Looking for forum management software?

[di3f00l]

I've used SMF for multiple projects but now I'm wanting to open my own forum hosting website.  One so that users can go to my site, create a forum at user.website.com and then go from there.  I figure at first we will have it be ad free until we get a high number of traffic and I know this has been done with SMF but I'm wondering what the best thing to use would be so I can manage ads and such but at the same time give my users control over their forum?  Where to I get the software for this, how much hosting will I need, and can it bring in revenue?  I know how I'm going to get people to sign up on the website I just need to know the stuff behind it.  I also figure there could be some security issues that come along with a site like this.  As far as illegal stuff being put up so I'm wondering if it is possible to make it invite only if that makes sense.  So I can manage everyone that is using my site and such.  Looking forward to everyones responses, I'll be checking them Monday night since I'm going to be gone all weekend.  Hope I can have some good input, Thanks!

[Illori]

to my knowledge there is no public code to do such, it would require you to code it yourself and manage it yourself.

[NHWD]

maybe u can try this out
http://www.smfmultiforums.com/

[di3f00l]

Back. Okay cool, 'SMF Multi Forums' Pretty much looks exactly like what I want. Anybody have experience with it?  Is it easy to customize a website to set up a nice website with all the sign up stuff and such? And set a default template for forums until they change it (if they want to).

[rd]

I think that is too old...

You might have to have this custom built by a coder.

Good luck, also this doesn't bring in my revenue.

[Arantor]

The only way it brings in revenue is if you get VERY many registrations. Also, see what smfforfree.com and createaforum.com are offering and see if you can beat that.

You will also need a good amount of server knowledge since you will have to retune the server in ways you wouldn't normally for a single SMF forum. In short: good luck because you will need it.

[di3f00l]

I think that is too old...

You might have to have this custom built by a coder.

Good luck, also this doesn't bring in my revenue.

Why is it too old? Looks like it has some nice features.  None the less, how much would this cost to be custom coded? This brings in more revenue than running your own forum.  Placing ads on other peoples forums. If I have 25 forums in my system then I'm making all of their profits with no work (after it's all established).

The only way it brings in revenue is if you get VERY many registrations. Also, see what smfforfree.com and createaforum.com are offering and see if you can beat that.

You will also need a good amount of server knowledge since you will have to retune the server in ways you wouldn't normally for a single SMF forum. In short: good luck because you will need it.

A few nice sized forums and you're good right? No doubt I can beat it.  Who really wants yourforum.smfforfree.com is that not just sad? I plan on offering this service to a very select group of people with a 'seamless' looking design that these boards will be centered around. Like what kind of knowledge? If you're having a lot of traffic, that means you're probably making decent profits and can therefore pay for whatever space you need right? Idk what you mean :S

[Arantor]

A few nice sized forums and you're good right? No doubt I can beat it.

Right... so you think that running 25 forums on a single server is going to make you a great profit... Newsflash: it doesn't. vbgamer runs SMF For Free, it manages thousands of forums. No really, THOUSANDS. I'm not even going to make a guess at how many thousands it runs, but it runs thousands none the less.

All of those serve ads. And vbgamer has admitted it doesn't make a huge profit. So 25 forums might just cover your hosting costs if you're lucky.

Like what kind of knowledge?

Like how to tune a server for performance, like how to configure the server manually, that kind of thing. It's not something you can just pick up, you have to get to know a lot more about it than just setting it up and hoping it'll work.

If you're having a lot of traffic, that means you're probably making decent profits and can therefore pay for whatever space you need right? Idk what you mean :S

If you're having a lot of traffic, you need a serious server. Which is expensive to set up and run, which is why firms like GoDaddy run literally hundreds of sites on a single, carefully configured server and are very tightly limiting what each site uses.

I have enough trouble sometimes keeping the 6 forums and other apps running smoothly on my VPS and I've been running that for 5 years...

[di3f00l]

A few nice sized forums and you're good right? No doubt I can beat it.

Right... so you think that running 25 forums on a single server is going to make you a great profit... Newsflash: it doesn't. vbgamer runs SMF For Free, it manages thousands of forums. No really, THOUSANDS. I'm not even going to make a guess at how many thousands it runs, but it runs thousands none the less.

All of those serve ads. And vbgamer has admitted it doesn't make a huge profit. So 25 forums might just cover your hosting costs if you're lucky.

Like what kind of knowledge?

Like how to tune a server for performance, like how to configure the server manually, that kind of thing. It's not something you can just pick up, you have to get to know a lot more about it than just setting it up and hoping it'll work.

If you're having a lot of traffic, that means you're probably making decent profits and can therefore pay for whatever space you need right? Idk what you mean :S

If you're having a lot of traffic, you need a serious server. Which is expensive to set up and run, which is why firms like GoDaddy run literally hundreds of sites on a single, carefully configured server and are very tightly limiting what each site uses.

