What do you think makes a good forum?

I'm not even sure if I can post this... but I think this forum needs a little more to do than just reviewing other people's websites, so I've come up with a bit of a topic.

Lock if necessary.


What are the key features you think make a good forum? These are mine, IMO:

IDEA
I think a forum needs to have some sort of original idea that sets it apart from other sites, or atleast make it different in some way. Otherwise, why would anyone go there?

CONTENT
There doesn't need to be necessarily tons of stuff on the forum. In fact, a small forum with two boards with only three members that post constantly is much better than a forum with twenty five boards that only have three members that post constantly. Start out small, and expand if needed.

Also, try and be creative.

COLORS AND LAYOUT
Honestly, this is key in determining if you get a member or not. If you've got a forum with pink, and green, and light blue colors, do you really think someone is going to stay?

Gradients also help your forum drastically.

The layout needs to be decently organized. Don't put a forum about movies in a category talking about books, etc. Make everything easy to find, easy to see, and all's good.

Also, make your titles and descriptions of your forum creative. What really turns someone off is if you have a forum like this:

Teh Jedi Temple
Talk about jedis here.

Try and be creative. There's alot to do. Star Wars Fan Forums are growing smaller in creativity as their numbers increase.

STAFF
The staff of a forum is also key in determining if you get a member or not. If you're an admin who's mean grumpy, pushy, and never post NOONE will join your forum. You need to be as friendly, lovable, and be as active as possible. If you are not an active admin, you won't have many active posters.

Another bad thing is if you have too many staff. You do NOT need a moderator for every single board, especially if you only have twenty members. I'd say have a staff member for every fifty active posters.

Choose your staff wisely! Don't put a spammer as an admin!

ACTIVITY
I find it hard to imagine that anyone save for out of pity would join a forum that has next to no posts. Post in ALL forums before advertising it. Get EVERYTHING said up, and then release it.

Listen to your members. If they have a suggestion, try it, unless it's something totally ridiculous...


I probably broke everyone of my own suggestions.

Anyways, let's have a little discussion if this topic remains open.

What do YOU think makes a good forum?

 

In my opinion, the major things are a good (easy-to-navigate) layout and good, unique discussions. If there are good discussions, and people can easily find them, they will put up with minor style flaws. As long as the colors are tolerable and blend together fairly well, people will still return if they are interested in the discussion.

If you have good, unique discussions, you will hopefully be able to slowly build a steady userbase.

 

a good topic

 

You need something that appeals to users.

Bad Example:
Jedi Stuff

There are millions of jedi sites all over the place. Creativity will make your thing work.

 

I've lurked this board for a while, whilst I wait for my forum/website to be ready enough to post. I agree with everything that has been said, but I figure that I'll add some more and build on what is being said:

~ Cozy Communities: I think the most important thing a forum must accomplish is that it must create a comfortable environment for its users. Because, if a member doesn't feel "at home" at your board, they won't come back that often. Achieving this can be kind of difficult, but a good way to start is by being friendly. Also jumpstart your community by making up a bunch of new topics, especially if your board is slow. I regularly go on little posting sprees at my forum because we only have 14 members now and I've gotten feedback that the abundance of new and interesting discussions is actually inviting.

~ Being Professional: As the administrator, you essentially represent your entire board. Thus, you want to act at least semi-professional. Use grammar, for example... it's impressive! I know that when an admin posts like this "omg, lol tat iz so kool!" I immediately leave the site. Also try to be helpful... it is inviting to new members. Explain things to them (like, make a thread about how to use forum markup codes) and make a new users board to welcome them!

~ Make it Different: This has been said already, but it's so important that I thought I should reiterate it. There are too many RPs out there, for example. And nobody will stop posting at an active RP just to go to yours because it's your RP. Think up a different plot. If you cannot, then an RP site is not for you.

~ Make it Fun: You should also try to make the forum experience more... fun. Talking about Star Wars is nice, but can get boring after a while... especially since the movies are now all complete. Try something more unique. At my place, we regularly hold a couple of different competitions like Star Wars Jeopardy that seem to be rather popular. Create something unique like that and members might come back to play it.

~ Customization: Another thing you should try not to do is just rely on the defaults. What I mean by this is just set up a forum and keep the default template, post ranks, etc. It's terribly uncreative and I find that members *like* customization. As silly as it may sound, my members like my custom smilies, post rank indicators, and interchangeable templates. I also agree with the idea of creatively naming boards. "Episode 3 Discussion," "General Talk," and "Other Movies" are really boring titles. If you have a good community, then little things like this can just accent it and make your site stand out and be more memorable. Of course, if you're lacking in the community area, these things won't really make a difference.

