How Much Work To Run A Club Forum

I Have a quick question. Does anyone here have some idea how much time and work is required to run a forum similar to Aboho but limited to a club or organization? A club of about 50 to 75 members, a Chess or Bowling club for example.Thanks wojta

Depends how much activity you get. Actually a forum can basically be "run" by its members. You don't even have to post anything, just maintain it. You will need a webhost and the forum software (in the case of Aboho, they are using vBulletin - a paid/subscription forum). I suggest using a free forum like SimpleMachines to see how things work out first before you dive into the commercial forums.

the amount of work you are going to have to do will depend mostly on how many members you have posting, and how many posts you are getting each day. the more posts, the more you have to moderate and the harder it becomes. I would recommend starting of with yourself looking after the forums and as it grows choose some good, reliable members to become mods and help keep an eye on the forum!

I suggest using a free forum like SimpleMachines to see how things work out first before you dive into the commercial forums.

as WeaponX said, try some free forum boards, like phpBB or SimpleMachines and see how it works and if it works as you want it to! if its all good, then you can think about buying some professional board hosting or buying a board (like Invision Power Board, its great!) and hosting it workself!

good luck
-jimmy

You also don't have to do all the work. You can also assign moderators do some of the job as well to help you maintain the forum.

It wouldn't be very difficult or time consuming to maintain a forum for approximately 50 to 75 members. You can assign moderators for jobs to be done in each forum so you don't have to do everything.Try and install phpBB2 (recommended easiest one) and administrate it. It is quite easy and the interface is simple and extensible (with MODs).Make sure that you can trust your users. For the first few weeks of the forum, keep an eye on what happens around it. You don't want anyone breaking the Terms and Conditions and possibly getting your hosting taken away. ;)Once you decide you want to move onto a better forum, IPB is the way to go. If you like to keep it at phpBB2, there's nothing wrong with that.