There are a number of different forum solutions available, but I really like phpbb as it integrates well with Mike Lothar’s Nosebleed theme which I have been using for my Bluebulgaria site.

The problem is that the themes were developed by Mike Lothar for the previous version of phpbb (version 2), and will not work on phpbb3. So my new project will be to adapt - to the extent of my meagre abilities - the theme to phpbb3 as Mike does not seem to have the time to do it.

You can watch the work in progress here. I will also be making the updated theme files available as I progress. Everyone is welcome to join the development efforts!

First step

Download phpbb’s latest stable version here.

Second step

Create a new mysql database on your server. If you are hosting with GoDaddy, go to your account manager, open your control panel, click on databases, then on mysql, and then on create database.

As phpbb3 was optimized for version 5 of mysql, I suggest you use that version. Enter a description for your database, as well as a username and a password.

Third step

Create a new folder on your server, using a ftp program. Upload the contents of the phpbb3 folder in that folder. So if you created a new folder called “forum”, copy the contents of the phpbb3 folder you downloaded there. Your forum will be accessible from yoursiteaddress.com/forum/. In my case it is countriesincolors.com/forum/.

Fourth step

Go to yoursiteaddress.com/forum/ (in my case countriesincolors.com/forum/) and follow the install instructions. You will need your database name, user name, password, and address for your database (most often this is localhost but Godaddy users should use the specific address provided during database setup instead).

Final step

Once you have installed and configured your board, you should delete the “install” folder which is in your forum folder. Once that’s done, you have a running forum.

Now let’s try to see if we can amend the style to match the Nosebleed/Adinfinitum/Conundrum styles…

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Hello everybody, my name is Damion, and I’m glad to join your conmunity,
and wish to assit as far as possible.