Self Hosting Forum software ?

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8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2550482 27-Aug-2020 09:14

@mattwnz yes our Bedford group is on FB...its painful when there are posts within posts that hide images and documents
            that need to be stored in there own thread.that alone does my head in with FB

@timmmay   thanks as above plus it would have been a second spare pc i have

@sampler   ok its something i had not looked at and was told/read they are slow... hay but thanks I will check them
             out today

@xpd     Thanks..... I guess on a dedicated pc you would not need VM ?

@sampler its a HP 6200 SFF i7 with 8 gb ram 500gb SSD and 500GB HDD as slave, yes no monitor recorded in
           test ,

           the PC would have been and my partners work server room or at my folks place up north
           both have fast internet, home is slow as,

           cheers
           Brett

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#2550488 27-Aug-2020 09:27

Kermets:

@sampler ok its something i had not looked at and was told/read they are slow... hay but thanks I will check them
out today

Some of those forums providers also have paid options at a few $$ per month. Depending on the size of your current FB group maybe you could all look at putting a little in and getting to ~$100-$150ish in total and getting something that would not take time away from increasing your income via other avenues ??

Kermets:
@sampler its a HP 6200 SFF i7 with 8 gb ram 500gb SSD and 500GB HDD as slave, yes no monitor recorded in
test ,

Oh ok so little workstation. still would be impressed if it sits at the lower watt value, but if its not in your house then the power/cooling costs are not directly yours.

Hows the "remote hands" support if some random update does not apply as expected and causes the PC to go offline etc ?

I think for your needs, removing all the hassle and putting your efforts just into the community group look/feel and content is best to start with.

How about a Redit/Yahoo/Google forum group ?? I assume wanting to do something yourself is also because you "own" the content and layout ip etc ?

Cheers

Lee

networkn

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#2550495 27-Aug-2020 09:33

A lot of experienced professional people are advising against it, and you can add my voice to the list. I can only recommend you listen to them in the strongest possible terms.

Everything said here is entirely true and very reasonable. This is not going to end well for you I don't think. That is not a disparagement, but the questions you are asking, and the answers you are providing in response to the questions you are asking, leads me to think

you likely don't have the experience required for such a project (yet). As you said, It's 2020 This means cybersecurity is a huge focus, as is the number of data thefts.

I can understand money is tight, but can I suggest perhaps you postpone this project a little while until you have gained some experience, and money isn't so tight, so as not to put your reputation, sanity and more importantly, your users data at risk?

Why don't you make a post in your existing group, and ask if people would be prepared to contribute $1 a month to a dedicated forum. That's $12 a year. You only need between $40-80 people to contribute then, to make it worth doing (properly).

freitasm

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#2550496 27-Aug-2020 09:36

networkn:

As you said, It's 2020 This means cybersecurity is a huge focus, as is the number of data thefts.

In addition to all the technical knowledge you will need to have, there's also legal implications. From December 2020 a new Privacy law will come into effect, with mandatory data breach reporting, security requirements, etc.

If you are running a forum and don't know about the implications of data management, how to keep things secure, etc then you will be opening yourself up to financial liability in case of data leaks/breaches.

sampler

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#2550499 27-Aug-2020 09:41

freitasm:

In addition to all the technical knowledge you will need to have, there's also legal implications. From December 2020 a new Privacy law will come into effect, with mandatory data breach reporting, security requirements, etc.

If you are running a forum and don't know about the implications of data management, how to keep things secure, etc then you will be opening yourself up to financial liability in case of data leaks/breaches.

Boss 1st Dec 2020 as per https://www.privacy.org.nz/privacy-for-agencies/privacy-breaches/

freitasm

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#2550501 27-Aug-2020 09:43

sampler:

Boss 1st Dec 2020 as per https://www.privacy.org.nz/privacy-for-agencies/privacy-breaches/

Thanks - sorry, thought December, wrote November. Fixed the post.

sidefx

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#2550502 27-Aug-2020 09:43

No idea how it works from the hosting point of view or how good it is; I only know about it because gpforums migrated, but might tapatalk be an option? (https://www.tapatalk.com/)

(PS: Add my voice to the many above saying bad idea to host your own unless you have very good knowledge of the platform and keep up with all security updates etc, etc, etc)

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michaelmurfy

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#2550503 27-Aug-2020 09:49

xpd:

Discord is a form of forums/IRC (live chat), I now use this instead of dedicated forum software. It's free and works well and lets me have time :)

I think Mauricio means https://www.discourse.org/

There is a free solution if you don't mind ads: https://www.tapatalk.com/tapatalk_groups

If you want to learn how to run a Wordpress site (which does have forum extensions available) then I've written a guide for this: https://murfy.nz/2020/02/01/setting-up-a-basic-wordpress-server/ - you're better to use a Raspberry Pi to host this.

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xpd

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#2550506 27-Aug-2020 09:52

Kermets:

@xpd Thanks..... I guess on a dedicated pc you would not need VM ?

If it's not being used for anything else, then that's fine but still would look at VM anyway (HyperV is what I've used), just makes it easier if you ever have to replace the PC etc.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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networkn

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#2550507 27-Aug-2020 09:53

Have you thought about backups?

networkn

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#2550508 27-Aug-2020 09:54

Actually, I just had a thought, why don't you simply contact an existing general-purpose forum, like Whirlpool in Australia and see if they would create a Subforum in their existing groups ? You could be a moderator in those?

sampler

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#2550512 27-Aug-2020 09:58

networkn:

Actually, I just had a thought, why don't you simply contact an existing general-purpose forum, like Whirlpool in Australia and see if they would create a Subforum in their existing groups ? You could be a moderator in those?

Geekzone - English truck private sub forum :-D ... Mechanical Technology discussions

networkn

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#2550516 27-Aug-2020 10:02

sampler:
networkn:

Actually, I just had a thought, why don't you simply contact an existing general-purpose forum, like Whirlpool in Australia and see if they would create a Subforum in their existing groups ? You could be a moderator in those?

Geekzone - English truck private sub forum :-D ... Mechanical Technology discussions

There are many reasons that wouldn't work mostly around moderation and legal implications.

Whirlpool is a general forum probably more open to adding things like that.

Kermets

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2550545 27-Aug-2020 10:46

@sampler...lee...our FB group is 2k users atm...its not mine im a member but i can see the good info getting posted
           there is just getting lost within the posts and you cant search for stuff,

           yes little work station I have anther as spare also,
           yes I can see your point, its a bugger i just spent 1 years hosting on those drives in it....

@networkn   yes all you guys make sense I dont disagree....its who I am i need to ask questions thanks for the input.

@freitasm.....ok....dont tell me my perfectly running w7 machine that i have not had a problem with for 7 years
               is out of date.....lol

@sidefx    thanks. is it like FB......

@michaelmurfy    yes I thought the same....I did choose SMF ( simple machine forums) over discourse as they have a cool
                 forum base.

@xpd   ok thanks

@networkn   the SSD was the main drive and the HDD was the backup idea, 5 times larger than what was on offer with
             paid hosting cheaper rates.

             not that its a big expense but Ive paid for the domain name already (bedfords.kiwi)

             cheers
             Brett

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#2550546 27-Aug-2020 10:48

@kermets

freitasm.....ok....dont tell me my perfectly running w7 machine that i have not had a problem with for 7 years
is out of date.....lol

With due respect, this should disqualify you from running any forum software yourself.

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