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Get Vanilla Hosted for You!
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If you think Vanilla looks like an awesome forum script, but your not sure if you can get things together as far as installing it yourself – you are in luck. If you don’t have a web hosting account or you would rather get Vanilla as an all in one package, try out their hosted installs of the script.
Much like how WordPress has a hosted version of it’s script at WordPress.com, Vanilla does the same thing with VanillaForums.com. There you can get the same Vanilla forum script that others can download and install, but yours will be pre-installed for you.
The prices are pretty reasonable, and vary depending on what you need. You have the Basic plan for $19 per month, the Plus plan for $49 per month and the Premium plan for $199 per month. If you just want to test things out first, they also have an ad supported free version you can try too.
Head over to VanillaForums.com and sign up. If nothing else, you can try the free version out and see if it is something you would like to pay for or possibly install on your own web hosting plan.
Facebook Fan Page Come join the fun on the Web Hosting Show Facebook Fan Page!© Mitch Keeler 2011 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!
Vanilla Forums 101
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I have talked plenty of times with you before on free forum scripts you can easily setup and run from your web hosting account. By far, the most unique one I have seen is Vanilla. The Vanilla Forums script is a great open-source, standards compliant forum script. However, that is not what impresses me. The thing that impresses me the most is the fact that is stands out from the rest of the crowd and refreshes the idea of what a set of forums should look like.
What Makes Vanilla Special?
Now a simple audio podcast can not do justice to how graphically different this forum script looks and feels. Rather than having a list of subforums, and within those having threads, right from the start you are seeing all of the most recent threads that have been posted on. That brings you the proverbial meat and potatoes right off the bat. You can categorize your posts into different subforums, but that is a secondary option rather than the first. When you visit a forum, you want to see the new stuff first. The fact that Vanilla-powered forums do that right off the bat is just amazing. I wish more forum scripts would try this different approach.
You have full support for themes and add-ons, so you can really get down and dirty when it comes to customizing the look and feel you want your forums to have. The documentation is lacking in a few areas, but overall it does get the job done.
Here are a few more amazing features that I am sure you will enjoy:
- Embed Vanilla – You can very simply embed your set of Vanilla forums within your website.
- Social Connect – Let users sign into your forums with their login details from OpenID, Google, Twitter or Facebook.
- Vanilla Connect – quickly embed details about your Vanilla forum in your WordPress blog.
You can also import your forum posts from just about any other forum script into Vanilla with their easy import option too.
Overall, Vanilla amazes me, plain and simple. If more script developers out there thought outside of the box like these guys do, we would have a wider selection of great looking websites.
You can go download Vanilla and install it yourself at vanillaforums.org.
Facebook Fan Page Come join the fun on the Web Hosting Show Facebook Fan Page!© Mitch Keeler 2011 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!
The Vanilla Show – Podcast 218
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On today’s show we will be talking about one of my new favorite forum scripts out there. Vanilla is definitely not your ordinary message board script. It takes your traditional ideas of what a forum should be, takes out all the bad parts and leaves you with a functional flow of information – guaranteed.
Running Time: 6 minutes | File Size: 2.78 MB
Now, that might be a big claim to live up to, but I think the Vanilla forum script is more than capable to get the job done.
I want to share with you my thoughts on why Vanilla is one of the best forum scripts out there and a really easy way anybody can use it – no matter if you have a web hosting account to install it on or not.
I have talked plenty of times with you before on free forum scripts you can easily setup and run from your web hosting account. By far, the most unique one I have seen is Vanilla. The Vanilla Forums script is a great open-source, standards compliant forum script. However, that is not what impresses me.
If you think Vanilla looks like an awesome forum script, but your not sure if you can get things together as far as installing it yourself – you are in luck. If you don’t have a web hosting account or you would rather get Vanilla as an all in one package, try out their hosted installs of the script.
Love Vanilla or does another forum script work better for you? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments! Hope you enjoyed this week’s podcast and stay tuned because there is definitely more to come.
© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!
Best YouTube Clone Scripts
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So, you want to start your own website where people can upload videos of dogs of skateboards? A few years back, this would be nearly impossible. These days though, finding a script that will clone many of the best features a video sharing service like YouTube has is pretty easy. There are a lot of duds out there though in the world of YouTube clone scripts so I have gone through the trenches to find you the three best scripts for the job.
