Hosted Forum FAQ

[Bob Hubbard]

What is a “Hosted Forum”?
A Hosted Forum is a discussion area that we maintain for you on our server.

Why would I host on your forum instead of getting my own?
To run a forum on your own you would need a dedicated server, which is an expensive item. You would have to purchase a licence and pay a yearly fee to run and keep your forum software up to date. Then factor in the technical aspects of keeping the server trouble free, software upgrades, adding modifications and special features, keeping out hackers and making sure your data is backed up. It can be quite time consuming and expensive!

All of that is taken care of for you with our service and at a fraction of the price.
For less than $15 per month, it is an great bargin!

Additionally, MartialTalk.com gets over 200,000 visits every month. That's a lot of exposure for your school or organization!

What do you provide me?
We provide the following:
- Storage space for your posts on a high-speed server
- No limits on bandwidth or data transfer
- No Popup ads
- Highly modified BBS software with all features (except HTML posting) available to your members.
- System maintenance and technical support.

What do I provide?
You provide the members, and are responsible for moderating your area. MartialTalk staff will not police your area. The exception is that our Admins reserve the right to remove any content deemed illegal or pornographic, or otherwise damaging to Martialtalk.

Can I change the look of my area?
Yes, for a small fee, we will be happy to customize the area for you. We call this ‘branding’. We can replace the MT logo with your own, change the color scheme to match your preferences, and so on.

Can I have more than 1 forum?
Yes. We can easily set up sub-forums to further organize your discussions.

What moderation powers do I have?
You have full moderation control. You can edit, open, close, delete, split, merge, stick and unstick threads and posts. You are in control!

What about banning a user?
Banning is a little more complex at the moment. If it becomes necessary to ban someone, please contact an Administrator and we will work with you to take care of the problem. We hope to have a selective ban feature in place in the near future.

What privacy options do I have?
By default, the forums are open to the public.
Other options are:
* Private, password required
* Public viewable, must be member of private group to post
* Private. Must be member of private group to read and post.
You, as forum moderator will have control over who is authorized to view your forum.

What about profanity?
All areas of MartialTalk are covered by our profanity filter. This is a site-wide filter, and not modifiable for specific forums.

What are the costs involved?
$200 / year for a single forum
$15 / year for each additional sub-forum
$75 one time fee to ‘brand’ your area.


What do I need to send you to get started?
A Title for your area, a description (up to 5 lines) , and a banner if you would like one. We would also need to know which user(s) should be assigned as moderator(s) for your area. Your area will be setup within 48 hours.

What payment forms do you accept?]
PayPal, Check, Money Order, VISA, MasterCard, Discover Card and American Express.

Whom do I contact?
You can E-mail Bob Hubbard at webmaster@martialtalk.com
You can also send a Private Message to Bob Hubbard

[Bob Hubbard]

Additional Questions:

What is the difference between this and a forum sponsorship?
A forum sponsorship gives you a banner advertisement on the main forum page. A hosted forum gives you a banner ad on the main page, as well as an area for your own discussions.


Do we have to be a member of MartialTalk to use this service?
Yes. In order to use our services, we require that all members of the hosted forums maintain a martialtalk.com account.


"X" offers similar services for less/free. Why should we pay you?
Good question. Many other services are in fact free. They offset that by either limiting your traffic, serving adverts, or both. Often times, they are on forums that either do not have the rich feature set we have, are slower, or bug ridden.

MartialTalk is constantly adding new features and services. In addition, we do not limit your traffic nor do we flood your visitors with popup or popunder ads. We use the forum industry leading vBulletin software, which has a reputation for quality, support and reliability.

[Bob Hubbard]

Additional Questions:

Who are these hosted forums open to?
Forums are available to those involved int he martial arts industry only.

What are the terms of use / terms of service?
What type of content is allowed?
What type of content is not allowed?
Please see our updated Hosted Service Terms of Service

[Bob Hubbard]

How do I add a remote feed from the forum to my website?

Have your webmaster add the following block of code to your site. It will pull the newest threads over to your site.

<p><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><B>DESCRIBE YOUR FEED HERE</font><BR> 
  <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/external.php?type=js&forumids=FORUMIDNUMBER"></script>
  <script language="" type="text/javascript">
<!--
for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
document.writeln("<a href=\"http://www.martialtalk.com/forum//showthread.php?threadid="+threads[i].threadid+"\">"+threads[i].title+"</a><br />");
}
//-->
</script>
</p>

In order for this to work, you will need to replace FORUMIDNUMBER with the ID number of your forum. You can get it by hovering your mouse over the link, or PM me and I can provide it to you.