I want to start a forum so.............

[Yorkie]

where do I start??

It has to be free, cos the NHS certainly won't give me any funding for it :|

I want to set something up so that other Trainers who do the same work as me throughout the country can communicate better, I emailed about 20 NHS Foundation Trusts a while ago and got 12 responses to my original email. So thought perhaps the next step which would be good for everyone would be to set up a forum, that way we could all keep in contact with eachother and share info that we have found, links to articles, tips on training etc. It would be much easier than emailing all the time as the info would be there at a few clicks of a button and emails clog up the system anyway.

Remember I am pretty much a computer dunce and have no idea what to do so any tips please make them dimwit friendly so that I can understand them.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Yorkie :)

[Stompy]

http://www.invisionfree.com/ is probably a good place to start.

If you need any help getting it setting up etc. don't hesitate to poke me on msn ;)

[Yorkie]

Thanks Toby, it looks pretty straight forward but I will probably still end up taking you up on that offer and nudging you on MSN ;)

[GoMilton]

What exactly are you needing a forum for? I didnt really get it from your OP. I can probably help you out with giving a place for a forum if you want.

[Yorkie]

Basically it's so that rather than emailing eachother all the time, other people who do the same job as me can share stuff easier be it info or tips, at the moment at work I have a folder in my documents with all the saved emails just in case I need to refer back to any of them. It would be so much easier to have some sort of message board to put things on.

Thanks for the offer of a place for a forum, I am pretty sure I might have got that part covered now with the link Stompy posted as they do pretty much everything for you ok it has ads but for a starting point I guess it will be ok :)

[Lazzars]

http://www.invisionfree.com/ is probably a good place to start.

good place to start indeed, show you what you need to know and fairly straight forward

[Aracanid]

good place to start indeed, show you what you need to know and fairly straight forward

try www.proboards.com


simple as pie regestration, no dowload and the servers are remotly hosted and u get a subdomain aka:

username.proboards.com

also its very straight forward to use and edit.
enjoy

[sterio]

Or you could find somebody you know who owns webspace, ask them if they can host them for you, and install a phpBB or YaBB on there. I've never done so, but I expect they come with instructions, and they're free. Even better would be if you could get some webspace from the NHS, they're bound to have their own servers, and it would cost them nothing, or close to nothing at least, to let you use some of it, especially if the forum software you're using is free.

[Stompy]

Or you could find somebody you know who owns webspace, ask them if they can host them for you, and install a phpBB or YaBB on there. I've never done so, but I expect they come with instructions, and they're free. Even better would be if you could get some webspace from the NHS, they're bound to have their own servers, and it would cost them nothing, or close to nothing at least, to let you use some of it, especially if the forum software you're using is free.
Setting up the software can be fairly complex though, thats the trouble.

[GoMilton]

It looks like you've got this taken care of and figured out but if not, let me know, I can still help.

[Doh004]

Yorkie I'd be more then willing to set up either a PHPBB2 board, or a SMF board for you. It's no hassle to me and my server is perfectly capable of handling it.

Hit me up on MSN or email me :)

[Yorkie]

Finally I got round to messing with this but to start with I have done a fun one just so I can try stuff out as don't want to set up my work one and look totally unprofessional so will play on this for a while.

Any hints or tips give me a shout as I will need them, I have already had to enlist the help of two friends as I couldn't even work out why I couldn't see the stuff I had done :\

Anyway Alienfishtank 3 is born, just for fun remember if it dies then so be it at least I will have gained some forum knowledge for my work one when I set it up :D

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Alienfishtank_3/index.php?act=idx

Thanks for the link Stompy :)