RAAN speaking
(from an outer edge of the Antarctic criss-cross : see above)

=> miniBB can, indeed, become "great",
(and much more, in perspective)

>>> but only IF full and accurate info is timely provided on how to set it all up, accomodate main options, and use it in real practice.

dear ComplainyAnonymous,

i've been working with php for a couple of years and have installed a few forums in that time... miniBB was easy to set up. but you know what? 5 years ago, i wouldn't have expected it to be easy, because i had no idea what any of this stuff was. but you come here expecting people -- of their own free time & kindness -- to take you through the entire process with nurturing baby steps.

your self-righteous demands are appalling.

sincerely,

OtherAnonymous

Anonymous, miniBB in itself is easy enough for your mother to use. But the implementation of this outstanding piece of software requires some basic setup that is best performed by someone with a modicum of webmaster experience.

For a newbie, it takes patience, practice and time to learn the necessary steps and skills.

I will try to explain what a beginner with no experience could do to get miniBB running as as easily and painlessly, and professionally as possible on the internet.

1) Get yourself a domain name . The domain name here is minibb.com . You should get one of your own and expect to pay a small fee for registering your own name. Here's a list of accredited businesses that will register your domain name for you:

ICANN

2) Get yourself some webhosting that supports the programming language called "php" and the database storage called "mysql". MiniBB works brilliantly with these two. You will be installing miniBB on the webhosts server. It's a jungle out there, so expect prices and services to vary considerably. I pay 20 bucks a month. I am happy. You can do better and worse. Shop around, compare.

3) You need a way to transfer miniBB files to the webhosts server. First you download miniBB from here to your computer. Then you unzip the files (maybe using winzip); unzip all those files into a folder and call it "miniBB".

4)All of those files need to be transferred to your webhosts server using an "FTP" program . FTP means File Transer Protocol. I use WSFTP. MiniBB team uses Total Commander.

It will send all the miniBB files on your local machine to the server that has the magical "php and mysql" that you need to install miniBB and make it come alive !

5)That's all for now. That was already 100's of dollars worth of information if you took a college course.

Give these people some well deserved respect. This is complicated stuff that requires considerable time, patience, hardwork, study, intelligence, humility, and skill to achieve. And some people will never get it. So don't be cocky.

Oakie
My applause to you! Brilliant.

RAAN speaking (while Antarctic Ice is melting away during that hot summer, as fast as Time)..
-------------

Every genuine, intelligent and useful Human effort to achieve a positive result or creation, is naturally respectable, and should be encouraged.

But the Substance of what we are speaking here, is People's access to New Digital Technologies and moreover Forums for broad, Democratic Public Debates on the Worldwide web.

"Minibb"'s slim style, speed, multilinguism, etc. may bring an interesting tool for that.

- Some aim to facilitate and simplify that access, (often with intelligent, inventive accelerating shortcuts),like good, conscious and able Educators.

- Others slyly multiply useless obstacles, traps and/or delays, abusing of various negative pretexts with petty dishonesty.

That's the Heart of the matter.

Everything else is Balderdash.


=> Many sincere Thanks for all those, inside "mbb" community, who really are of the 1st kind of (valuable) people.
-------------------

PS. By the way, a simplified and complete "Newbies' B-A, BA Guide to mbb" could give a strong Boost to a broad development of all its potentialities, and reputation.

Anonymous: you should candidate at President elections. You are a good speaker.

"RAAN", walk before you can run?

You take it out on the people on this forum who primarily are here to support people with at least basic web development knowledge. Instead, you begin to have a bad attitude because you dont know how to walk...

>>> but only IF full and accurate info is timely provided on how to set it all up, accomodate main options, and use it in real practice.

OK, you expect this from a free script that is not aimed towards the "newbie" like yourself. Try paying a few hundred dollars somewhere else.

2nd Anonymous
agree with second anonymous :)

to RAAN miniBB was created only thanks to our enthusiasm, we're not charging for it, if somebody's having troubles to install he/she can always contact us and we'll install it for a little reward. We're too busy making other scripts to teach everyone web-scripting basics (personally i never wanted to be a teacher due to the amount of stupidity teachers have to stumble accross everyday :) Hopefully most miniBB users install it without any problems. We don't teach php, mysql, apache or unix/linux basics. We've created a free product, some people like, some don't. If you don't like it you can find another one ;) or you can pay a hundred of dollars for any commercial forum and get all their good/bad support for that.

Finally, if you want something for free you have to be worth it :)

thanks, maybe I'm too angry today? who knows..

Also, people, stop being anonymous :) you just can write some crap in place of the login-name - if it's not the name of the registered user - you will be able to post using that name.

thanks,

Well RAAN, did you ever get miniBB installed ?

Too busy to prepare those "Presidential Elections" Team spoke about..

MiniBB could be a useful tool for that too..

Meanwhile, even RAAN (i.e. the "Real, Authentic, Anonymous Newbie"), succeeded to install 2 or 3 MiniBB !
(More or less well, and don't ask to do it again)..

Thanks to some useful tips by some people, here,
and to ..many Days of trial and error, painstaking efforts, who took too much Time and Energy.

All this could have been simplified by certain crystal-clear infos, at a few strategic points during Installation. This would certainly simplify Team's worload, and be very helpfhul for a worldwide developpement of MiniBB, with the relevant promotion.

Meanwhile, RAAN usefuly contributed to various other Support Info Threads at MiniBB's Forum, on many concrete issues, which will hopefully be helpful also for other MiniBB adepts.

Keep the good spirit.
Scrap the rest..

Obviously, everything is Political (in one way or another).

Even MiniBB's capacity for easy Multi-Linguism (including also Russian, Chinese, etc. in one, but Plural digital infrastructure).

Glad to hear you got it running. Glad to hear you helped by giving something back to the minibb community.

That's the beauty of open-source.


"many Days of trial and error, painstaking efforts, who took too much Time and Energy."


I'd say that's par for the course.

what if am using a works station that doubles up as my server! do i need to do the FTP