What do you think is necessary to run a good forum? What I mean is, what details and features should that forum have to function well, such as modifications? I'm incredibly new to forums and I am starting one as an add-on for my website. I'm using phpbb3 and just want to know what sort of add-ons I'll need to make my forums function well. Obviously the design would need to change from the standard design, but I'm looking for more ideas on how to pack it with features that I need.
1. DEFINE YOUR FOCUS! I cannot emphasize this enough. How many gaming {or insert general genre of your forum here} forums are there already out there? What can you offer that everyone else isn't already offering with an established community? Why should anyone leave another forum to come to yours? 2. DEFINE YOUR FOCUS FOR SEARCH ENGINES. Search engines don't know anything about your site other than the text on your pages that they can scan (spider), parse, and index. What does your main index page offer up as spider food? 3. BUILD CONTENT. Write articles of your own. Start threads that you think others would be interested in reading or replying to. Build content for visitors and more food for spiders. 4. BE PATIENT! All forums start slowly and build slowly initially. At some point, if you persist and have something to offer members, you'll reach "critical mass" and you'll see your progress accelerate. 5. READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN FIND ABOUT SEO FOR YOUR FORUM SOFTWARE. There are huge differences in how search engine friendly different software is. Pay close attention to optimizing the forum title and thread titles. Make sure your forum descriptions actually give spiders something to index (I don't mean the forum meta description tag but make sure that is something that will grab a searcher's attention too). 6. SOLICIT AND CONSIDER FEEDBACK FROM THE MEMBERS YOU HAVE. If your existing members hate your smiley collection and want more, think about giving them more. If they find your avatar or signature rules too restrictive, think about changing them. Make your members feel important. Show them you value their contributions. Make it easy for them to recommend you to their friends. Let them know you want them to keep coming back. 7. BE AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF YOUR OWN FORUM. Make sure you visit and post every day, especially in the beginning. A forum with an absentee Admin just looks like an abandoned forum. Why should prospective new members care enough to join and post if you don't? 8. DID I MENTION BE PATIENT? Follow the above. Then read them again and follow them again. An average forum with any competition at all make take a year or two to really take off. If you're not in this for the long run, don't bother to be in it at all. Source: minstrel (TAZ)
johnxarce gave a REALLY good answer, though I'd like to add a few more points in no particular order... Have a passion about your niche Be a fair admin, and make sure your moderators follow suit. No one likes a forum ran with an iron fist, and no one likes an unmoderated forum Reward for good behavior. Rewards for doing something good promote good things. Punish for bad behavior, but keep in mind that punishments promote animosity. Encourage the use of the referral system, and encourage members to post about the forum on their sites and blogs. (yay for free advertising!) Word of mouth is the BEST promotional method. There are likely more points, but *shrug*
I'm pretty new to the message board thing as well. I noticed that several of my posters have commented that they like the fact that the admin (me) is active on the board. It makes the board feel more special, they say. Fortunately, my niche is something that I chat about every day anyways.
I know I am slightly biased here when I say this but I think a good design (whether it's unique or not) is vitally important. - Matt
I agree having a good design is a must. It sets the first impressions to the members. The first thing they see.
Make sure the forum is moderated very HEAVILY anytime a guest sees "FREE PORN and CHEAP VIAGRA" in the top of the discussion forum, they exit
Those are all great suggestions guys.....Does anyone know of anyone around here who can do a phpbb3 design and layout?
I actually used one of the generic templates that fit the color scheme of my website. I don't know if design is that big of a deal. My message board is 7 weeks old, and I have 20,000 posts thus far. That's decent growth, I believe. Content > Design
I am not making a custom .PSD then code either. I like the way default vBulletin looks. So I am using that and editing that. I want it to have the feel of vBulletin.