Setting up a message board with Boardhost in Java

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Boardhost (wwwboardhostcom), like the name says, gives you a place to host your message boards Although the company remotely hosts the boards it provides, the boards are customizable so that you can mimic the look and feel of your Web site You get a well-designed message board with all the bells and whistles Boardhost has a whole mess of nice features that you can activate or kill at will during or after setup Here are some examples of these features: Sending users e-mail messages after someone replies to one of their posts Offering a keyword search so that visitors can quickly find the topic that they re looking for Adding your own logo to all the board s pages Adding password-protected access so that you can hold private discussions

To create a message board with Boardhost, follow these steps: 1 Go to wwwboardhostcom and click the Join Now link This link takes you to the Terms of Service page 2 Scroll down and type a username in the appropriate text box The username is case sensitive, so typing ImInCharge isn t the same thing as imincharge 3 Select all three of the check boxes that say you re of legal age, you understand it s a free trial, and you agree to abide by the Terms of Service 4 Click the Begin Account Creation button If the username you chose is already in use, Boardhost tells you that you must enter a different one After you enter a new username, click the Begin Account Creation button to determine whether it s in use You can run around in circles forever if you re not imaginative with your username Make it unusual but something that you can remember 5 After you create an acceptable username, enter your real name and e-mail address in the appropriate text boxes and click the Continue button 6 Click the Send Activation Code button that appears on the page that asks if your e-mail address is correct; if the address is wrong, click the Back button in your Web browser, reenter your e-mail address correctly, and click the Submit Info button again Boardhost now sends you an e-mail message with your activation code 7 Click the first link in the e-mail that Boardhost sends you to automatically sign on to the Account Creation page If your e-mail doesn t support embedded links, you can just copy the URL and paste it into your Web browser instead You can also click the second link to go to a page where you manually enter the information from the e-mail, but why bother The Account Creation page provides you with the final stage for creating your message board 8 Under Website Info, enter the name and URL of your Web site in the appropriate text boxes and pick a category for your message board from the drop-down list

9 Under Message Board Info, type a title for the message board into the text box and pick your time zone from the drop-down list Remember that the messages show the time when they re posted 10 Finally, type a password into the two text boxes under Password and click the Finish Account Creation button to go to the Account Created page Your message board is now up and running You may want to explore your new message board to see how it works Click the link that shows the URL of your message board and see how the basic board setup looks Enter some messages if you want Play around a bit When you feel comfortable with the message board, return to the Account Created page (your new message board is in a separate window), and then scroll all the way down and click the Enter Administration Area button On the next Web page, click the Generate Linking HTML Codes link On the resulting HTML codes page, take a minute to look at the appearance of the links, buttons, and icons that Boardhost provides Copy and paste the ones that you like into your Web pages so that your visitors can click them to go to your message board If you don t like any of them, the HTML code is easy to modify