Is it possible to configure SMF in this fashion?
I have a website, lets call it mydomain.com. This domain has several subdirectories, lets call them mydomain.com/area1, mydomain.com/area2 and mydomain.com/area3. I want to provide a forum for each of these (as they are different geographical areas). I do not want want three installs of SMF, but rather one install where people from one area don't see the content from area (its not that its blocked from them, I just need it so when a user goes to mydomain.com/area3/forum, he doesn't see the forum that a user at mydomain.com/area1/forum see's.) They can have the option to switch to the other forum, but initially they should see the forum for their area. I would like one install, and one database to maintain.
Is it possible to setup SMF in this fashion?
Not with the standard install of SMF. There are a few "multi board" scripts out there you can look for.
Yes, I have done this myself, created three categories on the home page, same site though, yet it has taken some manipulation to do this creating hyper - links etc. If that what you were considering.
I can't imagine that it would take much work to make SMF a "multi-board" system with all the different forums using the same basic files with the exception of theme files.
I'll have to look and see if there is a mod for this...