I am not trying to put anyone off running a forum, but unless you have a volunteer who knows a lot about server configuration and software, you will discover that on top of maybe $40/month server and domain costs, you will one day find yourself paying $100s and sometimes $1000s in software upgrades/reconfigurations/recovery from malicious attacks etc.
You need to have a business plan that can survive that. I have (as well as my own 2 forums) done such work for other forum owners (sometimes paid, sometimes pro-bono) and I know how the hours can rack up.
You can see why so many forums have folded or gone to the "free" hosting operators (Don't!).
You need to have a business plan that can survive that. I have (as well as my own 2 forums) done such work for other forum owners (sometimes paid, sometimes pro-bono) and I know how the hours can rack up.
You can see why so many forums have folded or gone to the "free" hosting operators (Don't!).