Forum creation - tips/advice?

[indy]

Hi
I've been asked by 2 different musical 'groups' to provide means for them to share information, thoughts, etc, and I think this type of web forum is ideal. I've never set one up before, so I'm looking for any advice, pitfalls to watch out for, how much time is required to maintain, etc.
One group is for a local orchestra of 25, the other is a large group of young musicians/parents connected to a music school.
Any suggestions would be really welcome.
Indy

[princessmoose]

Well there are different free boards you are allowed to "download", same as what we have here. Try googling it. Otherwise you'd have to pay for a permanent web hosting thing.

Time it takes to maintain I guess depends on how many members you have, how many posts, and if there are any "problems".

Once it is set up and up and running though I think it is fairly straight forward.

[AnotherPianist]

Just popped in quickly, if you want one just like this then go to www.proboards.com/ and click sign up. Fill in the details and you have your very own forum just like this. You can then use it immediately, or spend hours fiddling around with it to make it look exactly as you want.

As for how much maintainance it needs it depends how much you want to moderate what people say and how reasonable the people signed up are. If you're happy for anything to go then you can literally leave it and do nothing; if you want to keep the discussion very much under control then it would be harder work.

[indy]

Thanks guys for your advice, much appreciated.
Will look into this further.