Plan and create your forum
Before installing forum software, decide what your forum is for, how people join and which boards you need. A planning tutorial for first-time forum owners.
On this page
- Level
- Beginner
- Time
- About 30 min
- Steps
- 6
- You’ll finish with
- A clear plan for your forum, the right software chosen and your domain ready
Before you start
- An idea for a community
- A domain name (it can be a subdomain like forum.yourname.co.uk)
6 steps
The forums that thrive are the ones with a clear purpose, a few well-chosen boards and someone looking after them from day one. Installing the software takes ten minutes; this tutorial covers the thinking that makes those ten minutes count.
Step 1: Write down what the forum is for
One sentence is enough: “A place for owners of vintage Land Rovers to swap repair advice.” It decides who you invite, which boards you create and what you moderate. If you can’t write the sentence, the forum isn’t ready yet.
Step 2: Decide how people join
| Registration | Good for | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Open, with email activation | Most public forums | Some spam to moderate |
| Open, with admin approval | Small or specialist communities | You must approve each member |
| Invitation only | Private groups, clubs, teams | Slower to grow |
Whichever you choose, plan to add a verification question that only a genuine member would know how to answer, such as “What colour is the club logo?”. It stops most automated sign-ups.
Step 3: Sketch your boards
Start small. Five to eight boards is plenty for a new forum, because empty boards make a community look quiet. A common shape:
- Welcome and introductions: where new members say hello
- Two to four topic boards: the reasons people come
- Off-topic: somewhere for everything else
- Announcements: read-only for members, for news from you
- Help and feedback: questions about the forum itself
You can always split a busy board later. Merging dead ones is harder.
Step 4: Write three rules
Long rulebooks don’t get read. Three short rules that you’ll actually enforce do more, for example: be kind, stay on topic, no advertising without permission. Post them in the Announcements board and link them from the registration page.
Step 5: Choose your software
| Software | Choose it if |
|---|---|
| SMF | You want a classic forum with friendly administration and lots of themes, including Traxio’s free ones |
| phpBB | You expect a large board and want detailed permissions |
| MyBB | You want simple administration and a tidy plugin system |
All three install in one click with Softaculous on Traxio. Which forum software should I use? goes deeper.
Step 6: Get the address ready
Decide where the forum lives: at the root of your domain (yourname.co.uk), in a folder (yourname.co.uk/forum) or on a subdomain (forum.yourname.co.uk). A subdomain is a good choice if you already have a website, because it keeps the two separate. Create a subdomain.
Make sure your domain points at Traxio first. Connect your domain.
Check it worked
Your forum plan
Where to go next
Install it: Install and configure SMF, Install phpBB or Install MyBB.
Spotted something out of date or unclear? Tell us and we’ll fix it.