My sister and I are starting a blog (hurrah!) because we're running own businesses selling essential oils on the side and have been learning a lot about natural health and DIYing household products.
We're also very interested in having a forum. This is where I get confused and her eyes glaze over completely. I have lots of questions!!
1) I really like phpbb forums because I'm used to them (big surprise) and find them easy to navigate. Are there other companies I should be looking at?
2) I have no idea how to host a forum (or if I'm using proper terminology in life). I saw on the phpbb website that I can host for free while the forums are small. But then what? And if I have a blog on a separate website, can I combine the two at some point in the future onto one website? Is it better to start with them combined?
3) Should I save myself (and all of my lovely friends) a lot of trouble and just go take some classes at the community college where I work (totally can take them for freeee). What kind of classes should I really be looking for?
As you can see, I am very very clueless.
Website/Forum Noob Question
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JewellRavenlock
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Website/Forum Noob Question
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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G
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Really, all you need is a hosted website. Like, I have Gnort.com and I have forums there. All you really do is download the free forum and install it. It's relatively easy. The tougher part comes when you want to customize it.
That's a part I'm still kinda having issues with whenever I feel like tinkering with it. lol
But having forums aren't all that difficult. Till you're hit with the spammers of course.
A class can always help but I dont think it's that necessary. I never took classes and just figured out a lot on my own. Plus, you've got a lot of people around here who I'm sure would be willing and able to give advice and help, too!
That's a part I'm still kinda having issues with whenever I feel like tinkering with it. lol
But having forums aren't all that difficult. Till you're hit with the spammers of course.
A class can always help but I dont think it's that necessary. I never took classes and just figured out a lot on my own. Plus, you've got a lot of people around here who I'm sure would be willing and able to give advice and help, too!
G'nort Dragoon-Talanador
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Duel of Swords Legend. Best In The World™.
First All Time DoS Title Holder.
Listed as "Daddy" in your daughters contacts list.
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JewellRavenlock
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<3
Okay, so like I bought the domain essentiallysistersgrimm.com (it's cool.. trust me!) through WordPress because I was only thinking of the blog at the time. I could technically host the forum on there?
Okay, so like I bought the domain essentiallysistersgrimm.com (it's cool.. trust me!) through WordPress because I was only thinking of the blog at the time. I could technically host the forum on there?
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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JewellRavenlock
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Oh good! Thanks :) I tried looking but I get really overwhelmed and confused sometimes and then my brain explodes.DemiBob wrote:A quick glance at google suggests that not only can you run a phpbb forum through WordPress, but there's a host of plugins and features available to you if you choose to do so.
So, yes -- if you want a phpbb forum on your website with your blog / store, you should be able to do so.
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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JewellRavenlock
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Oh great! I'll look into that one too :)Kalamere wrote:SMF is another forum software option you could look at. That's what drives the forums for ME and Greater Realms. I don't have much a preference either way, but figured I'd throw the options out there for you.
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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Kalamere
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You may not actually have the ability to set up forum on your new site. I was poking around at the wordpress site a little bit and I think it is going to depend on how you went about getting your blog space.
If you went to wordpress.com and signed up for the Premium package to have them host your blog (along with a custom domain name) I think you just get their tools that let you make a blog go. This gives you a pretty good amount of storage, email and email support.
On the other hand, if you went to wordpress.org, that site recommends other hosting services like DreamHost, BlueHost, etc. where you go and set up a site, then add the wordpress software.
The latter gives you a lot more flexibility as to what you can install on your site, though lacks WP support and whatever other bells and whistles their directly supported plan offers in terms of tooling. Looking at your site DNS and based on what you've written above, it sounds to me like you likely went through the former though and so you aren't going to have the options of phpBB or SMF.
Wordpress.com vs Wordpress.org
You may be able to accomplish something similar with post commenting and the like... I'm not all that familiar with Wordpress.com options and how it all works, so I'd need to read up on it more.
All of that said, this could be a blessing in disguise. In all honestly, I wouldn't recommend that you put a self run forum on a business website, even if a part time, business-light, type website. Spammers will find it. Then you get to play whack-a-mole with your registrations and post monitoring while trying to road block them which almost invariably happens only post-facto and well after clients or customers have seen their trash. You also have security issues. It's not uncommon for sites to end up getting hacked due to a hole in something like the forum software. Having your own site lets you do more stuff (like install forum software) but also puts you on the hook to be your own security admin.
Wordpress.com, from a quick bit of reading, has hooks that will allow you to hook into facebook and/or twitter fairly quickly and easilly. My suggestion for you would be to do that rather than launch your own forum. Use something like a facebook group and let someone else do the heavy lifting to stop registration fraud and spam. You'll still get some of course, but those services will stop a ton before it ever gets to you.
~Kal
edits to fix typos
If you went to wordpress.com and signed up for the Premium package to have them host your blog (along with a custom domain name) I think you just get their tools that let you make a blog go. This gives you a pretty good amount of storage, email and email support.
