I don't contribute very often here so my name is probably unfamiliar to most of 
you. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding these days relating to the compo
sition and functioning of online Message Boards and Forums. There are several ex
cellent iterations of these implementations that are free and allow unlimited us
e (i.e. without regard to band width). Of course they are free because you grant
 the providers permission to insert related advertising banners at their conveni
ence. It has been my experience that the ads these days are neither excessive or
 overly obtrusive. If you don't want the ads you have to pay a monthly fee -- it
s TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch). I have operated free me
ssage Boards/Forums during the past few years with nary a problem.

These Message Boards and Forums offer full feature editing, BB code or HTML form
atting, inclusion of images .... and so on. Problems encountered in initiating t
hese facilities include:  finding an Administrator who has the time and knowledg
e to make them tick and keep them going (old fogey retirees with some computer m
oxy are ideal) - a couple or so Moderators (to cover international time zones) t
o delete the inevitable porn posts or other nasties - AND ENOUGH ONGOING PARTICI
PATION - otherwise they die on the vine.

Anyway, I have set up a dummy free Message Board:

http://members.boardhost.com/jamesicus/

And a dummy free Forum:

http://jpf.boardhost.com/index.php

So that you can see what they look like. Play around with them - test features: 
you cant hurt anything - ask questions here  - I will answer them to the best of
 my ability.

James
http://jp29.org/

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