How do you start a forum?

I've been getting sick of the constant security updates in phpBB... I've decided to go with vB for my next forum.

 

well me and a buddy started it and at teh time there were 2 other Z sites..but they were crap, IMO. we jsut got together adn started just playing around with the diff software and then just promoted it do to us moding our cars and making tutorials. i think that really helped us out in the begining. We also tapped into the austrialian owners and we now have all the aussie owners on our site. that in itself helps us b/c they dont go to the other Z sites.

i think the big thing is that you have to be consistant and also have unique content. dont give up and its not going to happen over night.

good luck

 

Vbulletin if your serious wanting to develop a large community - PhpBB if your not sure, you want to spend the time and effort growing a large community. For security though Vbulletin is the best route to go IMO.

 

vBulletin has some nice features that may invite users to participate in discussions more frequently. Because users can sign up to receive email notification of new posts, they can jump in when they see a topic that looks interesting.

Since you have to pay to get vBulletin, it also shows that you are serious about your forum

 

I'd say phpBB is best if you're a developer, since most of the vB functions you can just hack yourself. But if you're not a developer, then go with vB or start with phpBB and then buy vB (in case you decided not to continue, you haven't wasted the huge amount of money).

Actually though, I wouldn't plan on making a forum straight away, focus on making a main site with content and get people going to that first, then introduce a forum so you'll immediately get posters, instead of your forum looking like it's all lonely and dead - a complete turn off to anyone.

 

This is how a lot of successful forums seem to start. If you already have the traffic, it's a lot easier to induce people to sign up to come and talk about whatever else there is on the rest of the site. It's not all you need, but it does help in getting those first members.

 

Although each forum is individual and personal, a few general guidelines should be followed or at least kept in mind when starting and maintaining an online forum. These are as follows:

1. Take care when choosing the type of forum and forum script or software that will be used. The forum should be easy to access, easy to use, and come with "visitor- friendly" features. All visitors should be made to feel welcomed and find the navigability of the forum, user friendly. Forum scripts and software, especially "free" varieties, may be overburdened with ads from the parent company and lead to a poor experience for visitors.

Some recommendations:

http://www.phpbb.com/ (free) http://www.vbulletin.com/ (the best imho)

2. The forum should have a good number of interesting and focused topics. The content should reflect the interests of the target audience, and every care should be made to have well-written and informative content that is updated regularly. This not only helps attract new members, it keeps older members from losing interest and defecting to other forums.

3. The forum should be Search Engine friendly. High activity forums, like popular blogs, provide a great reason for Search Engines to visit them frequently as they are brimming with fresh content all the while. Dynamic urls, session ids, etc. used by most forum software can be very detrimental to the forum health from Search Engine point of view.

When selecting a forum software, check if they are Search Engine friendly. Open source software like phpbb, have mods (modifications) developed by third party sources, to enhance the forum in many ways.


4. The forum needs to have a clear list of rules, a disclaimer, and most of all, good solid moderation. Visitors will quickly become frustrated with forums that have no clear guidelines, or feature rude, obnoxious, or overbearing members. Good manners are required as much online as offline.

5. Promotion, especially in the early days, will take considerable time and effort. Forums can be difficult to start (members generally are "shy" when there are only a few present), and the more posts that take place, the more individuals will join. This is a "snowball" effect of forums, so marketing must be done consistently, day in and day out, until the forum becomes more self-sustaining.

6. The owner of the forum should take an active interest in the forum and SHOW this interest by contributing regularly. Above all else, people join forums where they feel they will learn from the owner of the forum, and if the owner is never present, they quickly lose interest in the forum.

7. The forum should be targeted, yet diverse, encouraging older members to contribute, without making newer members feel uncomfortable. Cliques can form in forums, and this type of behavior should be discouraged by the owner and moderators. Every effort should be made to answer questions or comments by all members as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

8. As with all other Internet related ventures, care needs to be given as to hosting and maintenance of the forum. A forum that is always experiencing "downtime", will lose members quickly, and a forum that has many coding mistakes will quickly frustrate visitors. As with Web sites, "cheap" providers of hosting and maintenance are not always "better".

The old saying, "You only reap what you sow" really applies to the world of online forums.

 

Solid post. Thanks.