blogs and forums

[slee]

does anyone on here run a forum along side their blog?

[ap4a]

No, but Martin H does on his entertainment site.

[sarahG]

If I was adding a forum to a WP site, I'd use bbpress which is built by the Automattic. It integrates out of the box. I'm thinking about adding bbPress to a new site that's powered by WP. Just need to have a proper play on it.

[Kevin]

bbpress does look good and seems to integrate well with WordPress. I chose vbulletin for this forum because :

a) I have used it for years (since 2001) and I'm pretty familar with it.
b) Easily the most advanced forum script and easiest to run.

Although bbpress does have a bridge to work with wordpress, no true integrated forum and blog currently exists, least not in the traditional sense (ie. not counting php cms's). bbPress still has some problems with bridging with the wordpress database but there are less complications and the software apparently runs very quick so I'd love to hear how people get on with it.

[sarahG]

Ahh I assumed bbPress integrated without the need for a bridge.

For a simple small forum, eg. a support forum for your site, then bbPress is a good solution I think. For anything less simple then vBulletin is good or SMF for a free option. Both have their pros and cons.

[slee]

Although bbpress does have a bridge to work with wordpress, no true integrated forum and blog currently exists, least not in the traditional sense (ie. not counting php cms's). bbPress still has some problems with bridging with the wordpress database but there are less complications and the software apparently runs very quick so I'd love to hear how people get on with it.


Although on a different platform Community Server by telligent has an integrated forum, blogs and media gallery. it is a good piece of software.

[akira07]

does anyone on here run a forum along side their blog?

I'm not, to manage blog, i'm already busy, i think i can't manage if i running a forum also. Besidely, i don't know how to make a forum.... :D

[wahmsuzanne]

Sorry to be such a newbie ... but what are you "bridging"? Like here for instance ... you have a blog ... and on a different directory you have a forum ... what is the plugin for? What does it do differently? How is it tied together? Thanks! *SmiLes* Suzanne

[athlon24]

I tried to use phpbb before, can I bridge it to wordpress? will you recommend it if i extend a forum in my blog.

[Kevin]

Ahh I assumed bbPress integrated without the need for a bridge.

For a simple small forum, eg. a support forum for your site, then bbPress is a good solution I think. For anything less simple then vBulletin is good or SMF for a free option. Both have their pros and cons.

Perhaps it's better now but when I did my research for my post 'How to integrate a forum with your wordpress blog (http://www.bloggingtips.com/2008/04/03/integrate-forum-wordpress-blog/)' last year there were still some problems, though granted bbpress integrated with wordpress the best. You can read about the bridge here (http://bbpress.org/documentation/integration-with-wordpress/).

[sarahG]

Sorry to be such a newbie ... but what are you "bridging"? Like here for instance ... you have a blog ... and on a different directory you have a forum ... what is the plugin for? What does it do differently? How is it tied together? Thanks! *SmiLes* Suzanne

Bridging means to connect the two together, usually the login system. So for example if you have subscribers (as in the WordPress user account, not feed subscribers) on your site then you add a forum, they should be able to log into either your site or forum and be logged into the other automatically. Usually you can pull info from one section to the other more easily too.

I tried to use phpbb before, can I bridge it to wordpress? will you recommend it if i extend a forum in my blog.

Most of the popular forums have a bridge plugin for WordPress, however I wouldn't recommend phpBB, as it's usually heavily targeted by hackers. What you need to do first is ask yourself whether a forum would be of interest. I've seen too many forums set up and get maybe a handful of users using it. The forum eventually goes dead. If your site isn't that big or doesn't have a large following yet, then I'd recommend bbPress if you do want to start a forum, as it's a lot simpler and the way it's set up, it won't appear as empty.

[Kevin]

Yeah I agree with Sarah. Once a forum is busy it's very easy to maintain but getting it to that stage is hard work. BloggingTips has a few thousand subscribers but the forum growth has still been slow. It takes time but when a forum gets going it usually grows exponentially (as long as you keep putting the work in).

[Swtrose]

I don't run a forum along side my blog, however I do run two forums.:p

[akira07]

@swtrose
oh man...you're must be very busy..!!! If you make another one along side your blog, your day will become more busy

@kevin
maybe you do less in promotion so this forum is not too popular? But well, i find even we have less member, but the quality of forum discussion is good, i find many great people like sarahG and athlon24 here....

[Swtrose]

@swtrose
oh man...you're must be very busy..!!! If you make another one along side your blog, your day will become more busy

@kevin
maybe you do less in promotion so this forum is not too popular? But well, i find even we have less member, but the quality of forum discussion is good, i find many great people like sarahG and athlon24 here....

I'm also a writer, a student, a mother, a wife, respite care worker and babysitter. My day can not get busier. lol

[akira07]

@swtrose
wow, very busy people...!!!!! Haha, i think just concentrate to current site which you running, to make a new one, it will take your time and effort and make you not focus, someday, one of your website will be sacrified because you're busy. Just care for your current website

[athlon24]

Yeah I agree with Sarah. Once a forum is busy it's very easy to maintain but getting it to that stage is hard work. BloggingTips has a few thousand subscribers but the forum growth has still been slow. It takes time but when a forum gets going it usually grows exponentially (as long as you keep putting the work in).

Yes, forum is easy to maintain especially if you have serious members alreaday but the thing I hate on moderating a forum is spams. They are just so many. When I tried to put up a forum for our christian youth site before, and I'm total newbie, spams are all around and I spent hours just to delete them. The worst is the spams are all porn and sometimes they even have pictures on board. :mad:

[sarahG]

You need to have a forum where you can set it to not authorise say the first X posts of a new user, so that you can see what they're posting and decide if they're okay or just spammers. I know this is possible with vBulletin, and I'm sure there's a mod for other forums such as SMF.

[athlon24]

that time I used phpbb. I just learned that it is not that good. I have a plan to start a community forum these coming days and maybe I'll try to use other platform.

[akira07]

@athlon24
that's why we need some trustworthy people to be moderator at your forum, so, checking a lot of post is no longer a problem, because you do it together with them

[EmmaB]

I find phpBB to be pretty good. I haven't been spammed yet and it has been online for quite a few months now.

I run quite a few forums but only ywo of them are live to the general public. I have yet to run into spammers :)

[slee]

i think as long as you have the latest version of phpbb you will be ok, if i remember correctly it was the version before that got spammed a lot

[athlon24]

that was around two years ago. we already stripped our forum. But if I start a new one, do you think phpbb has some edge to other platforms?