help setting up forum

[Adcadet]

hey all -
I'm setting up my medical school class's webpage (www.student.med.umn.edu/class2007). I think I'm going to want a forum, but I don't want to have to do any coding or hosting for it. The previous class used Arborwood (www.arborwood.com), but they aren't taking on any new forums. Does anybody here have a suggestion for a free, easy to use, easy to administer forum?

Thanks!
Adcadet

 

[Mercutio]

First thing that comes to mind. Not saying it's good or anything, is ezboard.com.

 

[honold]

phpbb...

 

[Adcadet]

phpbb - are there any places that host for free? I'm looking for something really simple to setup.

 

[honold]

yahoo groups?

 

[Handruin]

If you're interesting in phpbb I suggest you take a look at www.phpbb.com and click on community. Start searching around in there for free hosting that supports phpbb.

Another good forum software is invision board. Many people rave about it and some claim that it is much better than phpbb. I don't personally like it all too much, but it is made very well.

Another alternative is to host it yourself and point your main site to the IP address of your own personal machine.

How much space and bandwidth do you anticipate using? If your requirements are small, I could host it for a small fee, but I know you mentioned you were not looking to pay. I'll set up the forum for you also if you want, it's not too hard, or I can help you out if you want to do it.

 

[Adcadet]

Doug -
thank you very much for the offer. As my med school class hasn't even officially been formed yet (I think they've sent out all offers of admission but nothing is final until May 15), I don't have a budget to work with. Hence, free is very good.

My class will be relatively large (~165), but based upon the previous class's usage, I would expect the load to be very light. However, I suspect I'll be advertising it much more than last year's class did, so it could be much more.

For frequent updates I plan on using Blogger (www.blogger.com). The previous year's webmaster used Blogger for frequent updates (things like "Hey, the micro exam results are back"), and it seems to work well.

I guess I don't mind having to do some of the coding myself, but I really have no significant coding experience. If you'd be willing to help, that would be great. But would prefer to go wtih free hosting. The med school has it's own server, but I'm not sure to what extent they would support a forum.

 

[honold]

it really sounds like yahoo groups would be best for you