A Few Newbie Questions

[TheWraith]

I just have a few questions that I need to know the answers to before I even proceed to download SMF and such....

1)  I have no real coding experience to speak of.  I've done some simple barckground stuff for Myspace and for some pics and videos, but that's it.  I have used an SMF board as a forum member, but never actually tried to run my own.  Am I getting in over my head or is it really a rather simple process?

2)  What is the average cost of hosting a SMF forum?

3)  Are there any hidden pitfalls that I am not seeing?  It all seems pretty simple, which makes me think that it is all too simple and I have a tendency to overthink things sometimes.

Thanks for your answers, I appreciate any and all help that I can get on my potential endeavors.   

[Oldiesmann]

1. It's really not that difficult, though it does partly depend on how much customization you plan on doing. Most new features can be added by uploading a zip or tar.gz archive through the admin center (see Package Manager for more details).

2. It varies widely depending on the size and activity level of the forum. For a new installation, you can usually get a good hosting plan for $8-$10 a month, sometimes less depending on the plan and the company.

3. No, not really. It really is pretty easy, and you'll learn a lot more as you get used to the system.

[TheWraith]

Sounds good so far. How about working on it? Is that something I have to be online for or can it be done offline as well?

[kat]

Tell ya what...

Have a read.

http://wiki.simplemachines.org

It might give you a feel for things.

[Account Abandoned]

And if you ever need help, you can get the best help you will ever get on this community and questions are answered really fast, I should add

[kat]

Or here, even!

[Xarcell]

SMF is pretty good, so is vanilla as far as free forums go. However, SMF has been targeted by spammers for some time now and it seemed to be ruining peoples sites.

[Illori]

smf is not the only forum software hit by spammers, they all get hit at some point.

[Account Abandoned]

Yeah, PhpBB is the spam forum... sorry to gossip but I have never been able to run one without a gazillion spammers hitting it... especially during the version 2 days! Spam is spam, its going to happen regardless of who you have a forum with...

My forums have only been hit with spam when I had no controls going on. Sure, I get them every now and then but not that much which makes me glad that I cam back to SMF

[klaaskv]

pittfalls yes they are finding a good host for y form
becas most of them accept ofcours y website but when y get a couple of daily members
so i think the best way is find a dedicated server
or a vps