The popular Forum attached to Wimborne Town FC website has been pulled by the BoD. I was the Administrator and was not advised about this. I have been asked by several former members if a new unofficial forum can be started. I would like advice about how this can be done - bearing in mind I am in my eightyth year and not particularly PC literate. The WTFC Forum was an SMF one hence my enquiry here.
I would like to know such things as cost[ I would hope it might be free], do I need a website and if so how do I go about that, Can I use SMF and how much help would I get. Would anybody be prepared to set it up for me. And so on
Thanks for your help.
Hello there!
Well, SMF itself is a free software, and you can download it at anytime from our site, and use it whenever you want.
However in order to start commercial website/forum you'd need to buy a domain and a hosting for it, so that would cost you some $, though it's really cheap nowadays, especially for the shared hosting servers.
Apart from that, setting SMF is quite easy, and we're here to help whenever we can. :)
Quote from: DorsetDave on September 11, 2020, 05:49:55 AM
The popular Forum attached to Wimborne Town FC website has been pulled by the BoD. I was the Administrator and was not advised about this. I have been asked by several former members if a new unofficial forum can be started. I would like advice about how this can be done - bearing in mind I am in my eightyth year and not particularly PC literate. The WTFC Forum was an SMF one hence my enquiry here.
I would like to know such things as cost[ I would hope it might be free], do I need a website and if so how do I go about that, Can I use SMF and how much help would I get. Would anybody be prepared to set it up for me. And so on
Thanks for your help.
The only cost that you would have is that of purchasing a domain name and a hosting package. You can also use a free host, but I would not recommend it.
Installing Smf is pretty easy. Please see this link:
https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Installing
Thank you to all that have replied and the advice given.
I wanted to sound out whether I could start an independant Forum myself. From the info given it has buoyed me to now find out that I should be able to. And now I have to find out if the BoD for the club will actually allow the Forum to start again, or if they are using the excuse of a website update to get rid of us [ especially as they pulled the Forum without notice ] We have had the feeling for some months now that the Directors see us as a thorn in their side rather than the true fans that we are. I have always used the slogan ' Directors, Managers & Players Come and Go - But a Fan is Forever'
I have got to wait and see if we will be able to ressurect the Forum, or if we have to go down the route of a brand new one. We only had about 150 forum members and the there were just about 40 or so very active members posting. So its not to make money but just as a fan of 30 years to provide impartial advice and info to fans of the club
Thanks again to everybody for the present. I will come back to all once I have established what is happening.
I hope it works out for you. Fans are the lifeblood of Sports. I am a Minnesota Vikings fan in the NFL and we always let the team know our mind!
I have a similar position, as run a fan forum but my number of posts has reduced recently.
Hope things work out for you and if need any input just ask.
Quote from: DorsetDave on September 11, 2020, 05:49:55 AM
The popular Forum attached to Wimborne Town FC website has been pulled by the BoD. I was the Administrator and was not advised about this. I have been asked by several former members if a new unofficial forum can be started. I would like advice about how this can be done - bearing in mind I am in my eightyth year and not particularly PC literate. The WTFC Forum was an SMF one hence my enquiry here.
I would like to know such things as cost[ I would hope it might be free], do I need a website and if so how do I go about that, Can I use SMF and how much help would I get. Would anybody be prepared to set it up for me. And so on
Thanks for your help.
What would your requirements be? Most likely (unless you have backups of the old forum) the old forum can't be revived as it was - but a completely new forum should be easy to set up.
How much traffic, ie. how many active users? How active, ie. how many new posts in an arbitrary timeline such a week or a month? Do you have a domain already, or would a new one be needed?
Would you be willing to have the service covered by ads? Or would you prefer to pay some monthly price without ads?
These are all questions that help to determine a suitable host, and the price ratio as well. Options are plenty, some better than others - so knowing what you are really after helps us perhaps help you.
Quote from: DorsetDave on September 11, 2020, 05:49:55 AM
The popular Forum attached to Wimborne Town FC website has been pulled by the BoD.
Who is the "BoD"?
Board of Directors
Thanks Deaks. Now, knowing this and this part:
QuoteI was the Administrator and was not advised about this.
Wouldn't it be a risk to try and start the same thing again?
It's one thing to have it 'officially supported and paid for' and then removed, it's another to make your own and run one yourself not subject to the BoD, especially if it was popular amongst the community. Indeed, it may even be beneficial to be 'unofficial'.
Sure, but given the way it was pulled and the disregard for the administrator, the unofficial may need to thread carefully in using any logo or past info, pics, etc if they are guarded about their name being used. All I am saying is just keep it low key unless you can get a written sanction. I have seen things like this done before (fan based / unofficial) being removed because someone in official capacity is a canker sore.