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AR15.COM
2/27/2011 1:08:59 PM EDT
How do you sent up a basic web chat forum? Nothing like this place, but a simple looking set up like GD where you post the same style. I would like to make it secure, where you have to register to do anything. This would be pointed to a very specific group of people. My guess is you would have to register a web site first, then make everything else.

Is this something that can be done by someone with NO schooling in website design or anything IT related?

I can hook up a router in the house, that's about the extent of my internet/computer foo.

Anybody else with the same non skills do this before?
2/27/2011 1:14:02 PM EDT
[#1]
phpBB is free, straight forward to install and is fairly secure. It can have it's appearance modified with a little css, php and html knowledge.  Many hosting providers (including the one I work for) offer automatic installers for it.

Looking at what we have in our script installer from our cPanel, we have:

phpBB
Simple Machines Forum
bbPress
PunBB
Vanilla Forum


There's others, like the very popular (and pain in the ass) vBulletin, which is a paid subscription to use, as well as a myriad of extensions for CMS'es like Drupal, Joomla/Mambo, BoonEx, modX and I wouldn't be surprised if Wordpress had one.

IM me if you have any questions, I am sure I could give you some direction, with a bit more info.
2/27/2011 1:35:09 PM EDT
[#2]
First things first, where is the website going to run from?



If you are signing up with a webhost they will often handle the process of setting up the domain for you. Often they will have a system to make it easy for you to set up and run your own forum.



For example, I use a company that has a "control panel" page that lets me install a number of pre-configured website tools with a click - forums, blogs etc - without needing to know how it works in the background. I don't use that facility because I'm an obsessive tinkerer but it might help out if you're starting.



It's still a good idea to spend time learning how the systems work to be an efficient (and more hack resistant!) admin, but you can get up and running quite easily.