I have enough trouble sometimes keeping the 6 forums and other apps running smoothly on my VPS and I've been running that for 5 years...

Never said I was looking for 'great profit' ha. 25 decent forums with a few thousand views per day each can give me 30-40k views and I would say that's not too shabby. I know my forum never reached 1 million page views in a month. 'jus sayin.' How many of those thousands are inactive? How many never got over 5 posts? I love it when people sit here and try to make me look dumb.  I don't consider a forum with no activity much of a forum. Sue me. I'm sure he has some popular boards, but I wouldn't brag about the dead ones. I'm 17 and any money is a nice turn over for me.  Especially if I learn something out of it.

I suck at server stuff.  Don't really understand any of it but I've never had problems with them either.  Is it not the hosting company's job to configure the server that you pay for? I don't plan on using godaddy. I could hardly even run a dead forum on godaddy, lol. If the cost of a server was > than the profits from traffic, then no one would bother making forums.  Idk how you can be discouraged from making a forum because your afraid you'll get too much traffic.  Kind of silly right? 8P

How do you feel about the software itself? And the stability and such?

[Arantor]

Never said I was looking for 'great profit' ha. 25 decent forums with a few thousand views per day each can give me 30-40k views and I would say that's not too shabby.

OK, so you need a server that can handle 3/4 of a million page views PER DAY minimum going on your figures. It's possible to do that on a single server if you carefully tune the server. (redandwhitekop.com for example, their forum has 15 million page views a day on a single server last I heard - but it's a dedicated server, which means a minimum of $200 a month)

Which means you need to know how to tune all aspects of the server, which likely means getting to know PHP and MySQL, not to mention Apache (or nginx or similar) and assorted other technologies very well.

And you need to be making $100 a month or more in ad revenues to pay for a server to handle 750k page views a day, more if you don't plan on learning how to manage the server yourself, so you can pay someone to do it for you.

Idk how you can be discouraged from making a forum because your afraid you'll get too much traffic.  Kind of silly right? 8P

The majority of people running forums do not do so to make a profit. Most do so because it benefits their community and they fund it themselves. Many forums that run ads do not manage to pay for themselves.

Sure, maybe the forums on SMF For Free don't get many posts - but they still are serving ads, still got page views, etc. It's still got to be paid for somewhere, and very likely the distribution is much wider than you think in terms of payments - I doubt the top 25 forums on SMF For Free would pay for the hosting for just those 25 forums.

Just as with GoDaddy, the top 25 sites don't cover the costs for just those sites, they all collectively cover the costs for everyone.

I suck at server stuff.  Don't really understand any of it but I've never had problems with them either.

Which means you either need to be getting good at it or paying someone to do it for you, because I know that so many free forum hosts disappear - much to the chagrin of those who trusted the host with the community - because they just can't pay the hosting costs, or they get bored of it.

Is it not the hosting company's job to configure the server that you pay for?

My host doesn't configure the software on my server, I do.


OK, here's a thought for you: this forum is Pagerank 8, has 300k registered members, millions of posts... but needs multiple physical servers running it. And I'm not sure whether ad revenue alone pays for the servers, but a couple of grand from Charter Members has got to help...

[di3f00l]

Lol I wasn't basing the page views on 25k views per day per forum.  I was saying 1-2k per day per forum.  Meaning a total of 25-50k views per day. And 750k-1.5M views a month, not every day.  From your experience, would you say it would take any special work to run a multi forum website getting 25-50k views per day? Can't cost too much, still not epic traffic or anything.  But definitely enough for a buck. Even if I'm pessimistic and aim for 750k views a month that's still a few hundred dollars, no?

I'd have to guess the impressions easily pay for the servers here. At the rate of $550 for 1M views, and millions of views each month?.. I'm not an expert but I'd say it's doing just fine. Wouldn't be possible without the supporters and coders and such but as far as the servers.. 

[Arantor]

25k views, even if 0.1% clicks an ad (which is rather high), that's 25 clicks per day. Payment for that might be $0.10 per click... $2.50 per day, $75 for the month - might just cover your hosting.

Just.

From your experience, would you say it would take any special work to run a multi forum website getting 25-50k views per day? Can't cost too much, still not epic traffic or anything.

Needs a minimum of a VPS to run that, flat out minimum. So that's easily $30 a month for a low end VPS, unmanaged (i.e. no cPanel, no configuration, just bare VPS) - if you're doing the configuration work yourself you would stand to make a profit, probably, but if you're getting someone in to manage the hosting, there goes your profit.

I'd have to guess the impressions easily pay for the servers here. At the rate of $550 for 1M views, and millions of views each month?..

See, the bit you may not realise is that a good chunk of the bandwidth for this site is donated by 1+ companies in a goodwill exercise. And the people managing the servers aren't paid to do so, they're part of the team.

[di3f00l]

Interesting stuff.  I was looking at a cpm type thing. Like SMF.prg