Everything between http:// and the first forward slash / is the domain name of your host. Your forum software, whether it be your current phpBB or another choice is only going to be able to shorten the part of the address that follows the first forward slash.
You can, for around $10 per year, register a short domain name of your choice from any domain name registrar, and use the registrar's redirection service to point your domain at the forum host site. Let's say you bought example.net.
Tell your friends to "Visit my forum at www.example.net." They type it in to their browser and they arrive at your forum. The magicworld.findtalk.net address will be displayed on your visitor's browser address bar, but they will be at your forum. They can bookmark it (in Internet Explorer that's called Add to Favoritesm while almost every other browser calls it Bookmarks).
The better way to go would be to buy the domain name and a hosting package where you can install the forum software and host it right at www.example.net, which was what Chris has suggested.
Thewebhostingdi's response was assuming that you did not have your forum set up with seo-friendly urls and you were looking at like example.com/index.pkp?gobbledygook=blahblah&this=5&....
It looks like you have already done this, now that we have your forum's address. |
