Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I will be setting up an online forum (like this one) for a volunteer organization. Can anyone suggest a good free hosting service, or tell me one to avoid?
ProBoards.com and freeforums.org look ok. Has anyone here used either of them? If so, was the service satisfactory?
As far as free hosts go I have no recommendations but be sure you find out what their policies are regarding the database. Make sure you can make full backups at least once a week that you can download yourself. There's two reasons for this, firstly if the host goes out of business, changes their policies etc. you'll most likely get no notice and have nothing. Secondly some charge for this and you may want to move it to your own server in the future, you don't want a surprise bill to get the data.
The bottom line is never trust anyone with your data, have your own backups up to date as possible .
We used Proboards as a jumping point to start our forum but depending on the time you want to invest, how many members, what all you want to do with the site, etc. we ended up leaving Proboards after a week.
I know it's been a month, but this site is worth a look. Posters I have recommended it to have used it and I've received no negative feedback. I've had a client using it for years and she is very satisfied. Search this forum for other posts and the replies. As low as $3.00 a month.
I helped start up a forum not long ago, and initially we were using proboards. We quickly outgrew it and it's lack of administration features.
The unfortunate thing about these free sites is that you cannot export your posts and data...you'll have to start fresh when you decide to upgrade. Think about this before hopping on the free bandwagon.
I suggest getting some hosting ($40/year, is cheap enough in my opinion), and either get a vbulletin license (cream of the crop) or install PHPBB. I'm a fan of PHPBB but VB is a much better alternative if you have the cash.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
