Starting a New Forum Website

TheFoxRocks

New member
Hey guys and gals,

I was hoping this community could help me. I have been reading on here a little to try and figure things out and understand that some things have recently changed with the XenForo platform if I understand correctly. I am nearly new to website design and the only way I can accomplish it is with software that helps you do so. I took some Dreamweaver and it is just not something I wanted to invest a lot of time learning. That brings me to my first question.

If it helps I would love my website to be similar to www.lawnsite.com for reference.

1.) If I reserve my own website with a domain provider can I simply implement the XenForo software/client over my website or do I need to lease my website at XenForo? I have no clue how this works.

2.) I am making this community because I and others see a need for it. However, with time I hope that I will be able to generate ad revenue and I heard that using XenForo has big advantages in this category. Is this true?

3.) I guess my final question is whether or not this is something that one person with limited knowledge will be able to figure out? Like most websites I plan to appoint moderators and such to help out but I guess a lot of the work will come from me using the software.

4.) Also I would like to know about cost, I did a little research and saw the plans seem to start at $60.00 a month. I saw there is also free software available as well. So could I start out with the free software and achieve what I want and if I begin to get more traffic or expand will I be able to easily transition?

You guys do not need to answer every question. It would be great if you knew something about a particular topic and shed some light on it for me. I appreciate any aid in advance.
 
I have years of experience with shared hosting and XenForo. I can't say anything bad about shared hosting if you find a good one. It's much cheaper, you can get CPaneland all that stuff needed. There are some limitations, i.e. you can't run the XenForo Enhanced Search add-on.

Setting up SMTP is not complicated, for instance, with shared hosting I can typically use Amazon SES, Cloudflare, etc.

So, I'd recommend some shared hosting for a start, make sure it runs on SSD, and storage - 10GB is more than enough for a start (if you limit audio and video uploading). But make sure you'll be able to upgrade it easily anytime. That's how I do with my host.
That's certainly how we went with Wondercafe2 and given our fairly small, static community at this point, it is still working just fine for us. There's a also the fact that our principle admin (which would be me) is probably the only one with the skills to setup and manage VPS or self-hosting. But he has a full-time day job in IT with the site being a side project. Shared minimizes the time spent on IT tasks related to the site.

The lack of Enhanced Search is most just that a lot of shared hosting packages don't offer Elasticsearch. If you had one that did then you could use XFES, I would imagine. Mine does not and I am not feeling the lack right now.
 
Has anyone tried to turn XenForo into a full-fledged social network? I know that XF is essentially a framework, but I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried to go the whole way with XF and morph it into something that comes to resemble a Facebook-lite.

Didn't we already cover this or did I miss something? Because the site that I mentioned (www.lawnsite.com) uses XenForo for a forum community. I am guessing that is what you mean by a full fledged social network? It says it specifically uses Vertical Scope so not sure what all this means and I am also pretty sure they just transitioned to it.

So I do not plan on squatting on the domain name but can I use a place like NameCheap to reserve my desired domain name(s)? I may go ahead and do that for piece of mind and it seems like it will not break the bank.
 
FWIW... I'm a total noob when it comes to creating a forum. I started one last February. XenForo is THE way to go, IMHO.

I'm using shared hosting with KnownHost with no issues, so far. In fact, they were very helpful getting the install done. I imagine I'll have to upgrade to a private server if traffic / bandwidth grows to that point. If so, then I'll do it. Hopefully, by then the forum will be self-sustaining financially.

I'm just getting started, but I have found the XenForo platform to be outstanding. Tons of great add-ons, some free, some paid. They really make dialing in and customizing the user experience easy. I've been very happy. I paid $230 for a year, up front. Not bad.

From my own research on platforms, XenForo blows them all away.

And, then there is THIS forum, full of helpful people. It's been a great experience. And, I'm really proud of how my forum has grown in a short time. Starting with zero on February 26th... I'm up to 640 members and should clear 10,000 posts by the weekend.
 
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Yes, yes is there a place here maybe someone recalls where I could read about the various advantages a XenForo site would hold over a Facebook group?

I think the biggest (and easiest) selling point of a forum over Facebook is that YOU have control over your forum. Facebook has gone off the hook with censorship and cancellation.

Also Facebook's format is linear and unorganized. With a forum, you can create categories and sub-forums. It's organized and searchable.

With the Resources add-on, you can organize valuable information even more.

For a while there, Facebook was the bane of forums. Everyone flocked to FB. But, the pendulum is swinging back to forums... and swinging HARD. Facebook is losing membership and traffic in droves due to their onerous woke censorship (now at the direction of the gov't).
 
I think the biggest (and easiest) selling point of a forum over Facebook is that YOU have control over your forum. Facebook has gone off the hook with censorship and cancellation.

Also Facebook's format is linear and unorganized. With a forum, you can create categories and sub-forums. It's organized and searchable.

With the Resources add-on, you can organize valuable information even more.

For a while there, Facebook was the bane of forums. Everyone flocked to FB. But, the pendulum is swinging back to forums... and swinging HARD. Facebook is losing membership and traffic in droves due to their onerous woke censorship (now at the direction of the gov't).

Not sure where you are getting those suggestions that the pendulum is swinging back to forums. Or that FB is losing membership and traffic in droves, but none of that is simply true. Please back up your claims beyond opinion.
 
Not sure where you are getting those suggestions that the pendulum is swinging back to forums. Or that FB is losing membership and traffic in droves, but none of that is simply true. Please back up your claims beyond opinion.
<<<Facebook’s total number of users has declined — a first for the social media platform that has experienced seemingly never-ending growth since it debuted 17 years ago.

