How hard is it to "administer" a message board?

[Inchworm]

I'm maintaining a website, have hosting, and make many of the decisions. I am considering an internal message board on the available domain just to keep up with information.

It seems to be the simple things that fall through the cracks, and a message board, that only designated people could read, would eliminate these losses.

I've looked into "yetanotherforum," "vanilla forum," and "dcforum." Seems easy enough to give a try, but would everything be contained in the installation directory (that would be deletable if it fails) or would a message board intrude the whole domain?

I am not sure of the questions to ask really. My main goal is to have a central point on the internet that is private to exchange ideas/tasks. I also want to be able to delete it easily (without messing up existing site) if the idea doesn't work.

Any tips are welcome. :)

:hi:

[CK_John]

1. Nothing on the net is private, a VPN is a close second,but it's seems to be a major project. n/t

[Inchworm]

2. Can't I make a forum unreadible unless logged in?

Or would that be more like "unable to post" like group forums here at DU?

:shrug:

[CK_John]

3. Passwords can be hacked in less than sec. The big problem is the DB securityB

keeping the user info safe. I've been away from DB admin for too long to help. Here is a link to DU Web & Software site.
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=288>

[Inchworm]

4. Sweet - I'll xpost there

Thanks a heap!

:yourock:

[Jersey Devil]

5. The message board I have is very easy to maintain

You might not be able to tell by looking at it, but I use the same software, by DCScripts, that DU uses on this board, though DU has many, many tweaks they put into it themselves. You can vary the look of it to be fully expanded, like I have it, or compacted into strings in which you only see the subject matter of the OP as DU does it. You could have boards that are open to the public, to registered users only, to only certain invited posters, to only those designated in a certain category of users, to mods, admins, etc., including a combination of all of them. For instance, here at DU there is a Moderators' board that is only visible to mods.

Maintenance, at least for me, is easy. All I do is reconcile forum records and optimize the tables (two button clicks in the admin area) and that's it - and I suppose it would be the same unless your board grew so large that it was outstripping either your server or the bandwidth you are paying for with a server. Though my board is rather quiet now and just a place for old friends to gather, at one time I had to keep expanding bandwidth to the point where it just got too expensive and cut it back. So yes, it could "intrude the whole domain" if it becomes very busy and taxes the server.

http://www.politicalhardball.com/dc/dcboard.php