Forum Newby

[JaHeBy]

Hi All

I am looking to create a new forum for a community related to a medical profession. I work in said industry and have a real interest in my job and would love to make an online forum to host a place where other professionals and interested individuals can come to discuss cases, ask questions etc

I have very little experience with running a forum however, I am willing to put in the time and effort to do so. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of money to throw at a this as it would only be more or less a hobby. I have a few newby questions to ask and any other advice would be appreciated!

VBulletin cloud ..

I have only done a few minutes of looking into this option, I was wondering if purchasing a Bronze package paying monthly this will give me everything I need to set up and run a small forum to meet my needs? Will this come with any extra cost or is everything I need included?

Domain name and hosting ..

Do VBulletin offer a domain on purchase? Where is the best place to me to get one if not? And how easy is it to integrate to my new forum?
Also hosting, would this be provided as a cloud customer? Any extra costs?

Any info from anyone using the cloud or vbulletin in general would be great!

Many thanks

[Mark.B]

Hello

The Cloud product doesn't come with an actual domain name, but you do get a URL in the format: something.vbulletin.net.

You can however buy your own domain elsewhere and use it with your Cloud forum instead of the something.vbulletin.net format.

[JaHeBy]

Hello

The Cloud product doesn't come with an actual domain name, but you do get a URL in the format: something.vbulletin.net.

You can however buy your own domain elsewhere and use it with your Cloud forum instead of the something.vbulletin.net format.

Thanks for the reply Mark

Can I ask, does the cloud monthly package include everything I need to create, customise and host my own forum? Any extra costs?

[Mark.B]

Thanks for the reply Mark

Can I ask, does the cloud monthly package include everything I need to create, customise and host my own forum? Any extra costs?

Yes, there are no hidden extras.

You cannot install add-ons (plugins / extensions) on Cloud, and you cannot import third party styles, but you can customise the existing styles or greate your own style (There are numerous built in styles that you can pick and edit, or there's a style egnerator tool to build you the basics, or you can just strat from scratch).
You cnnot edit the templates but you can add custom css.
You can also upload your own images to use as part of the customisation (eg logos, icons etc).

Should you later decide you forum is successful and you''d like to move to the self hosted product (which allows addons etc) then we can arrange an export of the database for you at no cost.