I run a standalone forum, but I also run forums as sub-components of larger content sites. On the content sites I have been running awful forum software that I want to replace. I have found the software I am going to use and intend to start fresh as there appears to be no easy way to save the content form the previous forums.

My question is this:

The current forums are quite simply dead and I think this has a lot to do with the software being so unfriendly. The new software is much better (the struggle has been to find a good ASP instead of PHP based software), but the license is prohibitively expensive for the moment. I can run the software with ads and links but I think it will detract from the professional quality I am seeking - the whole reason to replace the current board. Should I go forward and relaunch now or wait for a few weeks when I can buy the license and run it free of the ads?

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Well, I don't see why you would want to use extremely expensive software; it's really not what it's worth. Anyway, if the forums are entirely dead, meaning that you have no active members other than yourself, I suggest you start from scratch. Just remember that the dead forum can be used as a great place to get discussion ideas.

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It's not so much that I WANT to use expensive software at all! It's that in order to get an ASP (VBScript) board that I can run on my Windows host (the rest of the site is made in ASP) then I have two options: crappy free software or expensive good software. The crappy free software is so user unfriendly and feature lacking I think this is a large part of why the forums are dead.

I do intend to scrape the best threads from the old forum - I just can't automagically port them into the new software.

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My best tip for you is:

* Get me some coffee
* If it's only a 1 week wait, then
* Get me some creame too.

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What's the old software and what's the new software?

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The old software was ASPBB and the new is Web Wiz Forums

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Just few weeks? Then I'd say wait. Also you can use the time to hunt for other alternatives.

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I know this might not be what you're looking for, but my honest opinion would be to switch hosts. I'm not all that savvy on servers, platforms, etc...but the problem here is that you are on a Windows server which can only run ASP software, not PHP, right? If that is the case and this is forcing you to either use inferior forum software or very expensive software, then I would move to a Linux machine and use free software like SMF or phpBB or paid software like vB/IPB.

If I'm completely off base there and that's not an option, I agree with Srirangan and think that you should wait it out a few weeks until you have the funds.

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If I switched hosts I would have to rewrite my entire gardening site nd kitchen site which is in ASP - and the gardening site is my number one earning site so it's not an option. Windows can in fact run PHP through IIS using what is called an ISAPI filter. I am lobbying my host (who happens to be a very good friend of mine) to enable this and we are in fact testing on a test server cluster - but the real issue is that in order to do this there has to be good business reasons to do so. Since my hosting is free it doesn't really make too much sense for them right now.

The wait is on - after the new year I will be releasing a new forum on the gardening site, but for now it's behind-the-scenes.

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