Fastlane Forum - is it an easy-to-build website?

[Mike Thiel]

Does anyone here know how much time it took MJ to build this forum? Also which programming language is it?
It's nicely done, nothing super fancy, but works very well in each aspect, plus loads very fast.

 

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[ZCP]

ask him. @MJ DeMarco

 

[Andy Black]

Does anyone here know how much time it took MJ to build this forum? Also which programming language is it?
It's nicely done, nothing super fancy, but works very well in each aspect, plus loads very fast.

It's Xenforo and MJ isn't a fan so is moving off it soon.

 

[Mike Thiel]

ask him. @MJ DeMarco

@MJ DeMarco could you give some insights about it?

 

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[Mike Thiel]

It's Xenforo and MJ isn't a fan so is moving off it soon.

but before Xenforo - was it built with code?

 

[Andy Black]

but before Xenforo - was it built with code?

I don't know but I doubt it was coded up by hand before it was built with Xenforo.
Does it matter what it was before it was built with Xenforo though? (Oh, and Xenforo is code anyway.)

Check out MJ's thread about forum updates to see how frustrated he is with the current platform.

 

[Mike Thiel]

I don't know but I doubt it was coded up by hand before it was built with Xenforo.
Does it matter what it was before it was built with Xenforo though? (Oh, and Xenforo is code anyway.)

Check out MJ's thread about forum updates to see how frustrated he is with the current platform.

Frankly not really! I thought as MJ started his business journey by building websites for diff businesses, that this forum could be one of his projects.
Out of curiosity will check this out! Thank you Andy

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Does anyone here know how much time it took MJ to build this forum?

It's built on top of XenForo, and it has gone through many iterations. What you see today is nowhere near what it was when it first got started.

 

[shubham___3011]

It surely isnt easy to build a forum like this because it needs alot of coding experience, database connectivity so on and so forth

 

[Mike Thiel]

It's built on top of XenForo, and it has gone through many iterations. What you see today is nowhere near what it was when it first got started.

just did some research and it's PHP mainly as a programming language, which is easier to build than Python, also any moderations seem easier to implement by the developer ( preferably someone from xenforo ) , all in all I was wrong as I thought it's coded by MJ =D

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

The forum uses 3rd party software that I did not code, on a dedicated server hosted by Liquid Web.

The forum started as a vBulletin install in 2007.
Some time in 2013 or so, it was moved to the Xenforo plaform.

I didn't code it, but I have had my hands involved in some of the style decisions (which is simple CSS).

In 2024, it will be moving platforms again.

 

[Aidan04]

The forum uses 3rd party software that I did not code, on a dedicated server hosted by Liquid Web.

The forum started as a vBulletin install in 2007.
Some time in 2013 or so, it was moved to the Xenforo plaform.

I didn't code it, but I have had my hands involved in some of the style decisions (which is simple CSS).

In 2024, it will be moving platforms again.

Excited to see what it migrates to in terms of software. Will it be something similar to Flarum? I know a lot of platforms use that software for their forum infrastructure.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Excited to see what it migrates to in terms of software. Will it be something similar to Flarum? I know a lot of platforms use that software for their forum infrastructure.

I like Flarum and it is a contender, as is IPB (Version 5 due in 2024). Unfortunately Flarum uses a lot of command line bullshit to manage, and I hate managing things on the command line.

 

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[Bence Ur]

Launching a forum is super easy, the hard part is to get actual forum members... Now that's the hard part. Sure there is AI content generation but you still need human visitors to monetize a forum.

 

[Mike Thiel]

The forum uses 3rd party software that I did not code, on a dedicated server hosted by Liquid Web.

The forum started as a vBulletin install in 2007.
Some time in 2013 or so, it was moved to the Xenforo plaform.

I didn't code it, but I have had my hands involved in some of the style decisions (which is simple CSS).

In 2024, it will be moving platforms again.

Thank you MJ for the reply! =) It's gonna be interesting to see how it will look after the change!

 

[Mike Thiel]

Launching a forum is super easy, the hard part is to get actual forum members... Now that's the hard part. Sure there is AI content generation but you still need human visitors to monetize a forum.

Do you believe AI content generation is better than human one, especially in grasping people's attention (the initial stage of the forum with like 5 members)? I guess I am too skeptical about AI use, even tho myself I am using it for copywriting in my dropshipping venture, but it's gonna be cool to see your broad view on it

 

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[Xeon]

Not sure what's the complaints about Xenforo about but I always thought it's one of the better forum software out there in terms of usability.

Maybe MJ should keep it simple and go retro and use vBulletin instead. Back to the good old 90s!!!!

 

[RobbyMe]

I launch as a web developer for a client a server with Discourse. The software is open source, so you pay only for hosting, looks quite good without any big adjustments.

The updates are running smooth.