ClipBucket
ClipBucket is a free open source script that will not only let you get started with creating your own video sharing service, but it also provides a lot of great social networking features too. Customizable templates and plugins are readily available for any ClipBucket powered website. So this means it should be fairly easy to get a unique template designed and to customize your ClipBucket install to meet your own vision of what you want your video sharing website to be. Check them out at clip-bucket.com to learn more.
PHPmotion
PHPmotion is another great free video sharing script to try. With both video and audio support, this script looks to deliver a lot when it comes to features too. There are a number of great looking themes for PHPmotion that are well worth checking into and a reported user base of 100,000 webmasters – so the support for this script should be phenomenal too. With little to no knowledge required, you can start up your own video sharing website. Go visit phpmotion.com to download it for yourself.
ClipShare
ClipShare promises to be the ultimate video script for starting a highly profitable video sharing community. While it is not free, it might give you the proverbial “step up” if PHPmotion or ClipBucket do not seem a professional as you would like them to be. Over 20 video formats are supported in ClipShare, videos are converted on the fly and you get a fully brand-able video player that other people can embed on their websites. The website, clip-share.com is where you want to go to learn more about this amazing premium video sharing script.
Now, this is not to say these are the only three choices out there. These however seem to have the best resources, reviews and simply look the best overall. I think if you mix a great FFMPEG hosting provider with ClipBucket, PHPmotion or Clipshare you will have great success when it comes to getting your own YouTube-like website off the ground and on the Internet.
Facebook Fan Page Come join the fun on the Web Hosting Show Facebook Fan Page!© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!
YouTube Clone Hosting – Podcast 217
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Welcome to the first Web Hosting Show for 2011. So what is the first thing we have to talk about in the sixth year of this broadcast? I want to touch on the topic of getting your own YouTube clone set up. We will tear apart the basic necessity you need (FFMPEG hosting) and give you a few good scripts to try out so you too can get on the social video sharing bandwagon.
Running Time: 7 minutes | File Size: 3.14 MB
You can make a clone of about any popular website service out there, and YouTube is no exception. You basically need the FFMPEG tools to help convert the video or audio into a digestible web format and a script to organize it all. Sounds pretty simple, right?
Here is what we have in store for you on today’s show:
Time to take a look at another hosting term you might have heard of but didn’t really know what it means. FFMPEG hosting is the word up for review today. This is a term that is used to refer to any time of hosting that provides an assortment of of recording, converting and streaming tools for audio and video on the server side.
So, you want to start your own website where people can upload videos of dogs of skateboards? A few years back, this would be nearly impossible. These days though, finding a script that will clone many of the best features a video sharing service like YouTube has is pretty easy. There are a lot of duds out there though in the world of YouTube clone scripts so I have gone through the trenches to find you the three best scripts for the job.
That is it for today’s show. Hope you enjoy – and if you have any feedback be sure to use the contact link above or leave a comment and share with me your own thoughts on FFMPEG hosting.
Facebook Fan Page Come join the fun on the Web Hosting Show Facebook Fan Page!© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!
Can’t Host That – Podcast 216
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Believe it or not, there are files you probably should not upload to the server you host your website from. Not only could you get in trouble with your web host by doing so, but you could also be putting your own security at risk. On today’s podcast we will go over some of the files you should not host and my favorite way to back up personal files remotely and securely. The Web Hosting Show is on the air.
Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 216!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.30 MB
There are a lot of unsaid rules that you must learn when it comes to mastering the world of web hosting. Knowing what files you should or should not host is one of them. While it might sound like common sense to some – sometimes it is the things that go unsaid that get you in trouble, so let me save us all a lot of trouble and let you in on this.
Here is what we have in store for you on today’s show:
Having a web hosting account is handy at times. It allows you to practically upload anything you want to share with friends, or to store online. This is a blessing and also a curse when it comes to the web hosting business though. While it is handy to be able to upload anything to a web hosting account, it is not always practical. Sometimes, it might even be against the rules.
Better Off Site Backups with Carbonite
I have been a big fan off keeping files backup off site for a while now and the best tool I have found to get that job done is Carbonite. Out of all the other solutions, Carbonite does the best job at making backing up automated so I don’t have to worry about it. For the webmasters out there, it is also a great way to store your website backups too.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of the Web Hosting Show podcast. Feel free to share your own thoughts about hosting in the comments. I would love to see them!
Facebook Fan Page Come join the fun on the Web Hosting Show Facebook Fan Page!© Mitch Keeler 2010 | Check out my firefox help site and my tech blog too!