I hope someone can help me as I have zero experience with forums. I have opportunity to take over forum that is using UBB.threads™ 6.4.4. I had to do a Yahoo search on UBB 6.4.4 just to learn what it is, as my computer experience is as user only.

Best way to tackle this is list questions, I apologize in advance if I break any protocol:)

1. How easy is it to learn to host and manage UBB.threads™ 6.4.4 forum for a complete novice?

2. Where (how) do I start learning to work with the software?

3. How much experience do I or should I have before attempting to run forum?

4. How hard is it to upgrade to newest version? I think I saw UBB can do the upgrade for under $200?

5. Is there downside to upgrading?

6. Is there learning guidance either written or on CD/DVD?

Thank you in advance.

It's simple to get hosted; it's a rather basic script... You would likely take over hosting at it's current place, or choose to move elsewhere; if you chose to move you'd likely end up hiring someone to move it for you.

We have a FAQ forum here, as well as numerous threads in the "how do I" forum, I'd start there.

It's really quite simple, most of the items you'd be doing is moving and editing content users post; all of which can really be found on the "manage" options while viewing a post.

It's easy to upgrade; several of the members here (such as myself) and groupee offer upgrade, support, and modification services.

I'd highly advise upgrading, as there are security issues with 6.4.4

I don't believe anyone has any such documentation on cd or dvd... I haven't heard much want nor need for such a thing..

Gizmo, thanks for response.

Any idea how much time people spend administering their forums? what about one with under 10,000 registered users? I don't think it's very heavily used, between 20 - 75 posts per day. Is this a lot, little, average low? You mention "most of the items you'd be doing is moving and editing content users post". By "user post", do you mean editing peoples comments?

Once up and running does the software just kinda "just work? Is there periodic maintenance that needs to be done?

Sorry for all the questions but I am have no idea about this? Would you recommend signing up for demo tryout on this site?

Could you PM me on costs to do upgrade?

Thanks

Once your forum is set-up the way you want it, it pretty much runs itself. (You'll need to approve users and back-up your data of course.)

The most time consuming part of running a forum is the moderation of posters and posts. Hopefully you can get some help there and give some trusted users 'moderator' privilages.

The only other thing you have to do is upgrade the software periodically. Although I don't enjoy doing this, I can honestly say that I've never had a problem result from upgrading - touch wood

BTW, I would definitely sign up for the demo, what do you have to lose?

What driv unit said ...

Myself, I enjoy doing upgrades, and usually get them rolled out for clients within a couple of hours of them requesting one...

And the Demo will give you a chance to play with some of the current feature set which will give you a chance to look at the new admin panel.

I personally would rather do the upgrades, server backups, and software things over running the actual forums I have online. I have a very good and trustworthy team that take care or the moderation and user administration on my forums. I like to do all the technical stuff with my sites running the UBB Software.

I will say that if you can read and understand English well doing the upgrade your self should be a snap however I would always make a backup before you even start. I my self being quite savvy at this have been known to make a mistake every now and again.

As far as locating onto another server or hosting system I would hire someone if you are not that good with massive databases and programs such as an interactive community of this type.