I wanted to create a secure forum, hopefully for free. My objective was to design an interactive intranet for a church, so that various groups or departments could interact privately. For instance, the youth could discuss their upcoming ministry trip and a Bible study could decide where they would next meet.

I remembered hearing something about Buddy Press. There are several variations of Buddy Press, such as bbPress, MyBB, phpBB and punBB. After some research I decided on bbPress.

This website helped me install and link bbPress with WordPress

http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-a-forum-in-wordpress-with-bbpress/

I installed it and visually it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Also, I wanted to have private areas only accessible to those with permissions. The only way to do that was using various plug-ins (some free/some paid). I read through the various comment sections of those plugins and wasn’t sure I wanted to join this bandwagon.

I remembered that there was a forum that I had enjoyed using in the past and decided to check out what tools they had used.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/17-internet-computers-communication-technology/

As a rule of thumb, your best approach is to check out those things that you have tried and liked. There’s usually no need to reinvent the wheel. Here I discovered that they used MyBB.

http://www.mybb.com/

As I researched, I began to explore the playing field of forum software. This descriptive webpage helped me to compare features of some popular forum tools.

http://www.forum-software.org/forum-comparator/bbpress-vs-mybb-vs-vanilla

I found another page that used MyBB here

http://letsforum.com/Forum-Online-Marketplace-and-Classifieds

I tried to research plugins for private secure forums for MyBB, and couldn’t find any. Was this because it wasn’t as frequently used, or because it was automatically built in? I couldn’t find the answer to that question, so I installed it. It was cram packed with features I would have never thought of. Yes! It was fully customizable for security.

Make sure you check that your server is able to host it. MyBB 1.8 have a few minimum system requirements:

• PHP >= 5.2
• MySQL >= 5.0, PostgreSQL >= 8.1 or SQLite >= 3
• Apache, nginx, lighttpd or IIS webserver

Using MyBB, forums can be set as viewable based on various properties. A group could be created called “College Group.” Then users could be given direct access to “College Discussion forum.” As well as, perhaps, a general forum like “Upcoming Projects.” The possibilities are endless.

Along the way, I also learned various approaches to installation and it makes a difference.

1. You can install wordpress. Then install a forum software as a plugin from within WP and link it with your wordpress account. This is how BBPress is usually installed.
2. You can install wordpress and then install- in a different location- your forum software. Then, you need to find a way to link the two. This is how MyBB is usually installed. (I tried to do it the other way and you can’t.)

Important: It is essential that you install Akismet or some other kind of spam protection.

Installation Procedure

There are a couple of approaches to get the software on your server.

• Use CPanel to install software quickly. You can do this for both WordPress as well as MyBB.
• Download software from the website. FTP it to your server.

Personally, I like to use CPanel to get started.

1. Go to your CPanel – usually at http://www.yourwebsitename.com:2082/ and login.
2. Under Software Services, use QuickInstall. Install your forum software (in this case MyBB) in a separate directory from your wordpress folder. I recommend something simple like “forum”. Below are the list of options I was given on my cPanel. I haven’t tried the other forums out as all my needs were met with MyBB. Perhaps you could comment on your experiences with other forums below in the comments.

• Advanced Electron Forum
• bbPress
• MyBB
• phpBB
• punBB
• Simple Machines Forum

Congratulations!

Your installation is ready. You can access it now by going here. If there is any login information, it will have been sent to the email address you provided.

Open this page in a new tab, or open this page from the link in your email. You will need it in a minute. The chmod permissions and other steps seem do be dealt with by cPanel.

If you don’t use a Cpanel approach you can follow the steps here.

http://docs.mybb.com/1.8/install/

I’ve copied over a couple of the steps that you’ll need to consider.

File Permissions

Certain file permissions are required for MyBB to function correctly. Once you’ve uploaded your files you will need to set the permissions on certain files and directories.

