do i have to buy a domain for a forum?

**lemon_1800** · 13-05-09, 15:16

it is really good site i have heard lot's of time but i want to know is they are also offering domain also.

Yes they offer free subdomain. Basically, it's just a site which will provide you free hosting of forum without need of downloading scripts and then uploading it to server. But I'm not sure if you have control over the scripts. I mean I'm not sure if you can add any plugins or add any credit system or something.

**kiatsiang** · 13-05-09, 18:43

I heard a lot of free forum scripts site, can anyone suggest those good forum site for me to download? from your opionion, which forum scripts is the easiest to maintain and learn?

**moustafa** · 13-05-09, 23:52

you can try with smf , its nice and easy to be learnt

**duskiss** · 24-05-09, 05:08

I have register a domain for a site to which the building steps are guided by a wizard, just like to creat a blog, in comparison it's quite a challenge to build a forum even you have a domain.

**tom** · 24-05-09, 06:38

well as moustafa said smf is very user friendly but powerful scripts ,but vbulletin is very robust but little complex script to understand or install.

**wonderful1** · 24-05-09, 07:30

Originally Posted by moustafa

you can try with smf , its nice and easy to be learnt

what is smf? is it a free script for forum? is there a payment system in the script? please post the link here? I can control it once I download it to my computer?

**duskiss** · 24-05-09, 13:22

Originally Posted by wonderful1

what is smf? is it a free script for forum? is there a payment system in the script? please post the link here? I can control it once I download it to my computer?

Here is the link: http://www.simplemachines.org/
But I notice that neither SMF nor Vbulletin is popular in China, many forums are powered by and Discuz! and PHPWind.

**wonderful1** · 25-05-09, 06:30

Originally Posted by duskiss

Originally Posted by wonderful1

what is smf? is it a free script for forum? is there a payment system in the script? please post the link here? I can control it once I download it to my computer?

Here is the link: http://www.simplemachines.org/
But I notice that neither SMF nor Vbulletin is popular in China, many forums are powered by and Discuz! and PHPWind.

why SMF and Vbulletin are not famous in China? because of the IP address or language? I know many English forums choose Vbulletin. Discuz and PHPWind are often used in our country?

**duskiss** · 25-05-09, 13:03

Originally Posted by wonderful1

why SMF and Vbulletin are not famous in China? because of the IP address or language? I know many English forums choose Vbulletin. Discuz and PHPWind are often used in our country?

Maybe due to cultural difference, in my experience those forums use SMF or Vbulletin are more likely to be business related and the layout looks monotonous, but we tend to decorate forums making it looks more comfortable so they chose Discuz and PHPWind which emphasize more in that area. And you can see many forums with funny smileys which style is quite different from those in western forums.

**wonderful1** · 26-05-09, 16:17

Originally Posted by duskiss

Originally Posted by wonderful1

why SMF and Vbulletin are not famous in China? because of the IP address or language? I know many English forums choose Vbulletin. Discuz and PHPWind are often used in our country?

Maybe due to cultural difference, in my experience those forums use SMF or Vbulletin are more likely to be business related and the layout looks monotonous, but we tend to decorate forums making it looks more comfortable so they chose Discuz and PHPWind which emphasize more in that area. And you can see many forums with funny smileys which style is quite different from those in western forums.

can you give me the links about Discuz and PHPWind? do I have to pay money for buying such script? what about the price? are they suitable for paid forum like WMM or MMK?

**duskiss** · 26-05-09, 19:06

Originally Posted by wonderful1

can you give me the links about Discuz and PHPWind? do I have to pay money for buying such script? what about the price? are they suitable for paid forum like WMM or MMK?

There are two examples,
http://bbs.ivemusic.net/ by Discuz!
http://bbs.sumisora.com/ by PHPwind
You see people like to join domestic forums belonging to special interest and disgust those with many ads; and you can't find nowhere about PTP, our net population is so large that no one can afford that payment to members so if you want to set up a domestic forum it must be adult related, but anyway the risk is high you know some of those earn much from such forums are in jail.

**moustafa** · 26-05-09, 19:45

Originally Posted by wonderful1

Originally Posted by moustafa

you can try with smf , its nice and easy to be learnt

what is smf? is it a free script for forum? is there a payment system in the script? please post the link here? I can control it once I download it to my computer?

its simple machines forum and you can try also phpbb.

**wonderful1** · 27-05-09, 06:46

Originally Posted by duskiss

Originally Posted by wonderful1

can you give me the links about Discuz and PHPWind? do I have to pay money for buying such script? what about the price? are they suitable for paid forum like WMM or MMK?

There are two examples,
http://bbs.ivemusic.net/ by Discuz!
http://bbs.sumisora.com/ by PHPwind
You see people like to join domestic forums belonging to special interest and disgust those with many ads; and you can't find nowhere about PTP, our net population is so large that no one can afford that payment to members so if you want to set up a domestic forum it must be adult related, but anyway the risk is high you know some of those earn much from such forums are in jail.

I don't wanna set a forum with adult related contents, and it is a not a good way to earn more money online. I just build a forum that we can get money by posting.

**moustafa** · 27-05-09, 15:32

its good that you aren't looking to make a forum that contain adult contents, but what do you mean by making forum to earn from posting ?
will you be the admin or someone else?

**john** · 27-05-09, 17:35

Originally Posted by duskiss

Originally Posted by wonderful1

can you give me the links about Discuz and PHPWind? do I have to pay money for buying such script? what about the price? are they suitable for paid forum like WMM or MMK?

There are two examples,
http://bbs.ivemusic.net/ by Discuz!
http://bbs.sumisora.com/ by PHPwind
You see people like to join domestic forums belonging to special interest and disgust those with many ads; and you can't find nowhere about PTP, our net population is so large that no one can afford that payment to members so if you want to set up a domestic forum it must be adult related, but anyway the risk is high you know some of those earn much from such forums are in jail.

Hi duskiss these two forums are in Chinese, so didn't get anything from these forums, whose forum is this?

**duskiss** · 27-05-09, 18:38

Originally Posted by john

Hi duskiss these two forums are in Chinese, so didn't get anything from these forums, whose forum is this?

Well friend they're not examples to show contents but which system the forums are powered, we don't need to get anything from these forums but just see how it looks and leave, for more details you can check my discussion with wonderful1.

Originally Posted by wonderful1

I don't wanna set a forum with adult related contents, and it is a not a good way to earn more money online. I just build a forum that we can get money by posting.

If you want to set up a PTP forum may it be HYIP or money-making related or it must be hard to get sponsors, and is it international or just domestically oriented?

**moustafa** · 27-05-09, 20:22

it can demostically oriented in case of he is sure that he can get much members from his country.

**indieover** · 30-05-09, 18:38

it is easy good to learn how to start a forum. but getting members in our forum is the hardest part. and it is not easy what kind of sections or topics we should have in our forum. i think that t hose free forum are good ones too.