Anyone used Nabble or any other Forum software?

[Gentile]

I'm mucking around with setting up a .net Forum on my blog. Last night, I cobbled together a solution using a third-party tool called Nabble. It appealed because it integrates well with Blogger, and because I didn't have to arrange a third-party web host for the associated database. I've also worked with YetAnotherForum in the past, which is also pretty good, and open to customisation since it's open source and based on the .net framework. However, you have to arrange your own webspace for the web app and database.

Nabble seems to be a pretty good basic solution, although I've noted that after a free period of 28 days they begin to show adverts to pay for the service (with a fee of something like $125 to keep it advert-free for up to 1m views, which isn't bad).

Are there any alternative free offerings I should be looking at?

[SimonMac]

I'm mucking around with setting up a .net Forum on my blog. Last night, I cobbled together a solution using a third-party tool called Nabble. It appealed because it integrates well with Blogger, and because I didn't have to arrange a third-party web host for the associated database. I've also worked with YetAnotherForum in the past, which is also pretty good, and open to customisation since it's open source and based on the .net framework. However, you have to arrange your own webspace for the web app and database.

Nabble seems to be a pretty good basic solution, although I've noted that after a free period of 28 days they begin to show adverts to pay for the service (with a fee of something like $125 to keep it advert-free for up to 1m views, which isn't bad).

Are there any alternative free offerings I should be looking at?

Do you have your own hosting or is your site hosted by blogger?

IF you don't have your own hosting it limits your options, have a look at Vidahost for £17 a year you get everything you need and has Wordpress, PHPBB as one click install components among others

[d000hg]

If it needs to be .net your options are limited, otherwise I'd suggest something like SMF which is offered as a hosted option commonly.

[SimonMac]

If it needs to be .net your options are limited, otherwise I'd suggest something like SMF which is offered as a hosted option commonly.

I assumed .Net was the subject matter, not the required technology to use

[garethevans1986]

VidaHost hosting is pretty good.

We've got a Cloud Reseller package.

GE

[Gentile]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. But, just to reiterate, it's non-hosted solutions I'm looking for. The technology doesn't matter.

[Pondlife]

Gentile, I'm not having a pop but this isn't the first time you've faced an issue that could be solved for a couple of quids worth of hosting.

Why the aversion to hosted solutions? It can't be the money as it's less than a starbucks a month.

[Gentile]

Gentile, I'm not having a pop but this isn't the first time you've faced an issue that could be solved for a couple of quids worth of hosting.

Why the aversion to hosted solutions? It can't be the money as it's less than a starbucks a month.

In this instance, I just don't want my blog all over the place. I like being able to manage it in one place rather than having multiple potential points of failure, and I've found one solution already that lets me do that. Any alternative would need to be at least as good as that one solution that's already available and working. If a hosted solution was what I was looking for, I'd just have used YetAnotherForum.

The last occasion that I think you're referring to concerned how to obtain Skype status in clientside code. For that particular problem, separate hosting wouldn't have helped, despite it being put forward repeatedly as a solution that addressed only one small part of the wider problem described.

It's a bit of a techy/aspie thing not to look at a whole problem sometimes. We techies have a tendency to completely ignore those parts of a given problem that don't fit what we wanted to build. That sometimes leads us to suggest solutions that aren't appropriate to the context. You see it on all sorts of technical forums: a person says "I need X, I know I could do Y instead, but there are reasons why I'm not doing that, can anyone help with X?", followed by a list of replies that don't address 'X' and instead concentrate solely on 'Y'. I'm acutely aware that I do it too, although I try not to.

Being able to look at problems with different levels of abstraction is what makes us good at what we do. Unfortunately, sometimes, that very same ability to abstract leads to ignoring pertinent requirements. I'm not seeking to criticise anyone that's been good enough to try and answer either of my questions, I'm just answering yours.

[Pondlife]

In this instance, I just don't want my blog all over the place. I like being able to manage it in one place rather than having multiple potential points of failure, and I've found one solution already that lets me do that. Any alternative would need to be at least as good as that one solution that's already available and working. If a hosted solution was what I was looking for, I'd just have used YetAnotherForum.

But it wouldn't be all over the place would it. It would all be in one place, controlled by you and not limited to the functionality that you can integrate with blogspot.

Plus you could choose to install something like Drupal or joomla that would allow for almost unlimited 'projects' to be integrated within it.

[Gentile]

Thanks all for your suggestions.