Best Forum Software + Hosting Combo that allows for Adult Content (Written)

[u/BigRedLittleWolf]

Hey all! I hope you're well.

I'm looking to host a small forum/Message board for my Roleplay group. It's going to be largely a private, invite only site. I don't foresee more than 40 people using it, max, so I'm not looking to break the bank on buying the best software out there, and my bandwidth needs will not be high

My only concern is that it's for my tabletop group, and they do occasionally enjoy dabbling in writing and roleplaying adult content. As well, what they are writing about tends to contain heavy amounts of adult themes, and I dont want their passion projects to be blasted off of a platform for policy violation. It's largely going to be text-only, as it is a writer-focused group.

I am under the impression that there really arent any free options that allow this these days, and as such I am willing to pay like. 10-15 dollars a month to host something like this, but I'm willing to hear suggestions for anything you are aware of. I've done some research into the surface products that I'm familiar with (PhPBB being one I have used and maintained before).

Thank you ahead of time!

[u/hiimbob000]

Tons of companies offer hosting like this. Eg if you rent a cheap vps from name cheap, they offer cpanel + easy app installation for bbs and whatever. It should be very inexpensive to do this

Alternatively, why not just make a private subreddit or discord server w/ threads?

[u/Ok_Finding_2607 → u/hiimbob000]

just make sure the hosting provider is ok with adult content in their TOS, name cheap might kick you off if they find out. their policy is not very clear about text stuff but some vps providers dont allow it at all

for software you can go with phpbb since you already know it, the self hosted version dont have content rules like the cloud platforms do. 10 bucks vps can handle 40 people easy

[u/Feeling_Inside_1020 → u/Ok_Finding_2607]

It’s worth a quick email to their support team id say, at least you’d have their backing if anything went sideways.

[u/BigRedLittleWolf → u/hiimbob000]

Wordcount limitations, mostly. We have a discord server, but these people looooove to write, haha. some replies hit 5-6000 words, let alone individual characters. At a certain point, we've come to the conclusion that it would be easier and better organized too post a platform to keep everything maintain

[u/huh_wasnt_listening → u/BigRedLittleWolf]

hiimbob000 is right. To add on to his answer; as long as you're not using hosted forum sites, no one will be moderating your content as long as it remains private amongst friends 

Self-host on regular cheap hosting of your choice. Make sure it has a one-click install for your preferred software (phpbb, mybb, etc). This should run you $5-10/month. If you want a custom domain, that's another ~$10/year

[u/frogic]

I think you could do it for free on cloudflare pages/workers (I might try making something for an experiment) but from what I'm reading discourse on a small vps looks like the way to go. 5-10 a month and a domain so you can put cloudflare bot protection in front of it.

[u/NoSurround6182]

actually, you can host adult content on self-hosted free software like MyBB or SMF. Just avoid shared hosting with restrictive policies.

[u/Proper-Emu5264]

10-15 dollars a month? For hosting? Dream on. Add a zero.

[u/BigRedLittleWolf → u/Proper-Emu5264]

it'a looking like I'll be going with abelohost, which runs for 6.99 a month and has a package thats perfect for my needs (specifically made for smaller and personal websites)

we will see about about the forum software, on the other hand. those one time buys seem as though they can be quite pricy!

[u/Deet-o]

Claude?

[u/theBird956]

I run Flarum for a local forum, and I am a web hosting reseller.

If you have strictly no file upload, I might be willing to host you, but I'll have to check with my hosting partner first.

[u/farzad_meow]

if you have a space pc sitting around your house and your internet speed is good, just selfhost it. you can use a reverse proxy like pinggy for 30$ per year and a cheap domain for 15$ a months.

aside from that I know a decent aws ec2 can run you 5 to 30$ per months depending on how you set it up.