I'm very much a backend and programming person. While I'm not an expert/guru, I'm pretty familiar with it (never worked in the field, but this kind of stuff has been my hobby for a number of years. At one point I was considering going into business for myself as an ISP, but it just didn't end up happening)
MySQL and PHP are perfect. I doubt any programming or backend development would be required - there are dozens of free discussion board packages writting for exactly this combination. One of them would probably suit our needs, and getting them set up is painless.
There is a good number of different packages (both free and otherwise) listed here:
http://thinkofit.com/webconf/forumsoft.htm
I've only been able to look at a couple of them so far, but I'm setting up MySQL on one of my Linux boxes here so I can test a few out.
Also, I just looked at aitcom.net... It looks like it's everything we would need, to me.
I think the do-it-ourselves option is just looking better and better. And besides, if we try it and it doesn't work out - we still have at least 23 days left here.
-Ryan Edgar
Created on Thursday, June 07, 2001 1:55 PM EDT by Ryan C Edgar