pyost

I'm still waiting for it to come out of beta, because I'm am not keen on "unverified" releases But I will download it as soon as the final version comes out, since I am using Joomla! for two sites that I have. I can't wait to see how much will it improve

Introduction After looking around a bit, I managed to find numerous tutorials on how to create a good web site. But most of them talk about developing a template and/or managing a (static) web site. Next, there are few of them that deal with Content Management Systems, and even less tutorials mentioning forums (and if they do, it's pretty raw, in my opinion). So that's what I'm going to deal with – forums – or better to say, bulleting board systems (BBS). What is a forum? A forum, also referred to as a message board, is a way of communication between people connected to the Internet. It is similar to chat, but can't be called instant messaging, because users aren't connected at the same time. To overcome this “problem”, messages on various topics are saved and available for reading to anyone. That way, a user can read a message five days after it had been written, and then reply to it. I will not go into details when talking about a forum's functions. Why do people tend to use message boards on their web sites? As I already mentioned, by using a forum, you can lead an active discussion without being online all the time. These discussions attract a large number of visitors, thus improving a site's popularity. After all, everyone wants their web site to have lots of visitors. Sometimes, a forum can be the whole site, whereas in other places it is just a mere addition to the content on the main part of the site. In both cases, it is used to keep a web site “alive”. First steps The main thing you have to realise before even starting is this - creating something good with investing no money is nearly impossible. I am telling you this from my own experience. Sure, there are a few good forums on free host, but the people that created them must have been extremely lucky. So this leads us to rule number one: You must be prepared to invest some money into your forum. What does “some money” mean? If you are a starter in forum administration (not to say a newbie), you could manage with only about $40 a year. That includes a domain name ($10) and hosting. If you don't want to spend more money, you will also need a free forum software – I will deal with this choice later on. On the other hand, if you think you are ready to start it big, you'll have to separate a larger amount of money, probably over $100. Again, you need it form a domain name, a better hosting, and this time a paid forum software. Choosing a topic for your forums Before choosing a domain name, you must decide what your forum will be about! If you already own a web site, it will probably not be a problem – just make it fit with your site. If, however, you are starting with a forum, it will be a big problem. In order for a forum to be successful, it must have a way to attract visitors. The best way is to have some unique content – but how is this possible when everything already exists on the Internet? That's one thing you will have to think about. Unless you are ready to take your chances, be very, very careful. I have had multiple forums with many topics – books, technology, games etc. Of course, none of the succeeded, just because all of that already existed. However, my current forum is doing pretty well. It has 120 members and a lot of posts. It might be nothing compared to Xisto, but it's a good for a forum that has existed for six months. And how come it is still working? Simple – it is a forum meant to “unite” students in my country (Serbia). Since nothing like that exists, I have quite an influx of visitors/members Choose a topic for you forum that is unique (as much as this is possible) and is bound to attract visitors (because of its popularity in the world/your country) Choosing a domain name After you have chosen a topic (and a good one, I hope), it's time to buy a domain name. Best domains are the ones with com and net extensions. If you are making a forum in your own language, a country TLD (top level domain) will also work. Do not use subdomains, as these put off visitors that will see you forum as a cheep one (which it is if you are using a subdomain). Domain names need to be short, catchy (http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ doesn't seem appealing) and have something to do with the topic. These three things make them easy to remember. Try avoiding numbers and hyphens unless necessary – letters only will do. Make your domain short, catchy and site-related Choosing hosting Probably the hardest part to decide on (and the most expensive one, too). People usually aren't keen on paying and annual fee, but they fail to realise how important that is. Free servers are rarely good (Xisto is one of the good ones ), have a lot of downtime and bad support – on the other hand, paid servers are good because you are paying for them. If you make a good choice, you won't be disappointed. You need to think how popular your forum will be. For a beginner, 1GB of bandwidth will be enough, but if the forum starts developing fast, you will have to upgrade. As for space, again, 100MB is enough for a beginner, and a few gigabytes is enough even for a bigger forum. You'll have to “predict” these things yourself. I would suggest using Xisto - Web Hosting, since it offers good plans for little money, and is quite reliable. After finding a hosting company, google a bit to find opinions on its service. You don't want to choose a bad service, do you? What software to use? All the talk up to now wasn't actually about forums – anyone could use it for creating an ordinary web site. And here we start with the main thing. As it is on computers, there are usually more than two programs that serve u purpose (for example, Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer). In the BBS world, there are four “programs” that stand out, in my opinion. The free ones are phpBB and SMF (Simple Machines Forum), whereas the paid ones are IPB (Invision Power Board) and vBulletin. Here's a bit on every one of them. phpBB Probably one of the most spread forums, but the least secure one at the same moment. PhpBB is known to have multiple security holes, and the developers just can't seem to fix them all. Even a ten-year-old could get into one of those! On the other hand, most people say it's the “prettiest” forum because of the number of available skins. There are also various hacks – but they bring even greater insecurity. I strongly advise you not to use phpBB if you don't want to pay. SMF While not being as good-looking as phpBB, SMF is one of the most secure (free) forums available. Why is free in the parenthesis? Because it might be safer than some paid forums. Anyhow, if you want security and bunch of options, SMF is the way to go. IPB Next, we have a forum that cost some money. You will have to pay $70 for a one-year licence, or $185 for a perpetual one (see this link for more info). This is what I use for my forums IPB is rather secure (SMF is more secure than older IPB versions), has a lot of mods/skins available and a large number of “worshippers”. Best quality for the given money. vBulletin This is the most secure forum I know, and it's not too expensive. That means that is cost approximately the same as IPB. It overcomes IPB when it comes to security, but it loses when we are talking about design (this is just my opinion, people might disagree). It is a tough choice between IPB and vBulletin, so be careful if you are buying a forum. Organizing a forum Some people like to start their community as soon as they install their chosen forum software. This is something I like to avoid, because nobody likes "under construction" sites/forums. That's why you need to complete everything before inviting visitors to join. It would be a good idea to disable member registrations until you are completely satisfied with what you've made. Of course, the first thing you should handle is the back-end stuff (configuration), but I will not cover that topic in this tutorial. What should be done first? In order to start managing your forum, you need to think like visitors would. When you visit a forum, what makes you register? Probably the content, or better to say what you see right away. Therefore, the first thing you need to deal with is making different categories/forums/sub forums. From my experience, I can tell you that it is not a good idea to create a forum for every little thing, because that way you will have too many places for people to post. Furthermore, to new visitors, it will seem a bit empty when posts are spread like this. Because of that, I'd advise you to create 2 or 3, maybe 4 categories, and not more then 6-7 forums in each of them (add sub forums if necessary). What forums you will create depends on the topic you have chosen. For example, on my music web site, I have an Announcements/Forum Stuff category (all the news, complaints, praises etc. go here - that's the "official" part), a Music category (obviously, the main one), and an Off Topic one (most forums have it, and it's useful for increasing the number of posts). But don't forget to ask other people what they think! They might not like something you think is good! And after organizing the categories.. ..You should move on with being a visitor yourself. Let's say you decide to register - you click the "Sign up" button and get the "Terms of Service" page (just an example, might not be the same on different forum software). Or to put it more simple, the Forum rules. Try not to skip writing them, as they can help a lot when your forum gets bigger. Also, don't COPY some other forum's rules - it is best when you make them yourself and customize them for your website. Here you should include: Posting rules/limitations Avatar content/size (if enabled) Signature content/size (if enabled) Overall behaviour And one more thing you might want to add is that every member is responsible for his/her own posts. Since new members must accept the rules, they automatically take all the responsibility - it's just a good safety precaution Completing the forum Finally, you should decide on which template to use for your community. I think this is best done in the end, because everything else is complete, so you know what the forum will look like (I know, the sentence is confusing). Again, you have several options. You can use the default template. I wouldn't recommend this for SMF, since I think it's rather ugly, but the other forums have a rather good one - especially IPB, which is professionally-looking. Or, you can download a free template and use it instead - there are hundreds of these available online. Last, but not least, you can make your own template if you are skilled with HTML and CSS. I highly recommend this to people who already have a web site; it is always a good idea to make the site and the forum look similar. After all of this has been done, you can move on to getting people to register! Expanding the community This always proves to be the hardest part. In order for people to register, they must be attracted by your forum. This is usually achieved by having a lot of quality posts (like on Xisto ), but what to do when you are just starting? Then answer to this might not seem really fair, but it sure is wokring. Before advertising your forum anywhere, create several accounts on your own (5, 10, why not more?) and talk to yourself. It is silly, but helps develop a topic. Also, I just mentioned avertising. This is probably the most spread way of popularizing anything. But, guess what? It costs money... Free link/banner exchanges don't really help, and you should ignore them. However, AdWords and similair programs do help. As you already said, you must invest. All in all, this is not an easy job if you want to create something good. But you can at least try! I sincerely hope that this tutorial has been, and will be helpful to anyone who has decided to start a forum

