# Starting a Message Board for the lay person

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-message-board-for-the-lay-person/231980>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 1, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-message-board-for-the-lay-person/231980 "2004-03-01T22:35:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Greenhead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenhead/32/5853_2.png) [@Greenhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greenhead)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-message-board-for-the-lay-person/231980/1 "2004-03-01T22:35:53Z")

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What would be the easiest way for a beginner to start and host a message board on their own site?

Where do i begin?

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**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\
**Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/starting-a-message-board-for-the-lay-person/231980/2 "2004-03-01T23:02:44Z")

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The short answer is: start with an EZBoard online and see if it works out, then move to a Board on your own site.

The long answer, or if you really just want your own Board at home: assuming you want a board like the SDMB, you need

- A computer you can run pretty much all the time.
- Broadband with a static IP (or good forwarding system)
- Apache, MySQL, and PHP installed.
- vBulletin board software.

I posted a lengthy series of posts on my Board about how to install MySQL, PHP, Apache, etc. so people there could install and use the open-source PHP recipe database I wrote. But once you have all those things running it’s very easy to set up vBulletin.

Really, I could write for pages on this but I think you might benefit most from defining your question and needs a bit.