** Before applying file permissions, rename config.default.php to config.php

*nix systems via CHMOD

If you have SSH access, you can apply the necessary permissions via the following command, executed from your root MyBB directory:

chmod666 inc/config.php inc/settings.php chmod777 cache/ cache/themes/ uploads/ uploads/avatars/

Optionally, you can also apply the following permissions:

chmod666 inc/languages/english/*.php inc/languages/english/admin/*.php chmod777 cache/ cache/themes/ uploads/ uploads/avatars/ admin/backups/

Finishing Setup

Congratulations! You have successfully installed your MyBB. You should remove the install/ directory from your server now to prevent anyone else from running the installation again. MyBB will not run unless the installer is removed or locked.

If you simply wish to lock your MyBB install directory, create a new file in the install directory called lock, which will disallow access to the installer/upgrader while it exists.

Review

1. Your WordPress has been installed.
2. Your MyBB forum has been installed in another directory.

Next we need to link them together. By this, I mean you’ll probably want your forum to appear like the other pages in your site, with the same theme and menu. It will make it look more professional. Before

This page helped me, but I found it convoluted. Below it I wrote my own procedure.

http://mods.mybb.com/view/wordpress-bridge

The WordPress Bridge connects your MyBB forum and your WordPress site. It wraps your MyBB forum with the theme you are using on your WordPress site providing a seamless experience to your website visitors.

1) To install place the file wordpress_bridge.php as well as the folder wordpress_bridge and it’s content in your MyBB inc/plugins folder.

2) Login to the administration panel of MyBB and go to Configuration > Plugins and activate the WordPress Bridge plugin.

3) In WordPress, create a new page with title [BRIDGE-TITLE] and content [BRIDGE]. Remember the URL of that page.

4) Go to Configuration > Settings > WordPress Bridge. In the field ‘WordPress bridge page URL’, fill in the URL of the WordPress page created in step (3). Enable the bridge.

That was their instructions above.

Let me try to make the above information more clear.

1. go to http://mods.mybb.com/download/wordpress-bridge
2. agree, and download the plug-in.
3. Move the plugin to a logical place on your hard-drive. For me, it was the forum folder under my website design.
4. Unzip the file 3850-1353358818-mybb-wordpress-bridge or whatever they might call it in the future. Rename the folder to “forum-inc-plugins”, or some other easy way to remember what’s important.
5. Use FTP software to upload these files. I use Dreamweaver for this.
   For me, I dropped it into the /public_html/forum/inc/plugins/ folder.
6. Then I went over to my browser to activate it.
   I opened up my wordpress http://websitename.com/wp-admin/index.php and created a new page called title [BRIDGE-TITLE]
   (I then added some text above the forum link.)
   Welcome Guest. To post in the Public Forum you need to REGISTER. To post in the Restricted Private Forum you must be approved.
   [BRIDGE]
7. Open this in a new tab just as a user would see your page, not inside your WP dashboard. Copy the page url.
8. Now we have to leave WP and head over to MyBB. Open a new tab and open http://yourwebsitename.com/forum/admin/index.php?module=config-settings or whatever you have called it. Just open the tab I asked you to open after you installed it.
9. Go to Configuration (Menu at the top.)
10. Click on Settings (It’s on the left menu, at the top)
11. In the middle of the page under board settings it says WordPress Bridge(2 Settings)
12. Go to your other tab where you were working on wordpress http:// yourwebsitename.com/bridge-title/
13. Paste the URL in of that wordpress page you just created. – The page that the user sees, not inside your dashboard.
14. Now, you have to figure out a way to make the layout look less awkward because your template may have squashed it. Hmm… Maybe it’s time to choose a wider template. Have fun.
15. Now would be a good time to check out their page of themes. http://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=browse&category=themes
    Definitely check out the plugins.
    http://community.mybb.com/mods.php

One thing I especially appreciated about the Private Forums is that they are not even visible until a person has signed in with the proper permissions. It definitely meets all my needs, and with a price tag of Free, I am happy.

If you feel this software meets your needs, please consider donating to them. You can learn more about donating to their efforts here.

http://www.mybb.com/about/donations/