Before blogs spread and before Facebook, those who wanted to open a website that was a way to share ideas and resources and to offer a discussion space by creating a community of users, there were forums. A forum is a space where anyone who signs up can comment on others' posts and open new topics.
This is the difference between a forum and a blog, where instead only one or a few people can open new discussions that others can then comment on.
In general, forums serve as a space for technical assistance of programs, software, online services or even to exchange ideas and ask for practical advice, perhaps on topics such as health, cars, mobile phones, website creation and so on.
Anyone can create a forum, both professional and amateur, both free and paid.
After seeing how to create a blog, let's see which are the best free CMS to create a forum that can be hosted on your website (with hosting) or the sites to create a free forum, hosted by an external hosting.
The difference is that, with your own hosting, you become owner of the forum, both as administrator of the topics and on the webmaster side.
In this case there will be no limitations, you can put advertising, you can have your own internet address with a second level domain and there are no limits to the number of interventions and the way of presenting them.
In the case of a forum hosted on an external service, you will not have to pay anything as long as you accept the conditions of the provider, respecting its regulation and any limits.
If you own a hosting or if you want to create a professional forum, perhaps in support of your company site or a blog but also completely independent, you need to install a CMS that provides an automated management platform.
1) The most popular free CMS for forums is phpBB, the oldest open source forum management software used worldwide.
phpBB is quite easy to use: the installation process requires some familiarity with the concepts of FTP, web server and database.
The whole process takes about 10 minutes with a wizard.
The biggest advantage of phpBB is its popularity and therefore the fact that in the support forums, also in Italian, you will find all the information to do anything.
All you have in mind to do has certainly already been done so just look for instructions.
In addition, there are many graphic styles that you can use for free to customize a forum.
2) phpBB however is not the easiest of the forum CMS; Much more intuitive and equally professional and free is MyBB .
I'm not a forum expert but from a quick look and reading various comments around, it really seems like the best platform today to create a forum on your hosting.
The most famous paid CMS software to create a hosting forum is vBulletin which has nothing more than phpBB or MyBB only which provides customer support always available.
Most people, however, want to create forums for purposes that do not center with companies and assistance, so they may prefer to open a forum for the group in the video game or to talk about more futile things, using fast and free platforms.
So without having to buy a hosting, without having to follow installation procedures and to create a forum immediately, where the only job to do is choose colors, manage subscriptions and write content, you can use one of these sites.
These are undoubtedly the most famous and best sites for creating forums, also with an interface in Italian .
1) Forumotion is an excellent site where you can open a customized forum as you wish and without bandwidth and size limitations.
ForumAttivo is the Italian version of a platform localized in all the languages of the world.
The forum can be managed by choosing between 4 platforms : phpBB2 (the standard), phpBB3 (fully customizable), PunBB (easy) and Invision (more professional).
It allows you to customize the forum with over 3000 graphic themes and presents an absolutely clear and beautiful interface.
After registration you can give a name to the forum with a different address depending on the chosen domain.
Forumotion also allows you to purchase your own domain through the forum administration interface.
By managing the forum you can, among other things, also:
- Send newsletters to subscribers;
- Install the modules to have a first presentation page, a blog, image galleries, games, chatbox and calendar;
- Look at the Forum statistics.
2) Create a Forum is a new excellent site to create a forum.
3) ForumFree and Forumcommunity (they are the same thing) are rather polar in Italy but I do not recommend them because they have limits in security, SEO and integration with social networks.
5) TapaTalk is the most used application in the world to create online communities, discuss topics on a website or blog, which allows you to follow the forums in order to receive notifications for new replies and new topics.
Many companies and normal users, in the last year, have exploited Facebook, which has the function of discussions integrated in each Fan page (see how to create a Fan page on Facebook) even if as a forum it is very limited.
