Looking for recommendations on forum/community engine, hosting and more

[leannamadden]

Obviously producing content ourselves is no longer enough to be considered by Google as a pillar website for a certain topic. Google loves user-generated content. So I am looking for recommendations on the tech-stack I need to start a forum on my website, moreover:

• engine
• comment sections under each article (with or without registration)
• hosting
• information on privacy and compliance for personal data storage

So far in my research I've noticed the last part is very tricky and hazy. The checklist I have to go through to be compliant with saving users sensitive information like photos or real names is huge... So any advice would be much appreciated!

And finally - I want to add different gamification elements to each users' profile. So it's not only a forum, a community but also a playground. Badges for comments, progress bars, etc. Any ideas?

[universal4]

For solid forum software, xenforo or vbulletin outshine most other software.

For comment section, with users registering first, there will be a huge amount of spam. If you allow comments without registration, the amount of spam will be even bigger numbers then with registration.

Be prepared for a ton of complaints about the operators, and in fact the complaints will almost always outpace the praises.

As for compliance, depends on what data you collect, but don't expose or disclose any personal data ever, and if you feel there is a reason to disclose data about someone get permission in WRITING, or don't do it.

Be sure the databases and site are as secure as possible. Best practice is databases to be on a different server then the web server, and not accessible on a public ip address, (this means servers should be multihomed and talk to sql through a private ip or at least a router) Make sure forum and website software is protected against cross site scripting as much as possible.

Rick
Universal4

[Sherlock]

I have experience with phpbb and vbulletin. Not impressed by any of those, but vbulleting is indeed better. But choosing the software you are in vendor lock and they will try you milk as much as possible.

Having problems with complaints and spam is one of the good problems. I do not believe people nowadays will care to write about casinos on new boards. Forums are thing of past. They die slowly. It is not a problem for those that already exist, they can be dying and dying and still be active and generating someone because there are always some core members who keep it alive, so some new members join.

But I believe there is big problem for new forums.

Forums existed as social network before our generation of social networks and people simply post their brilliant posts there (where are the other people). No one wants to post to forum where is nobody [this was valid always], but nowadays people have instant option to post where is everybody [to classic social networks, or trustpilot or old forums].

[leannamadden]

For solid forum software, xenforo or vbulletin outshine most other software.

For comment section, with users registering first, there will be a huge amount of spam. If you allow comments without registration, the amount of spam will be even bigger numbers then with registration.

Be prepared for a ton of complaints about the operators, and in fact the complaints will almost always outpace the praises.

As for compliance, depends on what data you collect, but don't expose or disclose any personal data ever, and if you feel there is a reason to disclose data about someone get permission in WRITING, or don't do it.

Be sure the databases and site are as secure as possible. Best practice is databases to be on a different server then the web server, and not accessible on a public ip address, (this means servers should be multihomed and talk to sql through a private ip or at least a router) Make sure forum and website software is protected against cross site scripting as much as possible.


Rick
Universal4

Thank you Rick! Oh, Lord, it sounds more complicated than expected. I guess I will have to hire a consultant.

One note - I would not disclose any personal information, unless the user decided to use their real name as a nickname and same for the picture I guess. I was more worried about all these GDPR policies where you have to have top-notch ultra secure server blah blah, and outline a policy where you clearly specify for how long you're going to store the users' personal data. I think going with a rule for users to not use real names and pictures would spare me the headache.

Otherwise, you're absolutely right that people tend to leave comments only when dissatisfied. I intend to leave the complaints, because it's fair and also might create a conversation between members. I will focus the moderation on the spam part of the comments, I was also thinking about using Captchas to decrease this, nevertheless it's a never-ending battle. Probably will have to hire a full-time moderator.

[leannamadden]

I have experience with phpbb and vbulletin. Not impressed by any of those, but vbulleting is indeed better. But choosing the software you are in vendor lock and they will try you milk as much as possible.

Having problems with complaints and spam is one of the good problems. I do not believe people nowadays will care to write about casinos on new boards. Forums are thing of past. They die slowly. It is not a problem for those that already exist, they can be dying and dying and still be active and generating someone because there are always some core members who keep it alive, so some new members join.

But I believe there is big problem for new forums.

Forums existed as social network before our generation of social networks and people simply post their brilliant posts there (where are the other people). No one wants to post to forum where is nobody [this was valid always], but nowadays people have instant option to post where is everybody [to classic social networks, or trustpilot or old forums].

What do you think about a custom-made solution then? Something proprietary or idk, is there an open-source forum software? I haven't considered the lock-in possibility... Maybe the open-source would be the better choice instead of developing it in-house, due to the cost of maintenance. Has someone worked with Discourse?

You might be right that gambling forums are dying, but if you let people complain, forums and comment sections will be as active as ever haha. Since my site is slots-focused I was thinking of even creating tournaments or some sort of collabs with game providers. Basically, my idea is to keep the users engaged via different gamification methods. Also forums provide more anonymity. I can't see myself posting about gambling from my real Facebook profile, where I added my mom and dad as friends haha

[Sherlock]

Phpbb was such open source forum, maybe still is. It was horrible. Simplemechines I heard was another open source and probably better than phpbb, but I do not believe that it can be good. For me as user was SM better.

To develop a proper piece of SW nowadays... IDK the budget, maybe 1-10M, maybe more, if it has to be light and funcional. Probably even more complex task than working affiliate software.