ok, my friend made his own forum called PHPpwnage, it was really cool.

How would I go about creating my own forum?

Are you talking pre-built forum distros like PHPbb, etc. or custom skins? More info plz.

Download MyBB ( http://www.mybboard.net/ ) then install it onto your host. Or if you don't own a server go somewhere like MyBBHost ( http://www.mybbhost.com/ ) and they will host it for you free.
Or if MyBB is not your thing, try google ( http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=free+forums+host).

I recommend PHPBB www.phpbb.com , i believe they have free hosting also if you dont have any

yeh or invisionfree

No, I mean my own forum. from scratch. My own forum system.

Originally Posted by lunatic

No, I mean my own forum. from scratch. My own forum system.

Then, that's not a question for a forum. How would one answer, but by doing the work? Take a quick look at all the code behind the recommended stuff that people put out to you and see what you're getting yourself in for. I'm confident that you'll find that if you have to ask this question you can't currently take on the solution in a truly competent fashion.

But, you did ask, so here it goes:

1) Write a list of features you want.
2) Model out all of the objects in your forum required by the features you desire: members, posts, preferences, personal messages, emails, pages, ... you're looking for nouns here.
3) Convert the model in #2 to a database in approximately 3rd normal form.
4) Design a structure for how your code will be setup to allow all features listed in step 1. I'm working on a site, for example, with the following structure:

(underlining implies a folder)

admin,customer,core //folders for the 2 areas I need, with a core
-> index.php //main driver
-> logout.php
-> includes
    -> javascript.php
    -> stylesheet.php
    -> template.php
     -> pages
        -> body
        -> lang
        -> process
 images
 resources
  -> resource-name

5) Implement the code necessary to achieve the structure created in step 4, linking to the database created in step 3 and providing for data security using the latest suggestions to protect against hacking.

6) Test.

And, that's it. For most programs, in fact. Of course it's how you choose to flesh it out which will define how your lines of code will be written...

I think MyBB (http://www.mybboard.net/) is better. I hahave installed three bb with this. Is Excellent.

I'd love to see this new board ... all I could find when I went looking was a 16 year old gamer who is using a modded version of PHPbb ...

Starlord