I’m trying to make a message board for a website, but I’m not sure the best way to do it. Is there a certain language or tool that is good for making boards? I have heard of using PHP, but I don’t know anything about it. Any advice would be a great help.
Making a message board, or even more so a forum isn't exactly the easiest task — especially if you're new to the language in question. There are many pre-built forums that have stood the test of time and have common features you'd want in a forum script as well as decent security, etc. A prime example of this is [url=http://www.phpbb.com/]phpBB[/url], which in the opinion of most people is quite good.
I would suggest first learning the language in question good enough to the point where you feel comfortable with it and even then, you might consider looking over the source code for an already built forum script for algorithms and ideas as to how to go about building it.