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I have created my own forum on ASP.NET MVC 3 and Razor. It's a decent forum with, say, version 1 functionality. I plan to work on other features as well after my release of this version.

1) What site apart from Codeplex can I post my application on as open source?

2) What are the guidelines I need to follow before posting my application regarding my code etc?

3) I want my application to be used by others, so do I have to worry about anything like making a documentation about my code, etc?

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What kind of version control are you using? (You are using some kind of VCS, right?) For point number 2, it somewhat depends on the site, each site would have its own guidelines as to how to manage your project, specific to said site. –  BoltClock Apr 9 '11 at 3:55
no i am not using any version control. i will be doing that now –  maz3tt Apr 9 '11 at 4:03
That might be a problem. I'm only speculating, but I'm thinking that your going to have problems getting people when your on revision 12. Heavily develop your site in version control so that others can see the project is healthy and under active development. –  TheLQ Apr 9 '11 at 5:06
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When you release something as open source, you don't post it to multiple code hosting sites. You typically would post it to just one or just have a website of your own where you make the code available for download.

Codeplex is a pretty common and popular option for open-source .NET applications. In addition to hosting the code, they also have support for discussion areas, a description of your application, and some level of defect tracking.

You will need to decide on the license for your code, which will define how other people are allowed to use it. I think Codeplex offers several options to choose from, but I'm not entirely sure.

As far as documentation goes, it's certainly a good idea to create some if you want to encourage people to change your code. It's not strictly necessary, but it sure wouldn't hurt. You'll also want to document other things like installation and configuration options for people who don't want to tinker with your code and just want to use the forum as is.

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+1 and you're right that there are a few licenses to choose from, just not as much as GitHub or some of the others. –  Ryan Hayes Apr 9 '11 at 5:08
Documentation is a good idea, but if you release with absolutely zero documentation, I suspect you'd still only have less than a fairly small proportion of open source projects. –  Carson63000 Apr 9 '11 at 9:18
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