I want to create a forum for my website but i dont no where to start from. I have gone through various posts and articles on internet, and i’m very confused because. Most people are saying write your code yourself which can help you to make changes as per demanding situations . Few people are saying, it’s better to use themes| templates available on internet to create forums.
Could any of you please let me know, which way is better to create a forum for my website.
I would heartly appreciate that!
Thanks again!
Coding the whole thing yourself is a big task. A good half-way option is to install a blogging CMS like WordPress and style the templates yourself, rather than use a theme created by someone else.
I didn’t say to use anyone else’s theme or templates. To be honest, I misread your post, though. I recommended WordPress because I thought you mentioned a blog. There are other CMSes out there that are just for forums. The CMS itself just controls what goes on behind the scenes. You have control over what the site actually looks like to visitors. Take this forum, for example. SitePoint uses the vBulletin CMS for the forum functionality, but the look of the forum is SitePoint’s own design. They just created their own style sheet for the look and feel.
If I were developing a forum, I would use a premade script/template (probably Wordpress) to get the inner workings running, and I would use Photoshop and CSS to style it in a way that it looked unique.
Once you have the forum set up and working, you can add a Q&A section, a blog, a death calender, a free image/hosting sharing section, or whatever you want to make it unique. Just because you use a premade forum theme does not mean your forum will be bland unless you do not make any changes whatsoever. If you are contemplating making the entire thing yourself, then you will probably prefer to spend your man hours tweaking rather than writing.