Brother Notlad Posted January 17, 2020 Group: Members Followers: 2 Topic Count: 8 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 40 Content Per Day: 0.02 Reputation: 15 Days Won: 0 Joined: 05/02/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 17, 2020 I don't necessarily know if this is the place to ask this question or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I've been a member of three online Christian forums in total, including this one. I don't mind being a member of them or this one, but I'd like to hopefully initiate starting an online forum centered around the Apostles' doctrine as upheld by Apostolic Pentecostals and both their denominations and independent movements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Adams Posted January 17, 2020 Group: Worthy Ministers Followers: 25 Topic Count: 61 Topics Per Day: 0.03 Content Count: 9,605 Content Per Day: 3.97 Reputation: 7,795 Days Won: 21 Joined: 09/11/2017 Status: Offline Share Posted January 17, 2020 Check online. There are a number of free venues for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnthebaptist Posted January 17, 2020 Group: Non-Conformist Theology Followers: 6 Topic Count: 118 Topics Per Day: 0.06 Content Count: 4,361 Content Per Day: 2.31 Reputation: 2,109 Days Won: 0 Joined: 02/25/2019 Status: Offline Birthday: 02/03/1953 Share Posted January 17, 2020 14 minutes ago, Brother Notlad said: I don't necessarily know if this is the place to ask this question or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I've been a member of three online Christian forums in total, including this one. I don't mind being a member of them or this one, but I'd like to hopefully initiate starting an online forum centered around the Apostles' doctrine as upheld by Apostolic Pentecostals and both their denominations and independent movements. 9 minutes ago, Justin Adams said: Check online. There are a number of free venues for this. I would think such a website would cost a good deal of money. You'd have to pay the server, and you'd probably need help setting up the website and learning how to use it. If you are not an expert with computers, you might need continuing help. You could probably start threads on this website dealing with the topics that interest you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOrangeCat Posted January 17, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 57 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,400 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 1,823 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/24/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted January 17, 2020 5 hours ago, Brother Notlad said: I don't necessarily know if this is the place to ask this question or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I've been a member of three online Christian forums in total, including this one. I don't mind being a member of them or this one, but I'd like to hopefully initiate starting an online forum centered around the Apostles' doctrine as upheld by Apostolic Pentecostals and both their denominations and independent movements. Hello! There are some free hosts for forums around. I'd encourage looking around at the options and seeing if any of them match what you're looking for. If not, getting it all set up on a host elsewhere is a more complicated process. If you'd like the forum to have its own fancy website name you'd need to register a domain name somewhere. I've used GoDaddy in the past and didn't have any problems with them, but it was about a decade ago so things may have changed. There's going to be a monthly fee for that, but it's not too bad. Aside from that you'll also need to have the forum hosted somewhere. I'd personally recommend a virtual private server (VPS). There are quite a few providers out there with both Linux and Windows server options, and some of them have options to install forum and blogging software. It doesn't take a whole lot to get a forum up and running so you could definitely get away with using some of the cheaper VPS options. A low end Linux based VPS could be 8 US dollars a month, if not cheaper, so the monthly cost would be that and whatever the price of the domain registration is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonerAndy Posted January 17, 2020 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 19 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 693 Content Per Day: 0.42 Reputation: 396 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/28/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 17, 2020 8 hours ago, Brother Notlad said: I don't necessarily know if this is the place to ask this question or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I've been a member of three online Christian forums in total, including this one. I don't mind being a member of them or this one, but I'd like to hopefully initiate starting an online forum centered around the Apostles' doctrine as upheld by Apostolic Pentecostals and both their denominations and independent movements. 8 hours ago, johnthebaptist said: I would think such a website would cost a good deal of money. You'd have to pay the server, and you'd probably need help setting up the website and learning how to use it. If you are not an expert with computers, you might need continuing help. You could probably start threads on this website dealing with the topics that interest you. It is actually not that expensive. I had my own web site for years, and it was actually not that expensive. https://www.bluehost.com/ Blue host, can have you up and running for about $3 a month, that includes having your own domain name, and web site hosted. The real problem is advertising. Obviously all forums, do not allow you to come on and spam adverts "Come to my forum!". I learned this the hard way. While running the website was cheap, getting people to actually come to your website, not easy. Paying to advertise your web site can start to cost some money. However, if you can get past the part of getting people to know you exist, then the next money problem will only come if you become popular. As website traffic increases, BlueHost will require you to up grade your service, to handle additional traffic. Otherwise people start getting blocked from your site. My web site never got any significant traffic, so that never happened. But back to the point.... getting a forum setup... not super expensive. Getting people to actually come to your forum..... very hard to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOrangeCat Posted January 28, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 57 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,400 