A few questions

[wouldntulike2kno]

Hi

How much does it cost to run a forum like this?
How do you get the adverts?
Where can you get it? (the forum & ads)

 

[generalvegitable]

How much does it cost to run a forum like this?

it depends where and how its hosted (from free up to about £1000 per month), plus vbulliten is a paid script (there are better alternatives that are free, google simple machines forum (hint hint))

How do you get the adverts?

its google adsense, you need to sign up to it

Where can you get it? (the forum & ads)

for a site I recommend using 110mb hosting (affiliate link, it may get my site on the homepage if enough people sign up under the link), and use SMF forum (like my site).

 

[Mojo]

I think you'd be better off contacting us via Feedback form, but it's vBulletin, as detailed at the bottom of the page and you can buy it off their website. Adverts are provided by Google Adsense.

As for how much it costs! Well just check the price of vBulletin and a hosting company of your choice! Plus the time as well, although none of us get paid for running it!

 

[thefab444]

Is there a reason why you use commerical software like VBulletin, and not free software like PHPBB? Just out of interest.

 

[generalvegitable]

it might be personal taste, like alot of people go for windows over linux

 

[Mojo]

I guess it's just a thing that once you're used to it - might as well carry on with it.

I haven't used the Admin features of phpBB in a while but from what I do remember some relatively minor things required a mod to be downloaded and installed - and from what I seem to remember that was no easy task!

 

[generalvegitable]

I used phpbb before, the admin panel is unfathomable, my forum is SMF which is easy to mod, has millions of themes and mods, and is free and open source (if it doesnt work and you know the code, you can fix it yourself)

 

[yorkie]

Is there a reason why you use commerical software like VBulletin, and not free software like PHPBB? Just out of interest.

Well for starters vBulletin supports mobile devices!

It's a lot more manageable.

vBulletin currently costs £100 and a few quid extra per year for support/updates.

 

[generalvegitable]

Well for starters vBulletin supports mobile devices!

so does alot of other free forum scripts
see: here (link takes you to my forum in wap mode)

It's a lot more manageable.

there are free alternatives that are very easy to manage aswell

vBulletin currently costs £100 and a few quid extra per year for support/updates.

alot of other forum scripts cost £0.00 and a few minutes a year for support and upgrades/updates

 

[devon_metro]

http://www.simplemachines.org/ is good

 

[dan_atki]

I think (and I'm open to be corrected here!) that the reason vBulletin is currently used is because it was the software in use when the ownership of the forum changed hands.

Suddenly changing to use new software creates some problems:
- Users will not be familiar (and, in some cases, may believe they are on the wrong site);
- Staff will need some getting used to the new ways of doing things - moderation actions on vB are certainly easier than on many free forum scripts;
- Although converters for SMF (my personal opinion is that SMF is better than phpBB) exist we can't guarantee all the settings and such will be preserved when the database is converted - manually editing a mySQL database the size of this forum's isn't really an option. Indeed, the converter may not like the size of the database and refuse to convert it!

 

[generalvegitable]

I would agree that vBulleten is as good as SMF if the new posts button wasn't on a damn timer