Interested in a cheap forum like this? [Archive]

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 02:26 PM

Hello, I hope this doesn't go against forum rules:

I'm creating a bulletin board similar to this Vbulletin board with every option you see here and a few more I thought of myself.

I'd just like to get a rough idea of how many people would be interested in my project, because I'd rather not waste my time creating it if no one is interested.

My aim is to make it as great as this vbulletin version but at a cheaper price.

I will also need some people to trial it, but for the moment I need stats.

What options would you like to see in it?

Thanks in advance.

ionsurge

10-08-2002, 02:56 PM

I wouldn't mind trailing it - but what do you mean by cheap?

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 03:00 PM

Not sure yet but I'm leaning towards around $50 - 70 one-time payment.

WebbA

10-08-2002, 03:01 PM

Im aware Vbulletin costs a bit but how big (mb wise)is a typical install on a server machine? say 3forums with 10posts each?

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 03:16 PM

Great question, you saved me from making a costly mistake! I didn't think at all about file size.

Well this is a really rough estimate, and it will depend largely on how many users there are because it is all dynamicly loaded from a database...maybe 5 mb roughly.

This is really rough estimate including graphics, but the space taken up will vary depending on the size of the database

which = how many users there are & how large the posts are in the threads in each forum .

Sorry I can't give you a more exact answer but I am still in the planning stage of this and only have 3 files not including database.

I think in a week or two I could give you a more exact answer give or take a few hundred kb.

WebbA

10-08-2002, 03:19 PM

I was just asking cause i heard the vbulletin setup was over 500meg. Is this just rubbish?

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 03:21 PM

I don't think that it would be that much, that amount is just outrageous! I'm sure that no one would have VB if it was that large.

Nightfire

10-08-2002, 03:41 PM

LOL No, VB in't 500mb at all, it's just over 3mb including all images, etc.

brothercake

10-08-2002, 03:42 PM

The script, DBs and graphics probably don't amount to anything outrageous - what adds up is people's posts. The bigger the archive, the more space it eats up.

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 03:53 PM

I was expecting that to be a major player in the space factor, I'm going to add a manual/auto mass delete feature without a doubt.

What about you 2? Would you be interested in it?

Nightfire

10-08-2002, 03:56 PM

Sure, I'd give it a go :)

Mhtml

10-08-2002, 03:57 PM

So my estimate wasn't off by much then!
Excellent! you are added to both my lists for testing my new scripts.

WebbA

10-08-2002, 04:03 PM

Lol, stupid on my behalf, Firstly may i say i do not condole any pirate software, but i was looking on kazaa for vbulletin, simply for education purposes and there was a 500meg divx called vbulletin, i forgot to read the .avi bit!

Spookster

10-08-2002, 05:44 PM

One thing you may want to ask yourself before you spend so much time developing this and expect to make much money off of it is......Why does VBulletin charge for their software when there are so many other message boards freely available that are just as good. Because they provide technical support. So the main difference is providing people with the comfort of having a definite place to go for technical support. So if you are planning on charging for this then that is one of the things you would need to provide if you expect to compete with Vbulletin. It should also be at least as compatible with other O/S's, databases, as your competitors. Otherwise those people that actually wish to spend money on a message board will ask why should I pick this one over this other one? Or why should I pick this one when there are these that are free?

redhead

10-08-2002, 06:23 PM

Originally posted by Spookster
It should also be at least as compatible with other O/S's, databases, as your competitors.something i havent seen before is a good forum that works off text files....................

methinks that would make it extremely complicated though....:rolleyes:

Just my thoughts........

brothercake

10-08-2002, 07:19 PM

Originally posted by redhead
methinks that would make it extremely complicated though....:rolleyes:

Yeah it would. It would be okay for a forum that has maybe one subject area and a limited number of members. Such as for online focus groups. But for anything larger, processing a txt file would be so intensive compared to interrogating a database.

dauvm

10-09-2002, 02:24 AM

I was just in the market for a forum, as I am starting a forum site after I finish up a few odd projects... I did look at vBullitin and a few others, and I finally went with a free, open source software and the reason is that it had most of the functions of vBullitin, plus had a huge community of developers and style developers.

You just have to remember that to run forum software you either have to run your own database (which costs a penny for a good connection) or you need to get hosting which has php and sql support... also not always cheep.

just some stuff to think about before you start a huge project!

good luck,
-Doug

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 04:14 AM

I just realised that I should have mentioned before that this (if it goes ahead) will be in ASP, as I'm not yet fluent in PHP and I don't think that vbulletin offer there forum in ASP.

Would PHP be a lot faster?

Because they provide technical support.

Also I realised spookster that this would more than likely be the main reason for them selling it at price, I would be able to write an extensive FAQ but I'm sure that it WOULDN'T cover everything as that is not quite possible.

So I guess I will have to compensate in the price for the lack of c/support.

firepages

10-09-2002, 04:27 AM

Originally posted by redhead
something i havent seen before is a good forum that works off text files....................

methinks that would make it extremely complicated though....:rolleyes:

Just my thoughts........

complicated ,not really ... slow very :) UBB was good , just slow + more chance of data corruption etc & searching though flatfiles is a pig compared to a DB

dauvm

10-09-2002, 05:13 AM

Mhtml, I guess the only ASP forum that I found was @ http://www.aspplayground.net/default.asp... you can check out what they say on their site about it being faster or not... hope it helps.

