[Idea] Create Free Alternative to Enjin and Other Terrible Free Website Hosts - Garry's Mod

This is mostly just a thread to see if anyone would be interested in using the service, or think it would be a helpful service for the Garry's Mod Community. I am absolutely sick of seeing FreeWebs and Enjin websites. I know that most of the time, the community in question just doesn't have the money. The Idea: Make a free, shared, web hosting website dedicated for Garry's Mod communities. The domain of a community would look like this: [I][url]http://gmodcommunity.com/somecommunity[/url][/I] It would consist of either a MyBB, phpBB, or several other choices. Then, I would get some nice themes and put that up for selection as well. The person who contacted me or the community owner could then access an Administrator account on the new forum. Example in Progress: [url]http://gmodcommunity.com/gentlemenrp/index.php[/url] Doesn't look good yet, I'm still working on it. Thoughts?

I think it would be useful for people who have no idea what they're doing, aka 90% of the Garry's Mod community.

[QUOTE=crazyscouter;45611444]I think it would be useful for people who have no idea what they're doing, aka 90% of the Garry's Mod community.[/QUOTE] Especially younger kids, who don't have as much money or skill to make a website.

[QUOTE=mrting;45612562]Especially younger kids, who don't have as much money or skill to make a website.[/QUOTE] Okay, but if they don't have the money or skill to make a website, how would they run the server that goes with one?

So much web talk in the Garry's Mod section lately, I guess it's finally time to learn some web development ;_;

[QUOTE=Banana Lord.;45612965]Okay, but if they don't have the money or skill to make a website, how would they run the server that goes with one?[/QUOTE] Have you ever bought a server with NFOservers? Buying a server and making a collection of addons isn't hard. Many servers now I find have error signs just because they never made the resources.lua file. Setting up myBB manually w/ MySQL, and creating a theme is much harder.

[QUOTE=mrting;45614439]Have you ever bought a server with NFOservers? Buying a server and making a collection of addons isn't hard. Many servers now I find have error signs just because they never made the resources.lua file. Setting up myBB manually w/ MySQL, and creating a theme is much harder.[/QUOTE] I have had a server at NFO. I'd say it's equally as difficult.

[QUOTE=Banana Lord.;45614608]I have had a server at NFO. I'd say it's equally as difficult.[/QUOTE] I suppose so. But in other essence, besides users who don't know about web setup, this would also work as a free alternative that still looks nice for poorer server owners. That was the original goal.

[QUOTE=mrting;45614835]I suppose so. But in other essence, besides users who don't know about web setup, this would also work as a free alternative that still looks nice for poorer server owners. That was the original goal.[/QUOTE] you realize you don't need to know about web setup anymore? it's as easy as 1. go buy some web hosting 2. log into cpanel 3. scroll down to softaculous and click the free forum software of your liking 4. wait for it to install 5 go to address it's installed at. done. if they can afford a server each month, they sure as hell should be able to afford some web hosting.

[QUOTE=FrankPetrov;45614933]you realize you don't need to know about web setup anymore? it's as easy as 1. go buy some web hosting 2. log into cpanel 3. scroll down to softaculous and click the free forum software of your liking 4. wait for it to install 5 go to address it's installed at. done. if they can afford a server each month, they sure as hell should be able to afford some web hosting.[/QUOTE] [I] 1. go buy some web hosting[/I] I'm sure they would have i [I]2. log into cpanel[/I] This is assuming that host actually carries it. [I]3. scroll down to softaculous and click the free forum software of your liking[/I] Hoping that it's actual good software, as well as themes included with it that don't look like shit. Also, if it was this easy, why do so many servers rely on Enjin?

The only different thing I see in this idea compared to Enjin or FreeWebs is that it's specifically made for GMod communities. Besides that, it's still an easy to use free web-hoster. Can you explain what exactly makes this different?

[QUOTE=Mothership;45616899]The only different thing I see in this idea compared to Enjin or FreeWebs is that it's specifically made for GMod communities. Besides that, it's still an easy to use free web-hoster. Can you explain what exactly makes this different?[/QUOTE] Enjin and Freewebs websites usually look like shit. Just as well, you are limited to the templates you can use as well. In this case, the website acts more like a spot of free web hosting, then just a free "website." Just as well, the setup is done completely by me, requiring no work from the owner besides letting me know on preferences.

