Want some info before starting new forum online

[Viks]

Hi guys,
I've just joined this forum. Im glad we have something this place to help out poeple like me who are not techies when it comes to designing a forum based website.

I would like to setup an online forum using vbulletin and I have a few questions. I have some programming backgground - HTML/VBcript etc....but not much and even if I did, i do not have much time to design the site myself.

I would like to know what wud it take to setup a Vbulletin based website. Im hoping to get around 50-100 active users in the first year. But i need to know what :-
1. kinda hosting i would require
2. If someone can design this for me.. and if you could point me to some right folks for that.
3. how much startup invetment wud it need.
4. once up and running.. it is easier to maintain ..because I would eventually like to maintain the site myself.

the site is going to be a non-profit patient support forum and therefore I need to keep the cost to the minimum.

I would appreciate your response,

cheers,

Viks

[Reeve of shinra]

I think Floris answered most of your questions on vb.com but my advice would be to go for the owned liscence as it works out cheaper in the long run. VB is also very easy to maintain in my honest opinion.

As for styles, vb3 is css driven and almost everything can be controlled via the control panel. Looking at your main page, I think you could probably use the stock vb with a few simple color changes to match the rest of the site.

[Viks]

Floris's response and yours appear to indicate that the control panel is all what one needs to create and design the site. If thats the case then thats great!!

Cud you consider looking at this site www.7thgencivic.com ... and advising me if something like that can be achieved by using the control panel or does it require some indepth designing or working knowledge of Vbulletin.

your response will be appreciated,

Viks

[Reeve of shinra]

How do I not make this sound complicated lol.

1. The skin or theme can be edited from the control panel but the site you referenced uses a custom theme. You can create your own if your good with graphics, DL some for free at vbulletintemplates.com or buy one.

2. The functionality behind the site you linked makes use of a third party image gallery (photopost, you can do a google on it) and a few other modifications that would require editing of the vbulletin php source code. The portal they are using on thier front page for instance is called vbindex and can found here for free.

Is it complicated to edit the vbulletin php files? No, not really. The instructions for the hacks are in a "search for this and then add this" kind of format. I had no knowledge of php what so ever when I first started and it wasnt hard to install mods.

[Viks]

I've been checkin on the site everyday to see the answer to my post....so big thanks!

the info you gave me certianly helped me. I've decided to go with vB...sometime next week i will sit down and work out the hosting and vB license deal.

btw, i checked you site and found it pretty cool...specially the default forum theme...the colours are very vibrant yet...suttle.

thanks again.. cheers!

[crazylover333]

i need help on RPG meta bug