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How to create forums on a blog.
February 13, 2006 6:48 PM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

How can I create forums on my food blog like the ones here and here?

I realize both of these are powered by PHPBB but I tried to download it and couldn't figure it out. Maybe because I'm using OSX? Is there an easier way? Thanks!
posted by adrober to computers & internet (9 comments total)
phpbb is pretty easy to use, as far as bulletin board packages go. I installed it on a couple servers a few years ago without any trouble. Just follow the instructions to load it up on your own web server. It shouldn't matter what OS your home computer runs, everything has to be installed on the server (server requires PHP and a database (probably MySQL)).

Ask your web host for a database. You should get a name of the database, and a username/password to connect to the database that you'll have to tell phpBB about. Then your web host needs to support php.

Also keep in mind that phpBB is prone to exploits since it is widely installed, so every few months you might have to upgrade it to the latest. If you install it yourself and get used to it, it should be no problem to upgrade in the future.
posted by mathowie at 7:12 PM on February 13, 2006


I've set up a few phpbb forums. Wouldn't consider myself an expert, but it has always been fairly straightforward assuming you have a bit of competence with php, mysql, and unix. Just follow the instructions in the readme to the letter. I assume your site is hosted on linux? Was there something specific that you hung up on?
posted by Manjusri at 7:14 PM on February 13, 2006


Get an account at Dreamhost (or any other provider that does this- I happen to use them). They have a One-Click install that creates the db and sets up a core installation for you.
posted by mkultra at 7:25 PM on February 13, 2006


Get an account at Dreamhost (or any other provider that does this- I happen to use them). They have a One-Click install that creates the db and sets up a core installation for you.

mkultra, do you mean a one-click database set up, or a one-click phpbb setup? If it's the latter, then, that's a nice feature.
posted by smithmac_99 at 8:25 PM on February 13, 2006


smithmac_99: Dreamhost has one-click phpBB (and Wordpress, Gallery, osCommerce, AdvancedPoll, MediaWiki, Joomla, and WebCalendar).
posted by mendel at 8:53 PM on February 13, 2006


It's a one-click phpBB setup. You can either select an existing database or create a new one as part of the install.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:55 PM on February 13, 2006


Hmmm, well I have no programming experience---I use Typepad, so the do-it-yourself-option isn't for me. Dreamhost seems cool, but is there any free option? I feel like something was linked on kottke a while back; a free forum generator. Anyone remember that?
posted by adrober at 9:43 PM on February 13, 2006


ProBoards? - "Free Remotely Hosted Message Boards"

Never used them directly, although I've been on a few boards hosted by them and it seems to work well.
posted by blag at 5:23 AM on February 14, 2006


If you are on OSX and on broadband, you could consider hosting it yourself as you have a full apache installation under the hood. I would suggest something like Simpleforum for most of the same functionality without the learning curve of PHPBB.
posted by KimG at 7:40 PM on February 18, 2006


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