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 1,823 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/24/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted January 28, 2020 5 hours ago, Betha said: I have been given the name of one but when I tried to get more info on them I was told there was a 'security risk with them and not to use that Website. Could it be damaging in any way to continue with it ? How would GOD look at this ? It depends. Sometimes browsers and antivirus programs just jump at shadows, sometimes it just means a certificate has expired and hasn't been renewed yet, sometimes it's because they have pop ups to shady websites, sometimes there are genuine security risks involved like a website being used to spread unwanted software. Often there's an option to get more info on the nature of the security risk, and it can be good to do some research on the website. If you're not well versed with computers and don't have anyone in your area who can provide assistance in case something goes wrong it's probably best to pass on visiting a particular website deemed a security risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOrangeCat Posted January 28, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 5 Topic Count: 57 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 1,400 Content Per Day: 0.27 Reputation: 1,823 Days Won: 0 Joined: 12/24/2009 Status: Offline Share Posted January 28, 2020 1 hour ago, Betha said: Thanks for your reply. I only know that the reason given for a 'security problem' was a change of location....perhaps they failed to notify certain authorities....I don't know. Does not strike me as 'all that serious....or is it ? Offhand I'd agree, it doesn't seem all that serious. I'd still do research to see if there's any history of the website spreading malware and investigate alternatives, then check the website again after a few days or a week to see if it still registers as a security risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LonerAndy Posted January 28, 2020 Group: Senior Member Followers: 4 Topic Count: 19 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 693 Content Per Day: 0.42 Reputation: 396 Days Won: 0 Joined: 10/28/2019 Status: Offline Share Posted January 28, 2020 3 hours ago, Betha said: Very interesting....have you any advise for me ? Been offered a FREE Sub forum on a Website that seems to have 'security problems due to re-location and been advised not to continue with them. Depends on how recently they had the security problems. If it was recent, I'd be worried about that. If it was 3 years ago, then they either fixed it, or they would be out of business by now. Just in general, I don't trust "free". Free makes me wonder how they are paying to keep the lights on. The reason BlueHost can afford to charge $4/month is because they have thousands of subscribers all paying that fee. However to setup a server, network, software, and keep the lights on, it costs thousands of dollars a month. IF they are charge Zero, for you to setup a forum on their server, that makes me wonder what they are doing to pay the bills. Are they taking your content? Are they using your pictures? Are they taking your data? Are they selling information to marketing firms? What are they doing that keeps them from going broke? And is the reason they had security problems, because they charge nothing, and they couldn't afford good security? So I guess it all depends on how serious you are about this. If this is just a hobby-ish thing, and you want to keep your investment to a minimum, then free is perfectly fine way to go. It really is, if this is just a hobby type thing. But if this thing grows into something serious, then I would move to a serious web hosting site, with quality security, that has your own content that you own. FYI... most free sites, where they own the site that you are posting your content too, they own the content. Facebook... they own the content. You put a picture in face book, they now own that picture legally. Same is true of any free site. And it has to be, because it is their site. You put something on their site, it is now theirs. Obviously if you put up a forum yourself, then you own it. Granted a little more difficult running your own site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prycejosh1987 Posted July 11, 2020 Group: Diamond Member Followers: 1 Topic Count: 1 Topics Per Day: 0.00 Content Count: 1,176 Content Per Day: 0.85 Reputation: 126 Days Won: 0 Joined: 07/07/2020 Status: Offline Birthday: 04/29/1987 Share Posted July 11, 2020 On 1/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, Brother Notlad said: I don't necessarily know if this is the place to ask this question or not, but I figured I'd give it a shot. I've been a member of three online Christian forums in total, including this one. I don't mind being a member of them or this one, but I'd like to hopefully initiate starting an online forum centered around the Apostles' doctrine as upheld by Apostolic Pentecostals and both their denominations and independent movements. You could try googling it. I don't know how you can start your own forum, but remember that you have to have funds and constantly have financial support to keep it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knotical Posted July 11, 2020 Group: Advanced Member Followers: 3 Topic Count: 12 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 183 Content Per Day: 0.13 Reputation: 106 Days Won: 0 Joined: 05/17/2020 Status: Offline Share Posted July 11, 2020 Initially starting a forum can be relatively simple, however, when you start seeing an increase in traffic and usage you will have to scale up your bandwidth with your hosting provider accordingly, along with the size of the databases they allow which will add to the hosting costs. I have known people who have pumped thousands of dollars into their forums and not really find a good way to recoup those costs. Some forums will have a donate option, while others will setup a shop where they sell merchandise that will help offset the costs. You can also add advertisement space to earn revenue as well. It all really depends on how popular your forum becomes and how quickly that will determine how rapidly the costs go up. For the nuts and bolts of it, you can purchase a domain name and hosting almost anywhere. You can setup a CMS (content management system) like Joomla pretty easily that will then allow you to add a forum plugin. Some of the forum templates make it pretty easy to build a website and quickly have it up and running without too much knowledge about website building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts