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Fullforceeventsltd
02-01-2013, 05:47 PM
I am after some help in setting up a forum. This is not at all DJ or disco related.

I have recently been ill and now have been diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disorder. When getting diagnosed with the condition I found that there was not a lot of information available to people suffering from the disorder. Even the medical specialists said a lot of the information on the web is outdated and advised not to read it as it would scare yourself to death with some of the info that's out there.

I would like to try and set up a support forum people that suffer from this condition to help, advise and educate. Because the condition is so rare, its commonly misdiagnosed and many medical people have never ever come across it or even heard of it. Many sufferers often end up having to educate their own GP's.

The condition is estimated to effect on 1 or 2 people in a million, there may be more but as the symptoms are often misdiagnosed by medical staff that are not aware or come across the disorder.

I have unlimited hosting already courtesy of Alex and hostsphere and would like to try and set up a forum using phpbb.

There are currently a couple of support groups that I am a member of but they are more focused for America.

If possible and with some help, I would like to try and set something up that is more UK focused where members can get help and support from other sufferers.

I have no idea where to start in something up like this and I wondered if anyone would be willing to offer some help or support to try and get something set up.

You can email me direct at [email protected]

Thanks in advance.

Steve

Jiggles
02-01-2013, 05:53 PM
Email sent. :)

DazzyD
02-01-2013, 10:13 PM
The forum I created was with eBlah which comes with my hosting package. It's been a while since I used it but it was very easy to set up and run. I also have phpBB on my list of included applications but I've never gotten round to using it so I'd be very interested on opinions of anyone else that's used this forum software, too. Might just give it a go for some plans I have in mind at the moment.

LeapCreative
02-01-2013, 10:46 PM
Just in case you need any extra help, please feel free to let me know - I'd be glad to assist on this. I've customised quite a few PHPBB & VBulletin forums before so I have some experience in this.

Jiggles
03-01-2013, 12:18 AM
The forum I created was with eBlah which comes with my hosting package. It's been a while since I used it but it was very easy to set up and run. I also have phpBB on my list of included applications but I've never gotten round to using it so I'd be very interested on opinions of anyone else that's used this forum software, too. Might just give it a go for some plans I have in mind at the moment.

I would look at MyBB. In its functionality its almost like VBulletin. PHPBB and SMF I would rather stick needles in my eyes. Horrific software for security and support.

DJ Jules
03-01-2013, 07:11 AM
I would look at MyBB. In its functionality its almost like VBulletin. PHPBB and SMF I would rather stick needles in my eyes. Horrific software for security and support.

Having recently customised phpBB and added a few extra's to it for a group my wife is involved with, I couldn't agree more. It was a painful experience.

Julian

katman
03-01-2013, 08:39 AM
Having recently customised phpBB and added a few extra's to it for a group my wife is involved with, I couldn't agree more. It was a painful experience.

Julian

I am admin for a PhpBB board and have to agree its a real pain to look after particularly if you start to add modifications. Most mods are written by various different programmers and involve editing some of the core files in the board. That makes it difficult to apply security patches as you have to reapply all the mods again after you have patched it.

I would also advise against frilly mods anyway as most of them are poorly written and involve lots of hits to the database which slows the performance of the site dramatically.

When I worked at BT I was working on a database application that hit the database to retrieve a set of records, then hit the database again for every record to retrieve additional data so sometimes there were 500 hits on the database for one page. By modifying the original query to retrieve a little more data, the whole thing was done in one hit and performance was superb !!!

If the purpose of your forum is purely for collating information then keep the forum software in its basic format so that it is functional and reliable. All the Karma points, games etc are IMHO a complete waste of time.