Greetings everyone! This is my first post so I thought I would give everyone a little background on myself. I am a fish conservationist, focusing on protecting threatened and endangered fish populations, the watersheds they depend upon, and the human communities they support throughout the Pacific Northwest. In my work, with the Native Fish [Society](www.nativefishsociety.org), I interact with a community of approximately 4000 people. My motivations for following the development of Flarum is to provide this community with a platform to share ideas, connect with one another, and most importantly-- collaborate on environmental protection and recovery. The work to build this tool is very much needed, and I really commend everyone who has poured their heart and soul into this project. I'm anxious to get a forum started, but I'm not sure if I should wait for the stable 1.0 version to come out. I currently don't have the technical expertise necessary to get one set up. I'm not sure if there would be anyone willing to advise me/ help me accomplish that task, but I'm eager to hear everyone's perspective.

First, welcome and thank you for choosing Flarum for you mission.
Flarum is pretty much stable. But since it is still in Beta stage, we still give users a heads up that they may still encounter some bugs while installing or running the software. If you know how to fix it, then you may proceed using it as you wish (keep in mind, you are on your own when things go south).

Second, there is a hosting solution called, FreeFlarum, who offers free hosting for people with limited knowledge on how to install Flarum. It manages your website for you, for free.

Please feel free to ask questions here.

Good luck!

    Digital removed the tags .

    Digital Thanks for the speedy reply, I will check them out. Regarding hosting, I do have my own site (http://www.driftc.com) (hosted by squarespace)-- as well as the site mentioned above (hosted by digital ocean). While I'm not opposed to the free solution provided above, I would also love to provide an environment free of advertisements-- much of our community is really burned out on the social media platforms that have gone this route. Would either of those hosting solutions work, and is there a tutorial on, or someone who would be willing to help me, install Flarum?

      Driftc Digital Ocean is much more suitable for the job. This is the official installation guidelines

      As per, FreeFlarum, I believe @Sanguine is ironing out a pricing model for his service, including the pricing to remove Ads. Please reach out to him for more questions.

      I am sure someone in the community will come by and offer his/her services.

      Driftc I can help you set up your forum on your own machine as this is for a cause I can relate to, I'll make an exception. As to updates etc, we can discuss the options for that. You can reach me on our discord, or feel free to reach out to me through email, twitter, linkedin etc. My email is available here for instance.

      7 days later

      Thanks to everyone who responded. @luceos and I have been in contact, and I'm looking forward to getting my first Flarum up and running as soon as Beta .9 comes out.

      a month later

      Hi All, looks like @luceos is busy trying to finish up Beta .9-- if there is anyone else that has expertise and would be willing to help us set up Flarum on a Digital Ocean, please let me know!

        Driftc Yeah sorry, I had an open slot a week ago, but currently I'm tied up with my responsibilities and work.

          4 days later

          luceos No worries! If a spot in your schedule opens up, let me know!