Topic awaiting preservation: Making Forums

Hey all, i've decided to try my hand at making a forum, i was wondering the best way to go about it. These are a few questions it would be great to have some insight on, thanks all:

1. Are forums merely a database run from a php script or some sort of script
2. Is it feasable to run forums from a MS Access database
3. Was the Aylum Forum made by someone here or is it some sort of package that has been customized?
4. Is it worth making my own forums or should i just get PHP bb forums or something?

Thanks for the input!

>1. Are forums merely a database run from a php script or some sort of script
In Essence.

>2. Is it feasable to run forums from a MS Access database
Depence on the size of the forum, I don't see why not.

>3. Was the Aylum Forum made by someone here or is it some sort of package that has been customized?
What you see is a heavily customized Ultimate Bulletin Board...

>4. Is it worth making my own forums or should i just get PHP bb forums or something?
A 'complete' forum is a lot of work. believe me.
But, it's also a valuable learning experience... you can make it as big as you want or as small as you want!

so long,

Tyberius Prime

H][RO: I think Mr Prime has covered most things just on question 4:

quote:

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4. Is it worth making my own forums or should i just get PHP bb forums or something?

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It depends on what you want to do and what your needs are. Mr Prime has written the New Asylum from the ground up because we wanted close integration with the FAQ. If you have needs that aren't being catered for by the current forums or you want to learn then go for it - it is a lot of hard work.

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org

Thanks guys, yeh it would be great to do and i'm pretty sure i could handle most of it, but as you said it would be a lot of hard work for a fully functional forum.

For now i'll just give the phpbb2.0 forums a go, my only problem is i use win2003 server hosting so i dont think they support mySQL. This isnt a problem as the php forums support Access 2000, but they do say this in their documentation:


"Please note that MS Access support is not designed for busy boards. If you anticipate more than one or two users being online at any given time, you should upgrade to a more robust server solution."

This wouldnt be an issue to begin with, and i can always change to mysql i guess. I'll give this a go first tho.

Since you're using Windows based hosting, I suggest you to install Snitz Forums 2000 instead. It's ASP-based and therefore will work better with Windows hosting...