I'm looking to set up a VBulletin forum for someone and I have a question for experienced forum admins. After installation, what's you're average ongoing maintenance time for your forum given your number of users? I'm not looking to get specific membership numbers so ballparking there is fine. Thx.
Well it all depends on the user activity. I currently have a forum with around 20,000 users - getting anywhere from 100-500 online at any given time. 100s of new posts everyday. Unless you have mods to clean up the garbage you don't need much time. Also, you need to moderate users who sign under 13 (COPPA). Of course you have those who contact you via contact us form, you gotta answer those emails (all up to you).. I spend around 1 hour answering emails, cleaning up posts/threads, answering to new threads and posts, fixing board issues, adding extras, content..
0 Unless you are doing upgrades or dealing with mods, hacks, and add-ons. Then your mileage may vary. Though, starting a forum and keeping it running is only a small part of running a successful forum. You need a trusted staff and a good member base, and those things can take months or even years.
How much time you spend maintaining your forums is simply based on how much time you're willing to spend on them. Some people running successful forums spend 0 time on them and others literally spend all day on them. If your concern is not having enough time to monitor the day to day activities of your forum, that is what staff (moderators) are for...however, getting a forum started and running successfully these days takes a lot of time and dedication. If you don't have this time up front, don't bother starting your forum.
You can spend no time or a lot, depending on what you do ... here are some things that will make your time more on the forums (but it's the same on any script, if you really want to have a good forum). 1. theme creation .. takes tens of hours to make a unique one\ 2. upgrades. Almost monthly. I don't bother anymore since they mess my theem and the plugins 3. plugins .. I have over 20 installed on my VB and counting. 4. content creation and promotion are also a "neverending story"
Thanks for the information and suggestions everyone. I've managed a group at a large company that handled the forums(custom created forums) and have an idea on what it takes to keep a community active and supported. My hope is that forum software had progressed enough to make the actually handling and management of the software itself a low overhead prospect. I may wait the the site up and running a while before adding a forum. Thanks again everyone.