Forums?!

I raised the possibility a few days ago. And now, in the whee hours of Saturday, I can definitively say: white male consumer has forums!

Before I was talking about using bbPress. However since it is still so early in development, it really wasn’t suitable. Instead, I turned to PunBB, a cult favorite floating around here. Alex King heartily recommended it, and after I saw how well he was able to integrate it into several WordPress sites, I was convinced.

After a few hours of complete stonewalling, the PunBB template system finally clicked, and I figured out how to integrate it into the current site.

My two main concerns with adding a forum was that it would:
a) integrate completely with the rest of the site. This has nearly been achieved. The font colors are slightly different, and as a whole it is slightly inconsistent with the rest of the site. However it is probably not noticeable to the common layman. While I might continue to tinker on it a bit more, I’m satisfied right now.
b) be lightweight and simple. This is why I was originally considering bbPress. I have easy, one-click access to phpBB and Invision Power Board. There are many other free bulletin boards out there. However all of these popular solutions are entirely too overweight and graphics-intensive for what I wanted. I want something easy on my hosting, and easy on my visitors. I had to take my expertise into consideration also – while integrating phpBB into the site is probably entirely possible – it would have proved nearly impossible for me.

So, I ended up with PunBB. I removed all smilies. Even simple things like avatars were on the chopping block for awhile (I eventually kept them). Guests can post, because I know how irritating it is to have to register to post everywhere. God knows how many forums I’ve registered at through the years. Creating new topics is reserved for members, however. Need incentive.

I don’t expect the forums to be very active on the outset. I’m not even sure how active they will ever become. However I believe they were warrented. In the past year or two, I’ve become a steady forum user at a variety of places, most notably NewGrounds. But I’ve outgrown these places. Like I’ve said before, I just needed a place to call my own.