Setting up a forum

[skindemon]

Hey all,

Recently moved in to a new street and hoping to stay there for some time.

I had a thought as to how to interact with our neighbours more, given we all spend more & more time on-line - set up a forum.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience of doing such a thing? It would be a pretty small forum, and I wouldn't want anything too fancy. Oh, and ideally free!

Any assistance much appreciated!

Thanks

[trix]

http://www.sciroccocentral.co.uk/forum/ ... f=9&t=3052" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[skindemon]

awesome, thanks. I did search (honest!) but kept finding 'forum' or 'setup' in lots of other posts

[trix]

luckily I just knew that had been posted & where to find it quickly and easily.
sometimes using the advanced search & restricting forums to find results in helps narrow it down (NB: I am not the advanced search )

S

[Kev]

If you need any help, drop me a PM.

[Andy-GTI]

You've really got to question if an internet forum is the best way to communicate with your neighbours, cosidering you could just have a face to face conversation?

[Kev]

Indeed but I guess it depends how many households you're dealing with. I live on an estate of 170+ households. It would be an easy way to pass on info than do 170 printouts of news letters or knock on all the doors or organise somewhere to have a meeting.

A blog might also be an option.

[skindemon]

fair point Andy-GTI, but to be honest, like Kev has said, I live around quite a few houses (probably 20/30+) and whilst I'm happy talking to my neighbours, I don't really have time to speak to everyone.
Plus, I thought the idea of being able to communicate about issues and share talents / specialisms etc would be useful.

A blog might be a good idea, yes Kev, ta

[Kev]

By the way you were talking about it being free if possible. Good forum and blog software is free. phpBB (which we use on here), SMF and MyBB are free forum softwares. Wordpress is the most popular blog software and is also free. They're all very customisable.

You can get free hosting but it often comes with built in ads.

I just bought some cheap hosting and a web site for my oldest nephew's band and it was only £7 for the URL for 2 years and £30 for the hosting for a year. More than enough to get started.

[wigit]

i know someone who set up a similar forum and worked well, useful if you want to keep tabs on areas where you have property rented out, also good for recommendations on decent tradesmen in the area