Hi first I need to state my computer technolgy is limited I am currently a member of a car forum but feel i can do it better than the current site so want to set up one of my own but I dont really understand all the jargon and which forum host is best best the current forum I use is set up with webwizz which is ok but if I use that it will just be the same Another question is we have a chat room on ours do all forums servers have this or just select ones as I cant find this facility on any of the ones I have looked at with the google ads who gets the payments is it the forum owner as in me or the forum provider as in phbb or webwizz or who i set up with Also I reckon on around 2000 members max over a period of time so need to set up a cost effect package I like vbulletin as it offers the choice of free membership or paid with added features but think it may be too elaborate for me but this is the sort of thing I wanted to do As Isaid at start little bit simple on technical side so any guidance or help would be greatfully received thanks for reading this
Sorry for the late reply here........ First word of caution, forums are VERY difficult to gain traction with in terms of regular members and postings. Most new forums fail because they never get any momentum. If you are willing to devote an awful lot of your time to making the fourm helpful and engaging then you have a good chance however. There are plenty of options but if you are not technical you may want to get someone who is to help you get things setup. I would definitely start with a free forum option and wait until you have an estestablished community before you start paying for software like vBulletin (What D-A-L uses) I am not a big fan of chat rooms on forums. Forums are successful because they are a running archive of information that others can locate in future and find helpful. Chat rooms are full of conversation which is only relevant for the people involved. If you are using your own Google Adsense code on the pages then you will get the payments. Advertising on forums is only successful once you have a thriving community though. I would suggest you steer well clear of Ads until you have the traffic and members to warrant having your own hosting/software and then use the advertising revenue to cover costs. Long term vBulletin is great and has all the options you will need. It also has a community of developers at vBulletin.org Forum - The Official vBulletin Resource! who write their own addons to add functionality. Once you have a proven community this would be my first choice of application.