Facebook lost about half a million global daily users in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the previous quarter, according to the quarterly earnings report of Meta, its parent company.>>>




It's easy enough to do a Google search: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=facebook+membership+dropping

And, of course, most importantly.... They lost me! :) I haven't posted on my FB profile page or read the feed for 1-1/2 years now. I left over 700 friends and family behind. Why? Because FB is now an admitted government agent engaged in censorship, which takes them into the territory of Constitutional infringement.

Your mileage may vary.
 
Hey guys and gals,

I was hoping this community could help me. I have been reading on here a little to try and figure things out and understand that some things have recently changed with the XenForo platform if I understand correctly. I am nearly new to website design and the only way I can accomplish it is with software that helps you do so. I took some Dreamweaver and it is just not something I wanted to invest a lot of time learning. That brings me to my first question.

If it helps I would love my website to be similar to www.lawnsite.com for reference.

1.) If I reserve my own website with a domain provider can I simply implement the XenForo software/client over my website or do I need to lease my website at XenForo? I have no clue how this works.

2.) I am making this community because I and others see a need for it. However, with time I hope that I will be able to generate ad revenue and I heard that using XenForo has big advantages in this category. Is this true?

3.) I guess my final question is whether or not this is something that one person with limited knowledge will be able to figure out? Like most websites I plan to appoint moderators and such to help out but I guess a lot of the work will come from me using the software.

4.) Also I would like to know about cost, I did a little research and saw the plans seem to start at $60.00 a month. I saw there is also free software available as well. So could I start out with the free software and achieve what I want and if I begin to get more traffic or expand will I be able to easily transition?

You guys do not need to answer every question. It would be great if you knew something about a particular topic and shed some light on it for me. I appreciate any aid in advance.
1) Yes, its very easy, setup a database base, upload the files, add the info to the setup, sorted!
2) xenforo has easy template editing, but we use siropu's ads manager good for selling ad space also
3) We've all started out just 1 person trying this stuff, its easily manageable, and with time your find some mods/staff to help you manage it a lot the way. google/ask questions if you get stuck, I do it constantly, I have an idea I want to do and search roughly what I want to do, if it can be done I simple ask. the Xenforo community/staff are extremely friendly.
4) costs is $160 and yearly renewal at $55 ( we don't renew often, unless there's an important update/major revision change, you can play around on the demo, https://xenforo.com/demo/


First I'd go find a domain you want, that's probably the hardest part. it is limited and it's hard to find catchy/unique ones, but if you find one grab it, you can get them from anywhere from $1-$10 depending on the extension, just be careful of premium domains as they'll cost a fair bit!

Give me a shout if you need some hosting space to test around with, more than happy to supply something for you while your testing stuff :)
 
Nothing wrong with namecheap.
their cpanel is better than some of the others out there
Yes, there has historically been PLENTY wrong with Namecheap (and GoDaddy). Inode restrictions (when they claim "unlimited file space allowance", over-selling of their shared (and even VPS) offerings to the point that performance is negatively impacted to the point they actually can't defend it (saw that first hand), the fact they will limit certain aspects of MySQL connections. Your defense of them simply shows you have NO actual knowledge of the limitations they impose and how it negatively impacts sites.... and sorry, I HAVE used NameCehap, GoDaddy and many other shared hosting sites for certain sites I've ran... and there is a REASON that still prefer to go to a VPS, as those restrictions they don't reveal negatively impact even a 1/2 busy site.

The simple fact is, ANYONE who recommends NameCheap or GoDaddy to an admin that is truly interested in growing their site is doing a great disservice. There are MANY better providers out there for slightly more.
 
I don't read reviews - i go by experience.
I for one would not bother with siteground, cloud access, or aws amazon because they rip you off and will suspend your accounts if you have yet to pay their overpriced plans.
Namecheap is worth it these days as they use cpanel which is compatable with both vbulletin and xenforo.

So is pretty much everyone else. I stated I've had very difficult support with NameCheap on just simple domain issues.

NameCheap isn't the only host using CPanel. Many do, including KnownHost, NameSilo, etc.

Again, I'm very happy that you're having a great experience with NameCheap. But not all of us have shared that same experience.

You're obviously not going to sway anyone who's using hosting they're already happy with, and we're obviously not going to sway you, who's happy with your existing NameCheap services. And that's fine. It's like you said, it's by your experience. Same as us, we're choosing what we prefer, based on our experiences.
 
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You need some sort of cpanel for your forums and sites buddy. Otherwise you will have issues with keeping them up.
Wrong... haven't used a panel like you reference for over 8 years. Currently the "panel" I use is a very simple text based one, that usually is only needed with doing certain upgrades or adding a site to the system. In fact, I prefer it that way as the web based panel resources can be used for the sites. And at one time (still when I was not using a panel) I had over 7 different sites (not all mine) running on a fairly large VPS. Won't even delve into the period I had dedicated servers and ran ProxMox to provide VPS instances for each site, none of which used a panel either. There was a period that I didn't even use any panel at all... it was all done by CLI interaction.
For those that are not comfortable at the CLI, then yes, a web based panel is helpful, and even some that can do it at base level still prefer to use panels... but they aren't "needed".
 
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No mate because all you're doing is shoving your opinion down my throat. Please do not do this.
I'm happy with namecheap and have found them to be the best value for both hosting and registering.
All i say to the OP try Namecheap if you don't like it go elsewhere.

You're again misinterpreting everything I said. I said I'm glad you're happy with NameCheap and it works for you.

And it's by our experience that NameCheap didn't work out for us. You're the one that's being aggressive, and shoving your opinion down everyone's throats. I was merely stating facts. I've only been respectful. But yes, you do you, I'll do me.
 
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