including vBulletin or PhpBB. These are pre-designed platforms allowing forum owners to setup and modify their new forums in just minutes with the help of templates and other handy tools. It is vital to choose a web hosting plan with a control panel which includes a basic installation utility such as Simple Scripts or Fantastico. These installation utilities simplify the process of installing forums on your domain with little or even no prior technical experience.

Choosing the right server for forum

To maintain the smooth operation of the forum, you will need several server resources, including bandwidth and data storage. Naturally, the needed amount of resources entirely depend on the size of the forum, as well as on the number of forum members, but it is recommended to always plan for the best. Through various ways forums can become highly popular very rapidly and when this occur and the site is being hosted on a sub-par server, your online visitors will experience very slow page loads or even site downtime. Therefore, a powerful server is ideal and a dedicated server or VPS would be right for almost any forum.

Keeping members happy

To maintain the growth of the forum, it should be filled with rich content and plus the provided content should be made available as frequent as possible. Lost of people will not feel comfortable hosting essential information on unreliable forums, thus it is crucial for your site to gain the reputation of a trustworthy forum. One of the best ways to achieve that is to use a highly regarded hosting company offering one of the best dedicated servers out there and it is recognized for their outstanding support and their affordable and comprehensive hosting plans. In terms of forums hosting, a dedicated hosting plan might be your best option.

Final words

There are certain situations when there is no need for a larger server. For instance, a basic hosting plan would be enough for a simple support forum with less than a hundred members. Private forums will also not need a strong server and could be very easily hosted on VPS or shared servers. Eventually, the requirements of the forum itself will decide on the needed type of hosting account.