If my memory serves me well, I have had the same problem some time ago. I can't remember exactly what helped, but trying to delete it in DOS mode seems like a good idea. Also, you might want to try booting Windows in Safe Mode and then deleting the corrupted file.

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned Photobucket yet, since it is the most used one, in my opinion. While most people use it for single image hosting (the same as imageshack.us), it also provides album creation. Also, you can make those albums private if you wish so that only you can view them. On the other hand, Photobucket doesn't really have much options - it's just a SIMPLE photo sharing site. If you want something more powerful, check out the link nikhil provided, it seems fair enough to me.

Aah, the famous TIM! While I have played only the third part, it was enough to form my opinion - it is just perfect It really makes you think and tends to be very hard at some moments. Some people say it's a drawback that keeps them away from the game, but that's exactly what I like. However, I've never managed to complete it, since I was about ten or eleven years old. And this thread makes me want to play it again

Hm, isn't this considered a mailing list? As far as I know, an autoresponder is a piece of code that automaticaly replies to e-mail with a pre-defined message. It is useful if you are on vacation and want to let everyone know if they write to you. Or, as you can see at Wikipedia: Anyhow, I think this is a good idea (the mailing lists web site). If I am correct, there are only a few like those, and I'm sure many people/companies would like to have their newsletter. But what does a user get by paying the monthly fee?

