I have received a lot of positive feedback about opening the TechRelated.com Forums [much] earlier than the rest of the site. As a result, I am pleased to say that I plan on doing just that in the weeks to come.
I have specked out a server and hosting that should be more than adequate, and place on making the purchase this weekend. Then it will take a few days for me to get the server configured with all necessary components (MySQL, Apache, PHP, SquirrelMail, etc.). After that, I will be able to install the forum software and work on getting those configured.
The good news is everything related to the forums is closing in on completion. The forum categories are under final review, the [first] theme is nearing completion, and bugs are being squashed. — I’ll be inviting a few people to help bug hunt here shortly. Probably the biggest task related to the forums is the creation of the necessary images (buttons, pips, icons, etc.)… if anyone out there is good with images, give me a shout. I might just be able to use you. 