~ Compliment It: Most of the time, stand-alone forums don't do so well. I would suggest creating a website to go along with your forum. It gives users more reasons to come back and more things to discuss if the site is unique enough. It also lends a purpose to your forum if it doesn't already have one.

~ Be Patient: Forums don't fill up overnight unless your website is so absolutely revolutionary and wonderful. You should definitely wait until your forum has a little bit of activity before advertising it. Don't advertise it here or anywhere else the second after you create it because no one wants to post in a forum that's empty. Build up a small user base by telling a friend or two about it. Then give it a month to really get active... active forums are much more appealing. If patience isn't your thing, maybe you should reconsider running a forum website.


I hope I've helped.

 

Actually, I don't think even a month is a long enough time to get a steady userbase, unless they are new boards that are part of a long-established and popular website. Which brings me to my next point...

I actually prefer it when a website exists first, and then the forums are added afterwards. It might be too much work to try to create an entire website when you are working on maintaining the forums. Also, those who visit the boards once before the website exists may not find enough interesting material to return in the future, which limits the possible audience for the future website.

Oh, a couple last things that I haven't really seen mentioned yet:

- Your site can't be everything for everyone. Not everyone will be interested in specific topics. However, that doesn't mean that you should make a general site, because there are more general sites than specific sites out there. It can be hard to find a lot of in-depth information on a specific topic at a general site, so aim to be as complete as possible on a specific topic. You might have some general information as well, but not at the expense of other specific topics.

- Your website does not need to have forums. Yes, that's right, every single website does not need to have a message board attached to it. Websites can survive without a message board. Some topics are too specific for people to have a need to have multiple in-depth discussions about it.

 

Yes, time is very important. It takes a few months to build up a good fanbase. Like, you need something that appeals to people. At Fi-Sci.Net, we took the French titles off the International trailer for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and people went nuts. It's things like that which will give you a good fanbase.

And, you should not post your site on this board when it is brand new and has no members. You should have that good fanbase first. Also, don't post a website that is still being worked on. No one wants to see that. People say, "Join my forum. It only has one board though, but that's because I am still working on it. Join in on the fun!!!!"



Would you buy a shampoo that isn't finished and has the potential to burn the skin off of your head? I certainly hope not.

And, to rediderate what Bacon said, DO NOT go out saying "I need admins, gmods, mods, publicity managers, etc." when you don't have any members. In the beginning, YOU should be the ONLY staff member. That way, your entire member base is not a staff member. Then, observe those who go to your forum. See who you like and who you think has all the criteria of a good staff member. Then pick a Gmod or something. Then, continue this process as you get more and more members.

 

I don't agree with saying "don't post here until you have a fanbase", because you need to advertise and find members somewhere to get a fanbase. And a decent number of the forums I've seen advertised here have a lot of things that need fixing up, so posting here to find out what things need to be fixed before they potentially turn away a bunch of visitors could help more than it would hurt. I suppose it depends on whether the person is saying "Here are my forums, give me some feedback on what you like and what could be improved" or if they just use this board as an advertising service to say "Join my site, it is teh cool!" and never return to read any of the feedback.

 

Yeah, that's actually what I meant. Getting feedback is good, as this forum could be used just as Fan Films is. But, never returning after advertising defeats the purpose of this board.

Also, here is one of my main gripes about this forum. People post in the threads that have the cliche Star Wars RP sites that no one wants to join. But, when you have threads such as the one about my Alternative Saga site, or Fi-Sci.Net, (both being original concepts) no one posts in them. Why is that? I don't know...

 

Definately because people go into this forum either for:

A: To Seek Advice For Their Site/Forum
B: To Give Advice For A Site/Forum

 

Traffic, good layout, interesting topics, the users treating each other with respect -

If there are none of these things in a forum, then it doesn't work.

As a moderator of a forum, as I have one for my site, Star Wars Character Cafe, it can be disheartening if you get no replies at all, so you sometimes have to make the effort and think I don't care if anyone else is not posting - I'm gonna keep with it anyway. As for patience, I had an ezboard for over a year and the only person who ever posted there was me, then I discovered Jedi Girl and disgarded my old forum and took over a dead forum there (it did have some old threads there) and although I don't seem to get as much traffic as I'd like, it was better than before. One of the mistakes people make is trying to make it too big, too quickly.

It's important, I think, if the moderator of a forum keeps posting things even if they are the only one who regualry does so at first. I think that was one mistake I made with the forum before. I just created it and left it alone. Big mistake that, as it probably gives people the impression that you don't care about the site.

 

Dedication of your staff is greatly key. I've been running a message board over two years now and I can safely admit if it weren't for the people that work with me, it would have went no where. You have to have a strong equality feeling with your staff as well. I feel that's important in making everyone feel comfortable enough to keep coming back everyday.