Over in News, I said that we could get a domain name for this site for $15 a year. It seems only to be open to paypal users, so I guess we can't go by pooling cash.

Now, the question is, if someone paid the domain fee, what would we call this site? Writersworld has already been taken, ad so has writeworld. Writers-world.com is still free.

Suggestions, anyone?

How about WritersWorld.net?

I was checking, and it seems that writers-world.com is actually taken, the sites (at least godaddy.com) has it for back order.

Now, what about writersworldforum.com, or some variant of this.

Now, I have never actually configured a forum, be sure you have the software and the host server before you buy the domain... I mean, the domain is not expensive, but it would be a shame to buy the domain and realize it will take several weeks or months to get things started.

I'm pretty sure that they meant that things would be set up the same here, just with a different www address.

Well, I don't know how it actually works, we can find out. The thing is that freeforums sets up the phpBB (the software interface to mount a forum) directly, while if you have a host, they generally mount some sort of webmail system, but I don't know if they will automatically set the phpBB.

Now, as far as I understand, phpBB is free and easy to set up (I am not totally sure), so, it shouldn't be a hassle.

phpBB is indeed free, and it is also easy to use if you have your own server. Freeforums has a pay system where you can buy features with "upgrade points", such as no-ads and a unique domain-name, but the forum still operates off of their servers.

Hmm. Well, we could still aim for the domain name if we REALLY wanted. Personally, I'm fine with the address being what it is now.

I'm not going to worry about the ads because freeforums is opening up a revenue sharing program where I can put my own adsense ad up. Since I've already got an account with that, I'm just waiting for that to get opened up. If we get enough people here, soon things will be paid off on their own.

Well, good luck with that.

So far it seems to be working out fine. The only reason why I may think for really moving to a self owned domain (hopefully a self own server too) would be if some contents that most of the forum consider appropriate to discuss get censored by the owners of freeforums, as the fact that "nothing of adult content" can be posted.

Besides that, well, we would be able to personalize more the place, and have no ads on the screen!

The no ads would be nice.

I only like the ads if I'm getting a share of the profit.