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 05:29 AM

In my opinion running it off text files would be a whole lot easier to make but it is just not practical.

cg9com

10-09-2002, 06:16 AM

could you make an option to email the a member of the forum whenever there name is mentioned in a thread? that would be handy :) :) :)

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 06:25 AM

There's an Idea but it would be a little hard to control, if a person say had there name as "script" then when someone posted a thread which had in the message, "I don't know what's wrong with my script" it would cause complications.

Although I think that if I were to put it in the user options the user could make the decision whether or not he/she would like to recieve messages when there name is mentioned. That way if they had a normal word for there name the wouldn't have to recieve messages.

I'll add it to the list of things to include.

dauvm

10-09-2002, 06:25 AM

hmm, I like that idea too :thumbsup:

ionsurge

10-09-2002, 10:13 AM

Urmmm, a few things...

I seriously, doubt that anyone would actually pay $50 or be it $3, to actually ask a question in a forum, when there are thousands of other forums, with a lot of people that will do it all for free.

Secondly, I believe that VBulletin is .php based only, not asp.

Thirdly, unless you are a guru in .asp, and anything else, people will move away from the idea of visiting what would be a restricted forum, which wants people to pay for it.

Fourthly, I can almost guarantee, that there will be a hacker that will take over your site. This same situation was faced with another forum that I knew of that made people pay $5 to sign up for life. It was taken over, and now the forum is simply just dead.

Fifth, you will have a serious problem with malicious users, who will get into your system and wreak havoc due to the fact that you want to make them pay for your site. I know it seems like a case where you may think that that would not happen to you, but trust me it does eventually catch up with you, and you get tangled into this horific web.

It is the truth, and well, most of the people have to face it, and well, it is the sad truth of the internet.

I hope that this does not thwart your ambitions, and you seem like a strong character, so I doubt that it will.

Ionsurge.

ionsurge

10-09-2002, 10:15 AM

By the way, at one point about a year ago I think, www.another.com was a free place, but after they made people pay to use it, well, they have less than 2500 users, from their original amount which if I recall correctly, was at 350000.

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 11:30 AM

IONSURGE umm..I think that maybe you should read my first post.

I'm creating a bulletin board not selling membership to one.
What people do with the forum when they purchase it and set it up is there business and they may for well charge for it but that isn't what this thread is about.

I am thinking of creating a bulletin board and retailing it and this thread was posted to see how many users would be interested as I know that there have been a few people who ask for free forums like this, I would like to create the next best thing.

Vladdy

10-09-2002, 02:51 PM

here is good free one:
http://forum.snitz.com/

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 05:45 PM

After careful consideration I am not going to put a price tag on my forum. Not yet anyway. Maybe oneday but at the moment I am just going to make it anyway and have it as a free download.

What would you people think of it if I were to have a random text ad at the bottom? Like where the copywrite is on here? I was just thinking that maybe a few companies may like to have their ads on the board, the ads would just be picked out at random and wouldn't really get in the way as I'd prefer only small 1 or 2 line ads.

That way I could make a little money out of it.
And maybe I could have it that if you payed a small amount of money like $5 you could get the removal code for it.

Just a thought.

brothercake

10-09-2002, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by ionsurge
I seriously, doubt that anyone would actually pay ... to actually ask a question in a forum

I know this a little of topic, but that's an interesting point. I used to hang around Experts Exchange, which operates a points system - you spend points to ask questions and win points when your answered is accepted by the quesitoner.

But I got tired of it; too competitive and not very friendly.

Mhtml

10-09-2002, 06:50 PM

I find it hard to believe that such a thing exists, but then again the internet is giant bag of weird ideas.

ionsurge

10-10-2002, 11:20 AM

I think I got the wrong end of the stick - but I know what you mean now.

I guess that it will be pretty hard, seeing as you will be competing with boards like phpbb, and ikonboard which is completely free too.

When people do pay - and not download off some p2p software, I guess that they would generally go for something packed with features, for the cheapest price possible. So, provided that you can fit in a lot of features. it should, with the right promotion, be something pretty big, and successful.

Ionsurge.

firepages

10-10-2002, 11:34 AM

there are not many good boards for ASP so there you may stand a chance with a decent product at the right price, as for PHP, there are so many excellent ones out there that you would be hard pushed to actually sell anything.

Spooks is right of course about VB selling support, but they are in a different position to everyone else in that they were there first ;) and there is still this mentality out there with many ,that if it's free, then it can not be any good... so some (and some I know personally) have chosen and paid for VB for the sole reason that it is not free ! - go figure, of course there is security in the fact that support is offered.

ASP is different in that ASP heads are used to paying for stuff, and if its a really good board then you could charge more, if someone has a SQL server liscence ...

(dont even think of using MS access)

... then a hundred bucks or so for a good board is nothing... but its gotta be good, very good ! , but better still give the board away and sell support packages.

Mhtml

10-10-2002, 11:40 AM

By support packages you would mean something like only members could obtain support and membership would cost money?

Also about the SQL server not MS ACCESS thing what's the deal with that. I'm still new to ASP and I can code it but I'm still learning what things are more stable and faster than others.

firepages

10-10-2002, 01:50 PM

"By support packages you would mean something like only members could obtain support and membership would cost money? "

basically yes, call it membership or support, whichever, its the same basic idea and works for many, MySQL & PostgreSQL have both done quite well from support packages as does much of the open-source world.

as for Access, MSaccess is useful on the desktop and for small networks, but it is not designed nor can it handle many concurrent connections , it only takes a few concurrent users to break and/or corrupt it, its like trying to row the Atlantic in a paddle boat, you could do it on a fine day but as soon as its gets choppy you need a liferaft.

SQL server is a different beast altogether.