On the other hand, if you went to wordpress.org, that site recommends other hosting services like DreamHost, BlueHost, etc. where you go and set up a site, then add the wordpress software.
The latter gives you a lot more flexibility as to what you can install on your site, though lacks WP support and whatever other bells and whistles their directly supported plan offers in terms of tooling. Looking at your site DNS and based on what you've written above, it sounds to me like you likely went through the former though and so you aren't going to have the options of phpBB or SMF.
Wordpress.com vs Wordpress.org
You may be able to accomplish something similar with post commenting and the like... I'm not all that familiar with Wordpress.com options and how it all works, so I'd need to read up on it more.
All of that said, this could be a blessing in disguise. In all honestly, I wouldn't recommend that you put a self run forum on a business website, even if a part time, business-light, type website. Spammers will find it. Then you get to play whack-a-mole with your registrations and post monitoring while trying to road block them which almost invariably happens only post-facto and well after clients or customers have seen their trash. You also have security issues. It's not uncommon for sites to end up getting hacked due to a hole in something like the forum software. Having your own site lets you do more stuff (like install forum software) but also puts you on the hook to be your own security admin.
Wordpress.com, from a quick bit of reading, has hooks that will allow you to hook into facebook and/or twitter fairly quickly and easilly. My suggestion for you would be to do that rather than launch your own forum. Use something like a facebook group and let someone else do the heavy lifting to stop registration fraud and spam. You'll still get some of course, but those services will stop a ton before it ever gets to you.
~Kal
edits to fix typos
Last edited by Kalamere on Mon Jan 12, 2015 2:53 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Want to second the notion of maybe not doing a forum. I didn't want to say anything, but now that it's out there, I don't like the idea of a forum on a business site either.
Not only do you have to deal with spammers, but you'd have to deal with people who are not satisfied with the product or service they received. There will be those people. And if there's a forum, they will post.
Best to skip it entirely.
Not only do you have to deal with spammers, but you'd have to deal with people who are not satisfied with the product or service they received. There will be those people. And if there's a forum, they will post.
Best to skip it entirely.
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JewellRavenlock
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I would be hopelessly lost without you guys <3
The idea for having a forum originally came from frustration with Facebook groups. Most people who are running this sort of business have a FB group at this point. They are insanely unorganized (makes my eye twitch) and people will ask the same question over and over again. I love the organization of a real message board, but I can clearly see the drawbacks of it now.
I may have to rethink the forum idea. The whole purpose of the website/blog/forum is about education; I am responsible (if I'm a good personal networking business leader) for helping to educate the people who are interested in the company I am a distributor for, and I really love sharing all the natural stuff I've been learning.
Hmmmmm. That's what you make me say!
The idea for having a forum originally came from frustration with Facebook groups. Most people who are running this sort of business have a FB group at this point. They are insanely unorganized (makes my eye twitch) and people will ask the same question over and over again. I love the organization of a real message board, but I can clearly see the drawbacks of it now.
I may have to rethink the forum idea. The whole purpose of the website/blog/forum is about education; I am responsible (if I'm a good personal networking business leader) for helping to educate the people who are interested in the company I am a distributor for, and I really love sharing all the natural stuff I've been learning.
Hmmmmm. That's what you make me say!
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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JewellRavenlock
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What about something like BoardHost or ProBoards? I could link from the blog to there instead of integrating the two.
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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JewellRavenlock
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A FAQ section is probably a good idea!Amaltea wrote:If you are only doing a blog and don't need people replying or asking questions, you can still do it with the blog alone. Blogs can be customized and you can make an FAQ section. It might be easier than integrating PHPBB to your blog.
See.. apparently I need help even figuring out what I want to do first AND THEN how to do it!
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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Kalamere
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Like Amal said, a good organized FAQ section is probably your best bet.
That said, it would appear you can do some custom menu stuff on your wordpress site and doing so would allow you to sort of integrate a forum hosted elsewhere.
WordPress.com Forum Options
ProBoards is one they mention specifically.
That said, it would appear you can do some custom menu stuff on your wordpress site and doing so would allow you to sort of integrate a forum hosted elsewhere.
WordPress.com Forum Options
ProBoards is one they mention specifically.
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JewellRavenlock
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:) You're the best. I will forgive you for not rigging IFL to make sure I win!Kalamere wrote:Like Amal said, a good organized FAQ section is probably your best bet.
That said, it would appear you can do some custom menu stuff on your wordpress site and doing so would allow you to sort of integrate a forum hosted elsewhere.
WordPress.com Forum Options
ProBoards is one they mention specifically.
"The smell of her hair, the taste of her mouth, the feeling of her skin seemed to have got inside him, or into the air all round him. She had become a physical necessity."
George Orwell 1984
George Orwell 1984
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