Hi all, was just wondering on the actual costs of runing a basic forum, or somthing along the lines like PF?

cheers

 

depamds on bandwith used kam

 

As in the ammount of users/members Jay?

 

traffic/members it all adds up

 

If you have web space, it takes 10 minutes to get a forum running for free !!
Its all about bandwidth.......

There are also sites that will do all the hosting and forum managment for ZERO but your site will have adverts and features you cannot control !

 

About a tenner a month for a moderate sized forum with no advertising.

Bandwidth isnt an issue at all with most hosts now, but there will be CPU limits so dont go installing every imaganible "mod" for the forum

 

So around a tenner a month then

 

Are there any figures published on the running of a typical forum?

 

As above, it really depends on many things. Having a good administrator can reduce your costs - someone who knows what they're doing (on a busy site) can reduce your server count by a half with optimisations.

 

Figures for what exactly?

If you want to approach a host with some figures for traffic i can give you some for PF if you like.

 

You either run a forum for love or money...


Those run for love are the better ones IMO....... .LOL

 

cant see it been anything like he wants surely

 

i just want a rough idea because a mate wants to open a forum, non car related. Which companies can we approach? who are good to use etc

Stu its not an easy thing to run i take it?

 

whats a typical forum? this id say is a busy forum compared to most, some forums are lucky to get a new post every week or so.

 

Its simple mate, i can have one up and running in about 3 hours with your own domain name for £200 and thats with a years hosting paid for up front on my server too..
I have quite a few of the damn things. LOL The problems do not come until it gets busy.

 

Wow, expensive. I only charge £1/month for hosting

 

Busier than you would think as we have a huge number of visitors who NEVER post, but read a LOT of pages per month!! Its comparable to forums with triple the members.

 

But what would you offer for the £1 that would compare with my £10?

 

Hobnobs.

 

You are joking right Even running vbulletin on cheap hosting will cause your hosts to start complaining about you using up to much CPU from other users on the server your sharing.

Running a forum isnt as easy as you think and takes some basic knowledge of the ins and outs or at the very least willing to learn.

I'm the firm believer of if your gonna do something do it right when it comes to hosting. Dont be tempted to get the cheapest hosting you can find as it'll only cause tears in the end.

I recommend starting of with VPS hosting with decent RAM, HD space you could easily get away with 10GB to start of with to see how your forum goes and if needed down the line move to a higher spec VPS or go the route of a dedicated server.

It's very easy saying that when you know how but you try importing a SQL Database using phpmyadmin or SSH2 for the first time lol

 

Damnit, your a winner. I will take his tenner because i have a proven track record, and you can do the actual hosting, meaning, we will share the £9 and the hobnobs. Happy Times... hope he doesnt read this.




Seriously though, the cost come with TRAFFIC. NOT members, members don't really mean shit, its how many people actually come and browse per month and, most importantly, how many at one time. The thing hosts NEVER list, is how much dedicated processor time your allowed, IE SERVER bandwidth. Unlimited GB PM is no forking use to you if your trying to move 1.4million requests at once and the server refuses to actually serve the gigs you need... take care out there, as with all walks of life, its a minefield.

 

I have done so i know what a bitch it can be and it always results in pulling an all-nighter, However, that isnt really relevant if its a NEW forum is it.

 

Well yes when you first install any forum you need to create the mysql database or you wont be getting very far

 

Stu, what will the £200 a year include and not include? What do i have to do, PM if u want

 

I hink you will find you said IMPORT, not create. Using my hosts, create is as simple as clicking a button called "New Database"

 

Nit picking to try and make yourself look knowledgeable well done

Yes it might be that simple but you be a first time user of trying to run your own forum without any knowledge and that button means fuck all to you

 

BATTLE OF THE NERDS


Yer all wrong. I'm fucking right. Goodnight

 

stu you fancy posting some figures?

 

Sorry pal, it wasn't an offer to run you a forum, my life is totally maxed out at the moment, but you can have some free advice. Visit three places:

1) http://www.1and1.co.uk

2) www.vbulletin.com

3) http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

Those 3 will have you up and running in no time.

 

Well, passionford Serves 3.5 million pages a month to over 78000 seperate visitors. Between them those visitors make over 280,000 seperate visits every month and when we are busy the server processes well over 1.5million requests per hour.

 

really impressive !

 

No im not joking, takes about 10 mins to register a bluehost account and install a php 2/3 forum, ive done it numerous times, ive been running various forums for about 10 years now, including writing forum software commerically for Toyota when they launched the prius and had a forum for new prius owners, its something I know a lot about.

www.vauxhall-sport-forum.com is a current site I host and run for example.

 

Looks a good forum chipper.

 

I think the first things you should ask yourself is:

If I was to setup a forum, why would people join?

What would people gain from using my forum?

What is my USP?

How will I help pay for my forum?

How will I ensure a regular traffic rate to my forum?

How will I entice people to visit thus justifying my investment?

Can I put up with the constant political bullshit that happens on a forum?

Can I put up with people trying to undermine me at every oppurtunity? As there is always somebody who thinks they know best.

If you don't have answers to that your forum will not succeed so don't even think about investing.

Tim

 

You missed: Can i be arsed with the aggro it will cause me?

 

Just use Hyperboards.

I've used them for the 105Speed forum for years and they've been pretty damn reliable and have a pretty good support forum

I pay a few dollars a month to keep it ad-free and have never had any issue with bandwidth or user numbers etc

We see on average 90 registered members every day with around 300 visitors so its not massive.

Check it out.

www.hyperboards.com

 

For my site i use these http://www.no-wires.co.uk/ Get in touch with them and tell them I sent you. I also recommended them to Paul Ripley (off here) and he now uses them and is over the moon with their services.