What should I know about..

[gaze-universe]

What's the difference between free hosted and paying monthly for being hosted?

I'm under the impression that I should download the forum software on my computer in the other case. What are the biggest differences between the forum software on my comp and using it online with a free host? What should I know and consider?

What should I be asking? (that I might not know to be asking right now)

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Well when you're on a free host you're very limited in what you can do with your board. Also you're technically not the owner of your forum, the host is.

"Self hosting" your board gives you ultimate control over all aspects of your forum and the ability to make backups in case you need them, but there is a lot of technical work that goes into it and that might be difficult for a newbie to wrap their head around.

 

[gaze-universe]

If I get MyBB on my computer do I create the forum offline until I choose to host it? How much space will I need on my computer?

What type of technical work goes into it?

I can't code myself but I understood that I am still able to get a theme/s from MyBB forums made by others. I don't exactly understand the templates coding but I am familiar with CSS to a point I can find/identify things and change simple things. And usually if I don't know something I am able to find a suitable solution online.

How difficult would it be to create an original theme on MyBB software? Would I have to have learned coding in school or are there actual full theme how to's available? Or does MyBB provide a basic structure that I could build upon (as opposed to editing an existing complete theme)?

If you could say what would be the first three steps I should look into in starting to use MyBB?

edit: I just read MyBB's wiki on install (last read it in January) and if I understood right I should already have a paid hosting going and the install will be on their server. So some of my questions are unnecessary.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I believe Evil Eye has some experience running forum software offline on a home computer, I'll send him a PM asking him to take a look at the questions here.

 

[gaze-universe]

I believe Evil Eye has some experience running forum software offline on a home computer, I'll send him a PM asking him to take a look at the questions here.

Alright, if that's possible... after I read the wiki on the installation I wasn't sure anymore if it was possible to have it on my own computer. I'm just thinking that it would give me time to learn how to use it before I start paying for hosting it.

Thanks!

 

[Evil Eye]

If I get MyBB on my computer do I create the forum offline until I choose to host it? How much space will I need on my computer?

MyBB takes around 7MB of space, the server you need to run takes the most space. I've used two different local servers, one takes around 1.5GB, the other around 150MB.

What type of technical work goes into it?

Not much, that second program doesn't even have an installer. Unzip it and you're pretty much ready to go. Installing MyBB would take longer.

How difficult would it be to create an original theme on MyBB software? Would I have to have learned coding in school or are there actual full theme how to's available? Or does MyBB provide a basic structure that I could build upon (as opposed to editing an existing complete theme)?

Creating an entire theme is quite a lot of work, but it's not especially hard. A simple Google search gave me a whole bunch of tutorials, there should be something useful there.
Editing the default theme could be seen as building of a basic structure.

If you could say what would be the first three steps I should look into in starting to use MyBB?

How to use the ACP, basically.

edit: I just read MyBB's wiki on install (last read it in January) and if I understood right I should already have a paid hosting going and the install will be on their server. So some of my questions are unnecessary.

They don't install anything for you on their servers.
If you want to install MyBB, you need to have either a real server (paid or free) or a local server like the two I linked to.

 

[gaze-universe]

edit: I just read MyBB's wiki on install (last read it in January) and if I understood right I should already have a paid hosting going and the install will be on their server. So some of my questions are unnecessary.

They don't install anything for you on their servers.
If you want to install MyBB, you need to have either a real server (paid or free) or a local server like the two I linked to.

I'm confused... the host's server won't be where I install the MyBB to?

 

[Evil Eye]

Ah no, my bad. I thought 'their' referred to MyBB(.com).

 

[gaze-universe]

Okay, I wondered if it was my bad wording possibly but wasn't sure D:

It just hit me today though, what it means that my forum right now is hosted on a free hosting service... I have to contact the owner to see if he will let me have the database of my forum or if I'm gonna have to restart from scratch ...

 

[Evil Eye]

You should be able to download it through the ACP.
ACP->Tools & Maintenance->Database Backups.

 

[gaze-universe]

You should be able to download it through the ACP.
ACP->Tools & Maintenance->Database Backups.

It does show the link in the ACP but it's not available for us.

 

[Evil Eye]

Figures :glare:

Well, good luck with that.