
279 - BEYOND GOOGLE: FROM WORDPRESS AND FRIENDFEED TO YAHOO’S GEOCITIES
HaCK
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Another paid alternative to creating a discussion group is called vBulletin, available at
http://vbulletin.com. Drupal at http://drupal.org, on the other hand, is a full-featured, open
source content management and community system, with a forum as just one of its many
components.
There are many, many more free web apps to create a home page. Domain hosting services also often offer
you an integrated tool when you sign-up with them. Querying Google.com for “home page maker,” “home
page,” “hosting,” “get website,” and so on will yield more alternatives.
If you want to maintain your own online discussion group, the free phpBB (http://phpbb.com)
may be your tool of choice. Although it requires you to have your own server hosted somewhere,
with support for the PHP scripting language and a database like MySQL, it also offers much more
ne-tuning options than Google Groups. A sample of a “BB” (Bulletin Board) in use can be seen in
Figure 10-64.
•
The phpBB-powered forum
at CanadianPhotoClub.com