One of the great things about workamping somewhere that does not require a full-time commitment is that you actually get some time to do your own thing. For us, that is trying to make a living online.

One of my goals for Jerry’s dog blog during our stay here on the farm was to develop his new Tripawd Discussion Forums.

I can now officially check that off my list. Thanks to the Simple Forum WordPress plugin from Yellow Swordfish.

Simple Forum makes it, well, simple to install and maintain discussion forums on a WordPress blog. I had been putting this little project off and catching up on all my other web to-dos, thinking the task would take at least a few days of pulling my hair out. Worrying that I might get mired in PHP code or end up screwing up, I read up on the documentation and lurked around the Simple Forum support forum, which is an exceptional example of, well, Simple Forum in use.

Hoping it really was as simple as it sounded. I backed up a few files and went for it, only to find out it really is a simple forum solution. After uploading and activating the plugin, there really wasn’t anything else to do other than create a few groups, forums, and seed topics. The admin interface is also simple, yet comprehensive.

I even chose to style the forum with a custom Simple Forum skin and button set created by Millo to better match the site design. But rather than me boring you any more than I already have, you should go check out Jerry’s Tripawd Discussion Forums for yourself.