After 3 long months of development and a painful coupla weeks smashing bugs, we are proud to offer you Rapid Forum - a simple, light Joomla forum component that's unlike any other Joomla message board. Please visit the demo (you must login to post), or register to download.

So what is Rapid Forum? Rapid Forum is a simple forum designed to cultivate conversation online.

It flows like a chat room, though messages are saved and organized like a traditional message board. It's design to be easy to use and light -- no more clicking through categories to find the topics you're looking for -- it's all right there in front of you.

• Conversations are tagged by topic but sorted by date (most recent first).
  
• Conversations are searchable.
• Conversations offer indented threads for replies, and for replies to replies.
• Users can choose to view conversations posted to any combination of topics.
• Users canchoose to save any post to receive an email for each reply are posted.
• Administrators can unpublish or delete any conversation.
• Administrators can choose to make the entire board anonymous so usernames aren't tied to posts (great for medical forums or sensative topics).
• Administrators can add/edit topics.
• Administrators make Usernames linkable to Communinity Builder profiles (CB must be enabled).
• Please post all bugs to our JoomlaSimple support forum.

Joomla templates consist of your XHTML and Joomla position tags. Some template code looks like this:

<div id="content_area">
  <div class="interior-title"><?php mosLoadModules ( 'titleimage', -1); ?></div>
  <div class="info-box"><?php mosMainBody(); ?></div>
  <div id="right"><?php mosLoadModules ( 'right'); ?></div>
</div>

1. A domain name (www.flyingpigs.com) or subdomain (demo.flyingpigs.com) Joomla needs a domain or subdomain defined on set-up.
2. A website host that supports Joomla, CPanel and Fantastico script installer. Fantastico is a browser-based tool that enables a "push button" install of Joomla. You can have your first Joomla site up and running within minutes of purchasing a new hosting package with Fantastico. I recommend the hosting company Bluehost.com though there are many other hosts out there that are just as good if not better or cheaper. Do your research!
3. FTP client like "FTP Voyager." Chances are, at some point, you'll want to upload to or download files from your host.

• 180,000 Web developers registered on the forums (as of March 2008) where non-technical and hard core developers alike share code, fixes and help eachother. It's disturbingly Utopian.
• Push button installation using a host that offers "Cpanel and Fantastico"
• Maintenance tools with big, clear buttons that make changing content really unintimidating for non-technical, sometimes utterly Web-phobic administrators (my clients run the gamut from very savvy to very resistant) 
• 2880+ Components, Modules and Plugins that make your site do ... way more than you ever need.
• Joomlancers.com - amazing resource for Joomla programmers ready to pounce on your project or pieces of projects. Looks like 50+ projects per day get posted there. It's hoppin.