For the geeks amongst us (all others can skip this post
):
These forums are run on an open source software package:
http://www.simplemachines.orgMy host had version 1.1 available for automated install which took about ten minutes. I then ungraded it to version 2.0RC3 which adds a lot of functionality and - more importantly - much improved immunity to spambots. Once I figured out that I could do that by merely uploading a single php script file and pointing my browser to it that took another ten minutes. Of course finding all the settings I wanted to tweak took considerably more time but I think I'm done for now?
It is hosted on Godaddy.com on a shared server hosting account I pay about $6 a month for. I have about ten domains hosted under that one account - one heck of a bargain compared to the co-located server I used to have. That shared server obviously couldn't handle even a small percentage of the traffic HC gets!
In the past I've run BBS's and later had my own listserv. I still "own" several mailing lists now hosted by YahooGroups.