I have a content site and I want to add some community aspects to it. Currently, there is no commenting allowed on articles and there is no forum. I was wondering if you guys had comments on which is better. A comments section for each article, or a completely separate forum? Maybe both? I think having both would be best, but integrating the two is something I don't know how to do. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I think that it really depends on the site, content, and userbase A commenting system is much easier to implement, but it is not exactly "community-based". Forums are harder to implement and run successfully, but they are more community-based.
I think the best solution might be the more difficult one from a programming point-of-view, which would be to have a "discuss this" link at the end of each article take the visitor to the appropriate forum topic for that article, which would have to be dynamically created either with each new article added or when the first person clicks on that link and makes a comment on it. I guess it's basically how Fark, Digg, and Reddit work, among others.
I added a custom commenting system for the main articles on my website. People can also discuss things on the forum. It depends on your needs. My site suits this method. Yours may not? It's up to you