[QUOTE=mrting;45621534]Enjin and Freewebs websites usually look like shit. Just as well, you are limited to the templates you can use as well. In this case, the website acts more like a spot of free web hosting, then just a free "website." Just as well, the setup is done completely by me, requiring no work from the owner besides letting me know on preferences.[/QUOTE] Oh! Now that you've explained it a little more, it actually sounds like a really good idea. I would definitely use it if I ran a community.

You can customise Enjin quite alot. A website I just happen to know: [url]http://www.pikacity.com/[/url]

Here is an example website. The theme is just a pre-made shit theme, that i'm working on right now. [url]http://gmodcommunity.com/gentlemenrp/index.php[/url]

If you have a spare machine and decent upload speed setting up your own webserver is easy using xampp, and buying a domain can be as cheap as 2 dollars a year (though phpbb is outdated as fuck. I strongly recommend getting mybb or something else)

[QUOTE=AJ10017;45633715]If you have a spare machine and decent upload speed setting up your own webserver is easy using xampp, and buying a domain can be as cheap as 2 dollars a year (though phpbb is outdated as fuck. I strongly recommend getting mybb or something else)[/QUOTE] for one thing, home-hosting something like this would be down right stupid. all the people using the sites would not only use so much of his upload bandwidth, but the ISP would notice all that port 8- traffic and either block it or suspend his service. Not to mention that xampp is so insecure as it is designed specifically towards local web development, not web production.

My ISP blocked port 80 :(

This is what any community should do: -Get a VPS/VDS from NFO or another server provider. -Select Windows Server 2008 R2 as your OS. -Install the Microsoft Web Platform Installer ([url]http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx[/url]) and SteamCMD. -Firstly launch the MWPI and then select MySQL 5.5, IIS 7, PHP (v5.3 or above), then install them. -After installing all of that, install phpMyAdmin and install it onto your webserver. -After installing phpMyAdmin, configure your MySQL server to run how you want. -Then configure IIS how you want it to run. -Find a DNS service which will translate your IP address into a domain name. -Configure your Gmod server how you want it without any more limitations. -And you now have a complete web server to setup any website or forums. All issues solved. For more detailed information, use Google, thats how more then half of the people on Facepunch learned. I learned in less then 3 weeks, its fairly easy and affordable. You will spend the same amount of money doing this then buying a limited, shared, server from some GSP.

[QUOTE=DonutGirl;45636746]This is what any community should do: -Get a VPS/VDS from NFO or another server provider. -Select Windows Server 2008 R2 as your OS. -Install the Microsoft Web Platform Installer ([url]http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx[/url]) and SteamCMD. -Firstly launch the MWPI and then select MySQL 5.5, IIS 7, PHP (v5.3 or above), then install them. -After installing all of that, install phpMyAdmin and install it onto your webserver. -After installing phpMyAdmin, configure your MySQL server to run how you want. -Then configure IIS how you want it to run. -Find a DNS service which will translate your IP address into a domain name. -Configure your Gmod server how you want it without any more limitations. -And you now have a complete web server to setup any website or forums. All issues solved. For more detailed information, use Google, thats how more then half of the people on Facepunch learned. I learned in less then 3 weeks, its fairly easy and affordable. You will spend the same amount of money doing this then buying a limited, shared, server from some GSP.[/QUOTE] How do you expect a kid who barely knows how to run a server to do this? Most websites I see that aren't running shared hosting are running Apache2 on a Linux VPS. Windows VPS machines are way more expensive then Linux VPS machines.

IIS sucks. it is good if you are creating a web site that involves ASP or .NET, but it doesn't allow and isn't compatible with php. Also, there aren't really any good production web servers designed for windows. You want to use linux for a web server.

If you don't know how to set up a basic mybb board, you don't deserve to have a site.

I agree with a lot of things said here. Go for a Linux VPS, only allow MyBB to be installed and run on apache. Nginx is a bad choice as it does not have nod_rewrite but uses a different way of handling the rewrites. These rewrites require access to the nginx config files and are not supposed to be accessed by people having a free site with you, while .htaccess allows editing over FTP.