The Creative Design Blog

What are the advantages to having a forum?

Forums permit your customers and potential customers to discuss issues. They get the chance to ask questions and make comments while reading the responses from others. This will probably relieve your support/customer service departments of some unnecessary work, and users find it to be convenient.

In addition, it’s a great way to obtain free links for Search Engine Ranking.

Why phpBB?

There is no charge. Licenses do not need to be purchased. phpBB is free to the public. Besides the program (source code) being unencrypted, the license allows you to alter it or add new code as desired. To make more major alterations, you will need to possess some PHP expertise.

Setting up phpBB

Once you download it you can immediately start to install. Unless your website host provides Fantastico on the server, you must have a bit of knowledge for the initial installation. In a matter of seconds, Fantastico can install phpBB automatically, and once you do a bit of configuring, your forum will be ready for use. If you prefer to do the installation on your own, you will have to familiarize yourself with the concepts of file and folder permissions, FTP, and setting up a MySQL database, if you are not already knowledgeable with regard to these.

Personalizing, Altering the appearance.

You can change the appearance of your forum using various themes. The majority of them are free but some request donations. Or if you are up for a challenge, you can make your own or alter your current theme.

Assistance is readily available on the phpBB user forums. You can pay a programmer to make the desired changes. Qualified PHP programmers are not hard to locate and are cost effective — especially if you do not already have a working knowledge of PHP.

What are the advantages to having a forum?

Forums permit your customers and potential customers to discuss issues. They get the chance to ask questions and make comments while reading the responses from others. This will probably relieve your support/customer service departments of some unnecessary work, and users find it to be convenient.

In addition, it’s a great way to obtain free links for Search Engine Ranking.

Why phpBB?

There is no fee. It’s not necessary to purchase a license — phpBB is open to the public. The source code (program) is not encrypted, you can change code as you much as you want, as you own the license. However, you will need to know how to use PHP to make any major alterations.

Installation and Configuration

It’s pretty straightforward to install the phpBB. Unless Fantastico is installed on the server by your website host, a little bit of familiarity is necessary for you to perform the initial installation. PhpBB can be automatically installed by Fantastico; after which a bit of configuration is needed before you can start your forum. If you prefer to do the installation yourself, you will need to grasp, or learn, how to change file and folder permissions; FTP; as well as the MySQL database setup process.

Personalizing and altering the appearance.

You can change the appearance of your forum using various themes. The majority of them are free but some request donations. Or if you are up for a challenge, you can make your own or alter your current theme.

Assistance is readily available on the phpBB user forums. You can pay a programmer to make the desired changes. Qualified PHP programmers are not hard to locate and are cost effective — especially if you do not already have a working knowledge of PHP.