Well, I tried DokuWiki at first, but didn't like the design By the way, will you be using it for WiseTome or something else?

I always say that it's best to install all software manually. What's more, MediaWiki isn't hard to install - I'm using it myself. However, it might be a bit hard to administrate, because there doesn't seem to be an admin panel

As a matter of fact, it has been posted http://forums.xisto.com/topic/88591-topic/?findpost=1064337135

While only administrators can approve/deny hosting request, it is possible for moderators to do so with tutorials. When I am sure that a tutorial is not plagiarised and suits the forum, I approve it. On the other hand, if I am not sure, I leave it to the other mods And they leave it to the admins, and they have to check the requests, so no tutorial approving for them

Yeah, that's true. I was shocked when I saw the amount of money spent on a single web site! I wish I were the owner of YouTube - they had a great idea, and managed to earn 1.65 billion dollars about two years, if I am not mistaken. As for WHY Google bought it, I don't think it's such a mistery. As Zebrius said, they do have a lot money, and it just keeps pouring in. Google Videos is very good, but YouTube remains better. So, if you can't beat them, buy them

This is easy When I log in, my mail accounts are automatically checked (Hotmail and GMail) After reading the mail (if there is any), I start up Firefox (if there was no (g)mail ) Once it loads, I open several web sites I check regularly, including Xisto The next thing I do is turning to various news sources I use for updating my two web sites. And in the end, I just freelance the web while creating a template or chatting. Whatever I'm into at that moment.

Um.. Yeah.. That ought to be fixed.. Xisto and Xisto are sister web sites, and have the same owner (the Xisto corporation). However, Xisto is less technology-oriented, so some people might find it easier to post there. That's why the administrators tend to send a member every now and then to Xisto - because their post quality isn't good enough for Asta, but would do at Xisto.

Not really. If you read the forum description, you will notice that it deals with YOUR ideas. Have a look at some other topics and you'll get the hang of it. Of course, at the same time it does increase your brain power - after all, every riddle/idea does

Which is one credit per day

I'm glad you've managed to solve the problem. But of course, now there are other things you might want to change If it wasn't your intention to make the text pixel-art-like (what a word, huh? ), it would be better to turn anti-aliasing on when typing text - especially for the logo. Also, the font you used for the buttons and the "tabs" should be 2px smaller, in my opinion.

Yay, I'm on the list too :PIt's so sad that you are leaving, but it's a step that must be made - Free hosting to Paid hosting I hope you do well at your job and enjoy your future hosting account. And try to visit Asta every now and then :PP.S. It really is a good book

It is a joke, and a good one, in my opinion But we all know Google is above this

Wow, that's some really good design you've got there! I like the colours and the images, but the iFrame just doesn't fit there. I simple DIV section would do it. Also, you probably know this, but the font colour needs to be changed to white instead of black. Just for the pleasure of being able to read something

For Joomla!, I believe that you can use the built-in ad rotator. However, it might be a bit confusing. When creating a new ad, you can enter a custom code to be displayed (which I use for AdSense), but you are still requiered to pick a banner. But since the custom code is displayed, you may choose whatever picture you want. If you need help customizing this module so you can use it, feel free to contact me

It is strict with a reason. When writing HTML code, you don't need to worry about numerous things. Make all the tags uppercase, or even better, mix that with lowercase! While it will all be correct, it's quite possible that the code will be interpreted in a different way by Internet Explorer and Firefox. And that's where XHTML jumps in. You are right, it may be a bit too strict for someone used to incorrect HTML. However, I have always been very careful when coding, and used to make everything lowercase. And now I don't have troubles with XHTML since it took me only a few days to get used to it. Not to mention that there are programs that convert HTML to XHTML, so you don't have to worry about how you are going to re-code it. On the other hand, when using these programs, you will probably "distort" the design a bit (that's my expirience), but it can all be solved in a short period of time.

You can chec your credits on the forum homepage (http://forums.xisto.com/index.php). The credit information box is located below the shoutbox and the ads, and before the forum categories.

I'm not suprised you are having troubles with this one, since it is quite tricky. At first, I thought it was a border-bottom preperty. But after looking at a SMF web site with that theme, I found out that it is actually a background image. I guess you are using Firefox. If that's the case, right-click on any of those three boxes, and then click "View Background Image". It will open an image named box_bg.gif. Now, my guess is that, somewhere in the stylesheet, there is a CSS property defining the position of this image. It would have to be something like this: .some_class { background: #eeeeee url(images/box_bg.gif) repeat-x bottom left;} Of course, the colour probably isn't #eeeeee. However, when I checked out that site's stylesheet, something like this was nowhere to be found! I just hope you have more luck with this. If you don't manage to change the CSS file, just edit the image so it suits your needs.

Interesting.. I can't access the cPanel from that address, either, but it works when you exclude the www prefix. So, try this address: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

No, it's all working fine for me, at the moment. When in doubt whether the server is down, you might want to check out this link: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/. It gives you information on the main services (HTTP, MySQL, POP3 etc.). Be noted that all Xisto members are on the gamma server.