How do you make a forum for your website?

how do u make a forum for ur website i need to know now

You can easily download one and customise it yourself...

http://www.phpbb.com/

or

http://www.vbulletin.com/

Well, there is a few ways.
you have to use a forum script, the most popular are

phpBB
Invision Power Board
Vbulletin
SMF (this one i think is new)

They all look the nearly the same, my favourite is PHPBB because Its opens source. This forum (ozzu.com) runs phpBB.

In order to have one off these scripts running you need to find some hosting with php and mysql, otherwise it simply won't run.

Otherwise you can go into this specialized companies that already have the sript installed so u can simply create your forum by clicking next next next next.... They keep the database in their own hosting.
The bad is that they add a banner and u cant access the database yourself.

So this is my recomendation:
If you need a forum now go to myfreebb.com and create a forum now... its as simple as click next a few times. At this time you have your problem fixed, but in my opinion you should go as further as the end of this post .

then, after having your forum online running 100%, relax and visit phpbb, vbulletin, etc websites and understand how does the wole thing works.
After you get into it ask myfreebb.com for a backup of your database and store it somwhere so u can run your forum in your own hosting.

Note that undestanding how the wole thing works can take a few weeks depending on how familiar with php/mysql basic concepts you are.

PS.: I said myfreebb.com but there are thousands of other companies. I picked this one because they are the only one i know that provide you the database if you want to move to your own hosting.

I would recommend VBulletin. Way more features and is a bit better than PHPBB

vBulletin costs $160 USD where as phpBB is free. There's really no compelling reason that I've seen to pay $160 for vBulletin when phpBB offers basically the same functionality but free.

In terms of how you install it, there are ways to do it automatically (multiple ways actually) but I prefer to do it manually just because I know that everything went through that way.

From what I've done, VBulletin has a lot more features and options in the Admin. But you're pretty right when it comes to pricing...

SMF!!!! http://www.simplemachines.org

The thing with the premodded versions is that thew are not so suitable to update... or u cant update them at all most of the times.
Before i thought this was no prob, but when i saw a forum like arlo.net being hacked....
i advice everybody to use latest versions of phpbb

and by the way... this forum runs phpbb

Here's a small list of features thant dont came with phpbb but in my opinion are important.

Quick repply box
show print friendly version
low-fi version (beter for slow connections)
Thread subscription (not by email)

vbulletin has TONS of features phpbb doesn't, but be aware that a new version of phpbb is in the works and not too far from release. They're puttin gin a lot of the 'extras' you get in vB this time around, and i think vB will lose a lot of sales because of it. You can find out more info on this on phpobb's site - phpbb.com.

Its not true that u cannot update...in fact good projects make there own updte scripts fully automated. and all mods still work. Also phpbb can have the same or even more options then vbb if ya mod it..u can also do this with vbb but then after paying 160USD

Vbb are just money eaters, and phpbb trying to kill this...and u will see it will work.

And about the sites that got hacked, thats the admin there fault, they should not have lack on updates, because thats what u get then. own fault, dont blame phpBB

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well you said the magic words: if you hack it. That takes time and energy, so if you're like me, then time is money. I would rather pay the fee one time and get what I want and need right away then to have to spend time after time putting in the mods over and over as phpbb gets updated. Over and over again, if you want to keep the options, you h ave to reinstall them. I know...because I've done. And frankly after 2 times, it was enough for me to say it's not worth the time any more.

vB can be hacked and have functionality added as well. And I hate to tell you, but phpbb, hacked or not, is not even CLOSE to having the same number of options and control. This is especially true for the admin areas.

I'm a fan and supporter of both board systems, don't get me wrong I love them both for their own reasons. But I can't stand someone saying that phpbb is just as good in terms of options when that simply is not true. For posting and reading and keep a regular board, it's great. If you want more for you buck right off the bat, vB is the way to go.

Dont get mad just chill we talk about some board not ur life , anyway u can MOD phpbb and it aint as good as vbb but still its CLOSE yes it is. and if u use a GOOD premodded, u can update without reinstall m8 , because the authors made a special script

But if u got more money then time, buy vbb

Grtz